Story – Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Art & Cover – Max Fiumara
Colors – Dave Stewart
Letters – Clem Robins
Publisher – Dark Horse
Abe Sapien is one of those great comics that seem to fly under a lot of people’s radar. The character, as most people know, was introduced in the pages of Hellboy and has since gone on to star in several solo miniseries titles over the years but just recently got an ongoing series of his own, and it seems to get better with every issue.
Issue #5 opens with several people standing on a beach watching some seagulls tear at a corpse. One of the onlookers says, “This is how it is. This is how the world looks now.” and he doesn’t know how right he is! The world has fallen into chaos, monsters of all types have begun spawning from the earth everywhere and Abe Sapien is caught between them and the human race. Some fear Abe and think he is one of the abominations, some believe he is a god; others have just accepted him as the next evolution of man. Abe thinks they are all crazy and just wants to be left alone to figure things out for himself.
The corpse on the beach belongs to Barry, one of 3 people Abe runs into when he arrived here last issue. The other 2 are Gene and Judy, both of which think Abe is some sort of messiah of the new age. Barry, now dead, thought Abe was some kind of demon. When Abe joins up with the group on the beach he is genuinely shocked to find Barry dead and after talking to Judy, decides to get to the bottom of it. He dives into the ocean to find the creature or creatures that may have done the deed. After tripping out and turning into a cocoon and a couple of panels of a deep-sea diver for some reason, Abe resurfaces and figures out the situation.
I really enjoy this comic month after month and actually dig it more than the exploits of Mignola’s other more famous character in Hellboy In Hell. The writing gets you right into Abe’s head, you feel his emotions, his fear, his sadness that his brother Hellboy has not returned while these monsters surface all over the planet, and his pity for the human race. The artwork by Max Fiumara and Dave Stewart is pretty amazing in that it looks totally original and is beautifully colored but you can tell it is set in Mignola’s world. It’s almost like someone turned on the lights in some of Mignola’s art for Hellboy, setting a different tone for Abe’s series. I would definitely recommend this book, but because I was a bit confused by the deep sea diver and the cocoon panels I gotta give Abe Sapien a solid…
4 out of 5 nerds
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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