Abraxas and the Earthman

by Rick Veitch

Rick Veitch's unforgettable eight-part Epic Magazine series is finally collected as one mind-bending full color graphic novel! Abducted from earth by space whalers, Cetologist John Isaac endures physical and spiritual mutation by order of the ship's master, Rotwang. Pressed into the mad captain's hunt for Abraxas, Isaac finds his own destiny in the belly of the monstrous red-horned whale.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction

88 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

About the author

Richard "Rick" Veitch is an American comics artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground, and alternative comics.

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely off-kilter oddball stuff here. On the surface it's a retelling of Moby Dick in space with more metaphysical/spiritual stuff (which perhaps Veitch interpreted in the original Moby Dick). After the first half I started losing track of what the heck was happening.

Still, it has Veitch artwork, one of his first long comics. As always his brain is on rapid fire with crazy ideas. I feel like he needed to throw a few ideas out to help the narrative.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abraxas is a gigantic space whale, and the book is essentially Veitch's reworking of Moby-Dick. John Isaacs is kidnapped from Earth by a lunatic space captain who is sworn to kill a whale called Abraxas. Isaacs is surgically altered by alien beings, who in turn have their own agenda. Like much of Veitch's early Epic Magazine work, Abraxas is filled with outlandish, sometimes B-rate sci-fi characters and scenarios, and John Isaacs' eventual metaphysical transformation is interesting and challenging. Yet something about the book didn't really connect for me. I thought it intriguing, but not quite able to follow through on its ambitions.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even with the goofy premise and often B-level plotting, this is one of Veitch's best works due to sheer creativity and artwork alone. The story is about a whale researcher named John Isaac who works aboard a submarine and is captured by intergalactic sailors who press gang him to service on their space whaler. Isaac is broken down emotionally and physically by the crew, starting with the gruesome flaying of his own skin. Isaac's expertise on whales interests the enigmatic Captain Rotwang who strikes a bargain with Isaac - help with hunting down the monstrous space whale known as Abraxas and in return Rotwang will have his surgeons return his skin to him. The story is full of frenetic twists and has a level of intensity matched only by Veitch's works in the "King Hell Heroica" series. What makes Abraxas and the Earthman so mesmerizing is the striking color choices that feel like a potent injection of insanity right to the eyeballs. So even though the plot weaves in and out of coherency it barely matters since the ride aboard Captain Rotwang's Yorrikke is absolutely worth the price of admission.

[ComicNerdSam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real scorcher, I think I'm a big fan of Veitch's work. Everything he makes has a feeling of pure malice put behind it, more present in Brat Pack than in here but still definitely present. The art is also pure joy, so many vibrant and intense colors working with each other to create a constant stimulation. An intense, horrifying, and ultra-weirdo comic. Read it!

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

among the worst ending lines of anything ever lol

but still a batshit, great gonzo sci fi story, one of my favs in comics form

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, Epic Weird, Inside Out blow it out Weird.

[Damon · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's really hard to shake that 80s feeling when you're reading this - it looks like an 80s comic, and reads like one, and most notably for me the colors were 80s comics colors. Plotwise, I dunno - it was okay, I guess, if you like Moby Dick, and heavy-handed metaphors. There was definitely a good measure of the typical Veitch weirdness and disturbing imagery, but it's no "Bratpack"... Mostly for die-hard fans of Veitch or Melville, I guess.

[Matt Piechocinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Rick Veitch did a lot of drugs ... very trippy.

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was arguably too young for Epic Illustrated when I began reading and collecting it in the early 1980's. It was a transformative experience. While the Europeans to this day are spoiled with sophisticated storytelling and art in their comic books—work often as philosophical as it is sexy—there were limited domestic options for 1980's American readers.

The serialized adventures that Epic Illustrated introduced me to stuck with me even though I have not cracked one open in nearly 30 years. When a friend told me he was writing a rock opera based on Moby Dick, I instantly recalled this surreal science fiction retelling of Melville's epic as one of the more distinctly memorable stories that had imprinted itself onto my adolescent psyche. A quick search revealed, to my great delight, this collected graphic novel edition which I miraculously found a pristine copy of at The Strand in NYC for half the list price, as opposed to the double-the-list-price it was going for online.

Even better: the story stands up. It's a smart, engaging, and creatively thought out adaption of a story already rich in metaphor and deeper meaning. There is much pre-digital manipulation of the art, but it suits the somewhat psychedelic experience of the protagonist. A great read for fans of Moby Dick, fans of Rick Veitch, or Epic Illustrated, or weird science fiction comics (with cohesive, dramatic storytelling).

Now if only I could find Dean Motter & Ken Steacy's "The Sacred and the Profane." Oh wait, there it is!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...