Runner Up!: Abe Sapien – The Abyssal Plain
Nobody, not even a super hero like Abe, can resists the glowing dangly thing of an angler fish.
Runner Up! highlights my second favorite issue of the week while discussing it in a less formal tone. Please contribute your thoughts as well!
Why it didn't win:
Abe Sapien was actually the least interesting part of this issue.
Abe Sapien – The Abyssal Plain #1 starts with a gut punch.
Set in 1948, a Russian submarine has sunk to the bottom of the Norwegian sea. The last surviving sailor of this ship is writing a letter to his girlfriend back home while waiting to die. It's a really powerful way to start an issue. Writing like this is proof Mike Mignola can write about more than just monster and alien stories. He just happens to choose to write those monster and alien stories 99 percent of the time.
This is one of those times, as the prologue with the sailor eventually ends and we meet Abe Sapien (in 1984) and his crew preparing to do a scavenge mission from that same submarine. Naturally zombies are going to show up. This shouldn't surprise you and it shouldn't be considered a spoiler.
So, yeah, no spoiler warnings for that one.
To be fair Mignola shares writing duties with John Arcudi in Abe Sapien – The Abyssal Plain #1. So, this could be the reason for this issue's increased number of “human” moments. I personally don't know, it cold be possible Mignola was all like “YO. JOHN. I'm gonna write the letter a dying sailor writes to his girlfriend knowing she'll never have the chance to read it. You handle the water zombies this time.”
Artist Pete Snejbjerg (not a spelling error) gives this tale of fishing boats and sunken war subs a real Treasure Island appearance. Faces and expressions just seem to scream pirates and salt water. He also handles the underwater sequences very convincingly. The way things float around while still having mass while Abe is exploring the submarine is great. This is why the dude's a professional.
It is during that submarine sequence we get to see the body of the sailor from the issue's beginning. It's another unexpected sentimental moment from Abe Sapien – The Abyssal Plain #1 (The first of these moments being that other time we saw the dude.).
One of my favorite things about this issue is that it ends with an argument. Abe and the Captain of the ship have a heated argument about the rules of the ship. That's right, amidst all the nuclear subs, bloated corpses, and magical helmets, and fish people, there's a whiny debate about doing what the boss said. Also, both arguments are valid so it's all around a fun moment in this issue. “Fun” in the sense that I didn't expect it, at least.
Plus seeing Abe be such a stick in the mud makes me chuckle.
The expanded B.P.R.D. Universe continues to excite me. Even it's throw away stories like this one are some of the best comics on the shelves these days. Abe Sapien – the Abyssal Plain #1 alone has great moments dealing with death and life and fish people. Really, what more could anybody want from a story?
Nothing. Except for maybe more action but that looks like it'll be coming next issue. ...And maybe more fish people, but hey I'm not going to be too choosy here.
Best Comic I Read This Week: B.P.R.D. War On Frogs #4
Kraus got these adorable new giant tea pots that look like frog monsters. When the water is ready, the steam comes out of their mouths.
B.P.R.D was the Best Comic I Read This Week a few months back and now here it is again.
A title which lives up to MY high pedigree of sequential art literature? Wow! It must be the comic messiah! After all, I have the most highly tuned ear for comics. I have the best possible palette for sampling splash pages. My taste in comic books is above and beyond any form of question!
On an unrelated note I think comics about the president’s dog and Stephanie Meyer are GREAT.
Ahem.
Kraus! What a great character. Even when voiced by Seth McFarlane, it's hard to ruin the astral form of a German spiritualist trapped in a mechanical containment suit. It’s a no-fail, like a movie about a young man’s relationship with his father. (Put that father in a mechanical containment suit. Come on Hollywood, we’re ready!)
The Kraus-ster rightfully hogs the spotlight in this issue and the story does a stand up job explaining who the character is. He is stuck trying to find a way to put the souls of a bunch of monsters he killed to rest. At the end he even puts his own soul at risk to achieve this task. He does this for the monsters and for the protection of his fellow soldiers. Kraus is both a go-getter and a giver.
Not being written by Mike Mignola gives this issue a nice kick in the keister. Whereas Mignola would fill his pages with scene setting moments, creating an air of unease while the action moves at tiptoe’s pace, writer John Arcudi skips giddily into the conflict. By keeping the focus on Kraus the entire time Arcudi also risks cramping the narrative. On the contrary, I felt this helped the story work at its natural pace to the ending. That’s right; this is a single issue story.
I LOVE SINGLE ISSUE STORIES.
Nothing, in my opinion at least, helps the comic industry get new readers better than single issue stories. Not to say this issue is not part of a larger plot. The War on Frogs is a continuing saga of the B.P.R.D. Regardless; most people could pick this issue up and still get plenty of kicks out of it. Everything is kind of simple to process: The frogs are evil. The B.P.R.D. fight them. Kraus is the coolest.
Something else the accelerated pace of the plot allows is more time with Kraus. I would never sacrifice B.P.R.D.’s occult tomfoolery for anything, but this is a nice change for a little bit. It lets us spend more time with the man rather instead of the scenery. Now we know him a bit more as he’s running away from the horrible creepy-crawlies of B.P.R.D.’s world.
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