Abomination
A story of atonement amid horrifying isolation, Abomination is a gripping graphic novel.
A soldier at a remote Arctic station faces an ancient horror in Bragi Schut’s moody graphic novel Abomination.
In 1942, Harry is assigned to serve at the northernmost military station in the world. The man stationed there before him went missing. Once on site, Harry has strange experiences. He sees a huge creature on the ice and encounters tracks from a being that seems larger than a bear. He meets Inuit hunters who ask for his help with Amarok, the creature in question. With his dog Harpo, Harry goes to the Inuit village, where a consultation with a witch-woman leads to the vivid prediction of his death at Amarok’s hands. Nonetheless, Harry seeks the lair of Amarok, confronting the creature in a thrilling fashion.
Told as a series of diary entries, the story makes prime use of its Arctic setting. Harry narrates, his sense of awe and isolation immediate. When he hears a strange sound, he realizes “It couldn’t be a bird because there are no birds this far north.” Daylight is limited or nonexistent, and Harry suffers from frostbite and loses a compass in the wind. When faced with a storm, he thinks to dig a hole for shelter before realizing the ground is solid ice and rock.
Harry’s descriptions are eloquent. He compares being lost on the ice without any guideposts to being lost on the open ocean, and when he gets his first sight of an aurora borealis, he calls it a “curtain of light, or a ribbon, with many loops and folds.” His experiences of a burial ritual and other Inuit customs are illuminating, and his integration of Inuit language into the tale, as with saying “You are going” instead of “Goodbye” and the use of a term for “half-light,” is immersive. His decision to confront Amarok is also weighty, influenced by his feelings of guilt over having abandoned a previous post at the cost of eight lives. He craves redemption; he feels connected to fellow outcasts, too.
This outsized volume features black page backgrounds that enhance the story’s sense of horror and isolation. In the diary-entry style, words are given space to breathe and be absorbed. An illustration accompanies every few pages of text, complementing what’s developed in the mind’s eye. The art is cinematic, with muted tones of color and a painted style that makes the action scenes exciting, with intricate details and composition.
Abomination is a riveting graphic novel about a soldier’s quest for redemption that brings him into contact with an Arctic terror.
Reviewed by
Peter Dabbene
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
