One Coin Reads 4: Abe Sapien Dark and Terrible and The New Race of Man, by Mike Mignola's crew

Abe Sapien Dark and Terrible and The New Race of Man, by Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, John Arcudi, Sebastian Fiumara, Max Fiumara and Dave Stewart

2013

Shortly before I read this, I was told by an acquaintance not to go into the Mignola-verse through Abe Sapien, but it was too late, I had already picked up this at a bargain price of ¥391! It couldn't not be worth that price, could it?

How much does Mignola do on these books? Is he Stan Lee-ing it?

Sometimes low expectations are key to enjoying a book. I'm currently finishing a fan favorite book which isn't blowing me away, and the high expectations probably made me overcritical. With this, I kept thinking it was alright. Expecting work-for-hire stuff let me enjoy it for what it was.

Up front, I'll make the criticisms I have before getting into what worked with it. The book asks for a lot of tolerance from the reader up front. I am a lifetime comics reader, but I know Abe Sapien only from the movies. The book collects issues 1-5 of his self-titled series, so it should be pretty easy to slip into, right?  Then the book is numbered 3 on the side, and the back cover lets me know the stories take place after B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: A Cold Day in Hell. So it's meant for people who've bought into the universe already? It's not a deal-breaker: I still pick up X-Men old collections where I'm lost for the first 20 pages because it was one of four simultaneously printed series and was overly bogged down in continuity, and I still manage to enjoy them. In the opening pages of this, a bunch of B.P.R.D. folks sit around a table spouting exposition about things like Crab Point and the Frog Wars. It's not inviting. I think they would have been much better off having a character introduction or guide at the back to introduce readers. Just acknowledge it's continuity heavy, and leave that there for those who need it, rather than try to work it into a table meeting scene.

Great tree, great shadow in the room (Sebastian Fiumura)

Once the story starts moving, I could pick up the broad strokes: some big Kaiju-style monsters have attacked, some monsters have turned people into monsters, and human society is having a crisis of faith over all of it. It's a solid hook for a series, making it more about the repercussions of monsters than about cool fights. They'll put fights in, but there is a heart to it. 

The collection has two stories, one drawn by Sebastian Fiumara, and the second by Max Fiumara. Sebastian's is about Abe taking refuge in a small town church, thanks to the kindness of the preacher, who is embracing the change as part of God's will. His congregation is about to lose their mind, and are ready to string him up over his acceptance of the monsters and people transformed. Abe, who is a monster of sorts but apparently unrelated to the madness in the world, just wants to keep the peace, but is pulled in. The art is really good. Clean, clear, noir work with a good sense of movement, reminiscent of Jae Lee's art. In small moments and bombastic moments, Sebastian pulls it off. 

Reading about rural American Christians readying the nooses to string up the enemies in their midst is a bit nauseating in February of 2021 though.  Probably not the creators' intent when it was made.

Very strong silhouettes in action (Sebastian Fiumura)

The second story is a smaller story, about a trio Abe meets at the Salton Sea. The one guy is all about the changes that are happening to the world, and feels it's the birth of a new religion. His girlfriend is all with him, and the third guy is bitterly there only out of support for the first guy's girlfriend. It's a smaller story without any big action, but Max gets to draw some crazy monsters through flashbacks and detours. The art here is similar, although I liked it a little less. The faces are heavily stylized which I wasn't crazy about, but beyond that, it was very good. He also had very good motion and movement in his work.

The coloring by Dave Stewart gives a strong through line to the book and keeps it tonally unified.

I liked this page a lot, the knife going in, the throw in panel three (Max Fiumura)

I wouldn't want to pay full price for this myself, but if I were a fan of the Mignola-verse, I think I'd be quite satisfied with it. I have another discount Abe Sapien book still to read, so I'll find out if this was a better quality collection or if I just personally enjoy the quieter talky books more than most.

Getting to the back of the book, I saw the list of Mignola-verse books for sale in 2013! I was tired looking at the list already, and that wasn't including any of the Hellboy books. Power to Mignola for building an empire, and for keeping the lights on at Dark Horse. It's off-putting for me though. I know that if you hook people in, you can get some people to buy all of it, but it makes me want to steer clear of it. There's no clear entry point for readers, and it seems like a huge time investment. 

I'm so tired already