Comic Reviews by Walt

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: The Road to Inconceivable

Summary: We’re introduced to Katie and her present situation as well as beginning to learn a bit about Abadazad…while Katie’s life changes forever…

Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Drawings: Mike Ploog
Colors: Nick Bell
Cover Art: Mike Ploog
Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children

This book has been a long time coming. For many, though, it’s a bit of familiarity, as we–like a certain character in the story–return, at last, to the world of Abadazad.
About two and a half years ago, CrossGen introduced a fairly unique and interesting new comic series–Abadazad. After just a handful of issues, though, CrossGen went down, and by extension, so did Abadazad.

Long story short (look stuff up online if you want more of the CrossGen story), Abadazad has found a new home, and an interesting new format.

This is no standard comic or graphic novel or TPB, etc. It’s a hardback book–reminds me offhand of the Series of Unfortunate Events books, and a couple other series-I-don’t-know-the-names-of that I see lined up in the YA section at Wal-Mart all the time.

To open this book, flipping to the right page, it certainly looks like one of those sorts of books inside as well (as opposed to, say, some mass market paperback books reprinting comics and such).
Some very familiar images adorn certain pages, sometimes interspersed with the text itself, other times large singular images on a page opposing text, sometimes a full-page image or double-page spread. And still other pages, are actually in ‘standard’ comic book format–these taken from those original 2004 issues of Abadazad that saw print.

It seems that here we get a rather interesting–if a bit haphazard (mostly in a good way, I think)–mix of prose and “comic” and simply images to go with said prose. The prose is Kate’s narration, what she’s recorded in her diary…er…memoir…diary. And on occasion, it leads into the “comic pages” that give brief visuals of Kate and the situations she finds herself in, and the characters she interacts with.
This style feels almost like a voice-over-on-black that then leads into a scene, or a voiceover-into-scene transition, were one to visualize this as a movie or tv program or such.

Physical and style description aside, what of the story?

There’s just something about the story itself that draws one in. It’s at once familiar, and yet new. Not too far in, a reference is made about “through the rabbit-hole,” “over the rainbow,” “into the wardrobe,” showing an in-text awarenessof the likes of Wonderland, Oz, Narnia; another reference goes to Middle-Earth…perhaps the mention alone leads one to slightly shift their mind to try to see this in the same light as those classic stories.

We meet Katie–Kate–a 14 year old girl living with her mother. The father ditched them years earlier. Accompanying that, Kate had a younger brother–Matty. One quickly realizes that she’s writing about Matty in the past tense. Five years later, and she and her mother are still deeply traumatized at having lost Matty. Her mother–“Frantic Frances”–has distanced herself all the more trying to hide from the loss, while Kate herself has tried to harden her heart and move on without wanting to allow herself to dwell on her lost brother.

Her crazy old neighbor introduces her to the “truth” behind the stories she’s read since she was a kid–and had bonded with her brother over reading them to him. The truth leads to what will be Katie’s great adventure/quest/whatever, and the true meat of Abadazad.

DeMatteis‘ story is well-thought-out, drawing on the familiar while injecting some new to the concept of a fantasy-world-turned-real. Given the context of the story, the characters are very believeable, and while there’s not a LOT of depth yet, this is just introducing the characters, context, and world of Abadazad. This book’s story sets the stage for what is to come, presenting the reader with all they need to know to get the characters and know what they’re all about.

Ploog‘s art captures a great style that looks right at home simply as illustrations for a prose tale, but then lends itself to a rather realistic visual style on the comic pages–realistic, but a sort of ‘softness’ that mutes the seriousness of the story. This gives a tone that keeps the seriousness from totally weighing on the reader, while allowing for its presence. Additionally, the comic pages give visual on the settings depicted much moreso than one would get simply from single-image illustrations.

On the whole, while not entirely a prose book nor by any stretch a graphic novel, this book is a great blend of both, and while maybe not 100% original, is certainly comparatively unique in this blending. Adults should find a certain enjoyment of the story, and yet it seems pretty well-suited for a younger crowd (though as with anything, I wouldn’t indiscriminately give it to a kindergartener or such).

The prose is enough to not be something boring to adult readers, but is simple enough for younger readers. It also provides a “hook” to bring readers into the story, and the comic pages in addition to providing visuals to small scenes serve double-duty by showing someone what comics are–and can be.

Even if for some reason someone disapproves of comics, this format holds more prose than comic, so might make parents happy seeing their kids read a prose story–but the comics enhance the story for someone who wants more than just a few ‘static’ images here and there in their story.

Whether you’re interested in this for having read the original comics, or this is the first you’ve even heard of Abadazad…I highly recommend checking these books out!

Ratings:

Story: 4.5/5
Art: 4.5/5
Overall: 4.5/5

Filed under: Classic Reviews | Tagged: Abadazad, Crossgen, Disney, Hyperion, J.M. Dematteis, Mike Ploog, Nick Bell | Leave a comment »