While I was reading the first installment of ‘The City of Abacus’, I was reminded of the early issues of the pioneering indie comic book series ‘Cerebus’. Having started reading ‘Cerebus’ much later in the series (around issue 139, with the ‘Melmoth’ storyline), going back to the beginning and witnessing those awkward early stages was an amusing, if rewarding, endeavor.
What ‘Cerebus’ had going for it in the beginning that ‘COA’ does not was a strong, existing base to pastiche; namely, the Roy Thomas / Barry Windsor-Smith ‘Conan the Barbarian’ stories, given a humorous twist. The roots for ‘COA’s’ story are admirable: the Orwellian nightmare of ‘1984′ and the Kurt Vonnegut short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’. The problem here is the execution.
First off, Emma Price’s artwork is solid. The artist comes across as having a style in flux, still trying to become comfortable in their abilities. But the art fits the story, is distinct, and is very good, if not very dynamic.
Where the story falls short is the writing. There a number of flaws, such as too much exposition and not enough depth to the characters, saddled with a cliched plot. Granted, this is the first issue, but the writing lacks real polish. You can tell by the text of one of the early captions:
‘The evil Queen Virusos holds constant watch over her subjects.’
Why do we need to be told she’s evil? Can her name be any less subtle? The opening, and quite a bit of the dialog, is stiff, like reading a poor children’s story book. The Queen’s motivations are equally of a cardboard nature. She just one day up and decides to order a machine to be built ‘that would stunt and cripple the minds of every citizen of Abacus.’ Well, why? Because she’s ‘evil’? Perhaps she obtained her degree in Totalitarianism via a correspondence course.
Aside from the flat dialogue, there is also the annoying font for the speech balloons, and a few spelling errors that took me out of the story (the Queen’s name is spelled two different ways during the story). Everything from top to bottom in this issue screams of a first-time effort.
Is that wrong? Not at all; the fact that this creative team successfully put together an entire issue speaks as to their dedication (not everyone can even say they got this far). There are some bright spots; namely, the art. But it’s almost as if the writers are taking a cue from 1970’s and 80’s style of comic book writing; but the craft has come such a long way, that maintaining that particular status quo is damning.
Given the early effort, and if offered free online, I would follow the series for a few more releases to see how it improves. But as a printed effort being sold online (via the ‘City of Abacus’ website), it’s not worth the asking price.
With the generic storyline and extremely average writing, there would be little to convince me to see ‘COA’ through.
‘COA’ is, unfortunately, DOA.
