Customer Reviews

Abraxas And The Earthman

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This surpisingly ranks easily within my top 10 graphic novels (perhaps even top 5) of all time. Fantastic art, a terrifically compelling story, SF, horror, adventure, you name it. I couldn't stop reading this and can't recommend it highly enough for adults looking for something better than all of that superhero crap out there. Enjoy!

Rick Veitch remains one of the most consistently underrated talents working in comics. His first full-length graphic novel is a really remarkable accomplishment - weird and wonderful science fiction with an oddball New Agey twist that riffs on Moby-Dick even as it charts totally new territory. Incredible draftsmanship coupled with one of the finest imaginations in comics. Highly recommended.

Veitch often takes a key story from American culture and spins it, twists it, and tranforms it into something more surreal and exhiliarating. In the 'Maximortal' it's the life of Superman, and in 'Abraxas' it's Moby Dick, here transformed into a space opera and horror show told through Melvillian prose and psychedelic visuals. If you liked Alan Moore's 'Watchmen' or 'Promethea', read this next.

This graphic novel takes the Moby Dick storyline, weds it to some 70's concepts (environmentalism, psychedelics, eastern mysticism, and I'm sure some others that I didn't catch) to create what ends up as a disappointing storyline.

I found the technology in the story pretty fascinating, but much of the dialogue is stilted, the moralizing is heavy-handed, and the ending was a let down.

Some interesting side stories could be developed from this universe, but prequels, not sequels.