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Abadazad
1
Little Martha In Abadazad
1/MAR/2004
Publisher: Crossgen
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Pencils: Mike Ploog
Painted Colors: Nick Bell
Letters: Dave Lanphear
Price: $2.95 US/R34.00 SA
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After some delays with shipping and much anticipation I opened up
the first issue of Crossgen’s Abadazad. Take
a leap down the rabbit hole and join me for a look at the best classic
fantasy that the comic’s world has to offer.
Kate and her brother Matt come
from a broken home. After losing her brother at a street fair five
years ago Kate still blames herself and her drunkard mother for
his loss. One day a strange old lady across the hall invites her
in for tea and proceeds to tell Kate that her brother is still alive,
but he is trapped in a storybook land called Abadazad. Kate leaves
the old crone to her own delusions until a week later when the elderly
woman dies and a strange package arrives on Kate’s doorstep.
Within the package lies an answer to Matt’s mysterious disappearance…
Let’s just dispense with any skewed notions or perceptions
about this book from the get go. This does not star Alice, has nothing
to do with Harry and has no Hobbits in between its pages whatsoever.
This is an entirely original and breathtakingly beautiful
comic book story that everyone should be reading. Ok now
that you get the picture let’s continue.
I was amazed at how well written this story was. A large part of
it is told via Kate’s narrative voice with the remaining parts
being conversations and ‘live’ events crucial to the
story. This is a text heavy comic which is filled with rich and
engaging dialogue and narration which help match the story up with
the brilliant visual feast laid out by Mike Ploog
[Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night]
J.M. DeMatteis [Justice League,
Moonshadow] manages to introduce a realistic and
engagingly witty protagonist in Kate and by the end of this first
issue we can relate to her life and the world around her as if we’d
been friends for years. It’s this ‘straight to the heart’
style of writing that surprised me most, but its one surprise that
makes this a great read for the story alone.
Mike Ploog delivers a knock-out punch with artwork that
will leave you slack-jawed and drooling with the turning of each
and every page. He has a classic mix of ‘Disney’
style characterization mixed with a Miyazaki-like imagination
which results in an awesome artistic presence for this production.
With a history in storyboarding for classic fantasy films like the
Dark Crystal, I can’t imagine a better artist
for the job than Ploog.
His style for this book takes the form of that of a classic children’s
book illustrator, this being said it is in no way ‘childish’
but rather giving off a warm and whole-hearted pure feeling unlike
the sometimes harsh and brash art we get from the rest of the mainstream
comics scene. His work is mostly made up of roughly-hewn pencils
which have been painted over by Nick Bell to produce
a final colored piece of art which has a lot of warmth and depth
to it. The soft-penciled line work promotes a gentile feeling to
the art and gives off a classic look as do the watercolor paints
of Bells.
Another great point to raise about this book is that it has no advertising
within its covers. This aids immensely when maintaining the story
setting and makes for an even more enjoyable escapist reading experience.
We haven’t even seen the fantasy landscape of Abadazad itself,
yet I feel like I’ve been transported away to another world
when reading this comic. A great achievement in
today’s world of fast and fierce comic competition. It’s
a shame with all of Crossgen’s problems that we might not
see this book completed, let alone in a hardcover edition, because
if any comic deserves that treatment Abadazad is it. This is a great
book so go and grab a copy today!
Score 10/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan
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Comic Reviews
