After a month hiatus, Abe Sapien returns with a one-shot, The Garden.
Written by Mike Mignola and Scott Allie
Illustrated by Max FiumaraAbe’s journey takes a new turn as he meets a twisted couple in this rural horror story of a domestic relationship gone terribly awry.
Mark: New issues of both “Abe Sapien” and “Hellboy in Hell” came out this week. My advice, if you haven’t read them already, is read “Hellboy in Hell” first, because you’ll be thinking about “Abe Sapien” long after you finish it. I know I was. I was thinking about it so much that I was distracted from reading a new issue of “Hellboy in Hell.” “Abe Sapien” #12 is a comic that requires digestion time. Was that your experience, Brian?
Brian: This was certainly a thinker/grower. I have been critical of “Abe Sapien” as a series, because I’ve felt like it can’t make up its mind what sort of book it wants to be. This issue answers that question a little bit more clearly.
Let’s start with the overall theme. How did you feel about an issue sans dialogue, with the only words comprised of, more or less, thought bubbles?
Mark: It worked incredibly well here, but it’s normally the sort of thing that I’m a bit skeptical of. I can’t imagine this story being told any other way now, though. The prose text naturally made me slow down my reading, and caused me to linger on each frame. It created a powerful sense of tension, where I needed to know what would happen next, but I kept going slower because I didn’t want to miss any thing. I can’t remember the last time it’s taken me so long to read only twenty-two pages of story, and it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.
Brian: I thought, as a device, it worked extraordinarily well. It really gave you a great insight into the characters, and crafted an issue that, on the surface, created a compelling 22-page story.
Mark: Yeah, it helps that the prose was never redundant, never telling you something that’s already in the image. I found frequently I’d look at the image, read the prose, then return to look at the image, seeing it anew in a way I hadn’t seen it before.
Brian: I have some concerns about how this affects the series as a whole, but let’s talk a little more about the issue, specifically the art from Max Fiumara.
Mark: Max Fiumara brought so much to this issue. His frame and page compositions alone were stunning. There’s kind of five viewpoints going on here; the man’s present, the man’s past, the woman’s present, the woman’s past, and Abe’s story. Returning to the same frame layouts again and again, along with Dave Stewart’s coloring, made it so that knowing where and when I was in the story was effortless, and it kept the focus on what had changed since last I saw that panel layout. Each layout essentially tells its own little microcosm of a story over 3 to 5 panels throughout the comic.
Brian: Max’s art did something really interesting in this issue – early on, the art, although depicting a dark time/place, had a glimmer of hope in it. However, as the issue progressed, and the real story began taking shape, it was clear that this was no Garden of Eden, but rather a setting for death, not new life. His art was never over the top, and when violence finally came into the issue, after many threats of it, the blood and pain felt visceral and true. This was a comic that was truly an experience to sit and read.
Mark: I liked the acting in this too. It was restrained, with a lot of emotional beats told with hands instead of faces. For me, that somehow made it feel more real, and spoke more to a character’s experience. When there is pain, we experience it through them, rather that watching them feel it. It also meant that the final pages with Abe had more impact. They were broader in body language than much of the story that had preceded them, and the contrast served to effectively turn up the volume on the action.
Continued belowBrian: Yeah, everything was, at the same time, high stakes and low impact. You got the impression that, for the folks in the house, every creaky floorboard or reflection off the gun barrel was of the utmost importance, but in overall scheme of the world, what do these folks mean? Absolutely nothing.
Mark: I wouldn’t exactly call it low impact. This one hit me pretty hard. As for the man and woman’s overall scheme in the world, maybe the man doesn’t mean anything much beyond this story (although thematically it connects to the world’s last garden, which can be found in Britain thanks to Hellboy), but the woman may have a very big impact on Abe, and Abe will certainly have a big impact on the world.
I thought this was an interesting way to introduce a new character that will play a pivotal role in Abe’s journey. He has a travel companion now, and I hope she’ll challenge Abe in the ways he needs to be challenged, and vice versa.
But earlier you said you had some concerns about how this story affects the series as a whole. Could you elaborate?
Brian: Well, I guess I mean that this is just another issue that is meandering through the world of Abe. Abe Sapien is, perhaps, my favorite character in the Mignolaverse, and yet if I just read this series, I think I’d probably dislike him quite a bit. All of his charms have been zapped out, and we’ve had an extraordinarily inconsistent series, where Abe has been more or less surly, silent, or suspicious. This issue is probably the best the series has been (I was fond of the Oeming-drawn flashback issue, too), but I don’t really think this is bringing all that much to the overall Mignolaverse.
What do you think? Am I totally off base?
Mark: No, you’re not. I had my own particular issues with the last arc. And while Abe has been meandering from place to place, I didn’t see that as the problem. Rather it was the lack of focus on his character journey. There has been a certain amount of distance from the reader.
This issue isn’t really about Abe though. For the characters it was about though, it dug deep, and had razor sharp focus. I’m hoping that this will carry forward into the next couple of one shots. I want to see this woman call Abe on his crap. He says he trying to find out what he really is and what his role is, but he’s lying to himself. This woman is a catalyst for real change, I think.
Brian: Since you and I don’t usually do these together, it is nice to get your opinion on this sort of stuff. What would you do to bring the book closer to something you’d like to see?
Mark: Honestly, the problems I had with the previous arc (and the one before it), was the point of view, rather than the plot. With only a few exceptions, it’s really hard to look at anything that happens and say how Abe feels on it on anything on a deeper level. I need the external journey to reflect the internal journey, because everything external gets discarded essentially when Abe goes to a new place. But the internal doesn’t. It travels with him. It is the most important part of the story, and everything else should be secondary to it or serve to further it.
That’s why I feel really good about this issue, because it showed it can do that stuff really damn well.
Before we get to grading this one, I have to mention Sebastián Fiumara’s cover. The series has great covers from Sebastián and Max all the time, and somehow I never mention them. But I especially liked this one, particularly the way it sets up the tone of the story to follow, portraying Abe as an ominous presence, much like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Brian: Yeah, this cover offers a fine view inside the book. My favorite “B.P.R.D.” cover artist is Dave Johnson, and I think the Fiumaras have done a great job taking from that school of covers.
Continued belowAlright, so where do you grade this? This gets a 7.5 from me – a solid story, even if it is just contributing to the overall malaise of the book.
Mark: I’m evaluating this one in a vacuum, as a complete standalone, not as a part of a larger story. With that in mind, I loved this issue. It was masterful from start to finish. Everyone involved has thrown their all into it and it shows. The damn thing even had me tearing up at one point. And since reading it, it has only grown on me. So it’s a 9.5 for me. It really is the best “Abe Sapien” has ever been.
Final Verdict: 8.5
