Review: Abe - A Trial Death and Other Stories
How about some sometimes lyrical, often poetic ponderings, peppered with percipience of life, death and everything in between in a gonzo style with bold cartoonist ink art? It's definitely Abe - A Trial Death and Other Stories from Glenn Dakin with an excellent foreword by Eddie Campbell.
Glenn Dakin is a British cartoonist and writer for all ages. Prolific in the small press comics scene in the '80s and '90s while also contributing to British comic magazines such as Escape and Deadline. He is most well known for the autobiographical comic Abe: Wrong For All The Right Reasons and Temptation. He's also written for Marvel Comics on a number of titles. As a writer, he has created the fantasy series Candle Man, worked in animation on Shaun The Sheep and has produced two books that I want based on the title alone: Mr Spock's Little Book Of Mindfulness and the even more enticing Be More Batman.
With a formidable body of work often skewed to be more child-friendly, Abe- A Trial Death and Other Stories is a more grown-up affair with its philosophical musings and comes courtesy of the very fine people at Colossive Press. Colossive Press is a zine and small press publisher established in Penge, South East London, by Tom Murphy and Jane Gibbens Murphy. For a beautifully created, artistically fascinating smorgasbord of satisfying reading material, Colossive is a one-stop shop. With these legends introduced, we should get into it.
So, let's start with the art. Glenn Dakin has a distinctive unique style full of energy and whimsy. His bold ink lines are powerfully exhibited with refrained purpose. Its gorgeous cartoon illustrations showing conservative detail manage to convey exactly what it needs to with often frantic-looking edges as if the art pours from Glenn faster than thought. His obvious skill manifests when needed to incorporate popular culture cameos or beautiful scenic imagery, and yet sitting always, distilled to its simplistic expressionism, is the character design of Abe.
Glenn's art is at once captivating and soothing, emotion-bound and detailed yet somehow minimal and understated. It's an efficiency of art that is completely enthralling.
Story time now, then, and what we have here in Abe - A Trial Death and Other Stories is something very different from your usual comic. What we have here is something interminably more interesting. Although short in format and conventionally dressed in presentation Glenn pours poignant onto every panel and page. It's a melancholy milkshake to soothe the soul. Drink in the internal monologue musings on life, death and the true art of living.
Eternally returnable, this short collection snapshots something important to remind oneself of the importance of engaging. Whether with people, places or ideas, there is true nourishment to be found, and these stories encourage it in the best way. No preaching, no demands, no expectations. Just a presentation of thought. Delightsome.
As an added bonus the foreword by Eddie Campbell offers some insight into Glenn and Abe and serves as an idealistic introduction to both, an inclusion that sets the tone very well.
For fans of living, soothing ideas, John Lennon, The Real Ghostbusters, pub talk, Spring, inheritance, death, Arctic Terns, Listening, existential train tannoy announcement included poetry laden internal monologue musings to nourish the soul, The Hobbit, wanting more from your German waitresses, Louis Armstrong, King Arthur and Rupert The Bear in efficient enthralling art, nothing could do it better than Glenn Dakins' Abe - A Trial Death and Other Stories.
To get your copy head on over to the Colossive Press website here. I'd also highly recommend following them on Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook. For all things Glenn, you want https://www.glenndakin.com/.
Review: 5/5
