Abe Sapien #15

By Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, Juan Ferreyra & Eduardo Ferreyra

The latest installment in the Abe Sapien series takes a plot detour this month with another one-shot story. While not contributing a great deal to the overall plot, this was a fairly enjoyable issue. The main grab of Abe Sapien #15 was an appearance of artistic talent from the magnificent Juan Ferreyra.

Mike Mignola and Scott Allie take readers back to a time when Abe was still with the B.P.R.D., before he began transforming again and before Roger was killed. There is an underlying occult theme throughout the book which has been relatively lacking in the Mignolaverse for a while. Sure, there is a bit of action in issue #15, but this installment was largely devoted to deepening Abe’s own inner turmoil regarding his past life as Caul. Of course, long-time fans of B.P.R.D. will be glad to see Roger back on the page, if only for a single issue. There are some particularly poignant moments during the exchange between Roger and Abe which help to convey the magnitude of the protagonist’s personal conflict.

As already alluded to, the highlight of issue #15 was having Juan Ferreyra working in the Mignolaverse. We at the Mighty All-Comic are huge fans of this guy and his artwork is just phenomenal. A lot of the visuals in this one-shot story are highly reminiscent of Ferreyra’s work on Colder, and he was clearly the perfect choice to cover this particular story which involves a lot of grotesquely horrific moments. As with the Kiss Me, Satan! miniseries, Juan’s father, Eduardo Ferreyra, assists on colors. Not only are the images wonderfully detailed, cleanly illustrated, and imaginative, but there is also a very strong sense of uniqueness to the overall visual style. This, of course, only makes already amazing art event better. The small details in this issue go a long way to enhancing the realism, even with something as seemingly minor as the imperfections in Roger’s “skin”, reminding the reader that this is no man of flesh and blood but something concocted in the lab. The color work of the Ferreyras is equally astonishing and adds a great deal of depth, uniqueness, and detail to every panel.

While Abe Sapien #15 didn’t seem to do a great deal for the central plot, it was nevertheless an enjoyable book. It’s always nice to see sincere character development that can draw readers back into a story that has been covered before, and even expand on the emotional context. There’s also little room for complaint when we finally get a chance to see our favorite homunculus make an appearance after so long without him. Of course, Juan and Eduardo Ferreyra absolutely enhance the overall enjoyment by providing such incredible visuals. It will be nice to get back to the present story, but let’s try to get the Ferreyras on one of those too!