Moorhead artist's horror graphic novel brings hunt for Bigfoot to northern Minnesota

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Every November for two decades, Dirk Eidsmoe would go out to the woods, climb into a deer stand, sit and wait. And wait and wait and wait. He d sit for hours, watching and listening, waiting for the right deer to cross his path. While he waited, he also thought about how he could work deer hunting into his other love, comic books. Over the last decade he started figuring it out. Earlier this month, his debut horror graphic novel, Big Buck Island, hit stores. Dirk Eidsmoe works on art used in his new graphic novel, "Big Buck Woods," on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, at his studio in Moorhead. Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum I always wanted to just have a story that was local to where I grew up, he said. He also wanted to have a story set where he grew up with a monster. I ve always drawn and been into comic books, so I just kind of had an idea about a story about Bigfoot set in the area that we hunt, he said. The story is set in the ficti