The Speed Abater is
translated from the French, and was originally published in 1999.  It has won the author the prize for best new
talent at the major Bandes Dessiness convention at Angouleme.  The 80-page graphic novel tells the story of
George Guilbert, trained as an oceanographer, who joins the navy and is posted
on a huge boat, the Bellicose.  The crew
learns that they are headed out to find a submarine belonging to the enemy, and
hostilities may be imminent.  Guilbert
has never been at sea previously, amazingly, so he spends most of the early
days being sick.  He is joined by a
couple of crewmates who also can’t stomach the rolling of the ship, and they
start exploring on their own.  They
start going to parts of the ship they are not meant to be in, and one of them,
the buffoon Nordiz, shows them the massive reduction gears that help slow the
ship down.  Through their messing
around, they manage to cause a malfunction, and they run away.  They know they are in trouble, so they hide
in the bowels of the ship, going deeper and deeper, until they are thoroughly
lost. 

Blain’s artwork is fairly crude,
but it is vigorous and he uses colors effectively in conveying the artificial
lights in the dark tunnels of the boat. 
The story is interesting, even though the main protagonist is not a
particularly sympathetic personality and the characterization is
two-dimensional.  The appeal of the
novel largely rests on the romance of the sea, and so may only appeal to a
small readership.  It’s an ambitious
work, and it distinctively illustrates the cramped conditions of the boat and
the isolation of the crew in the middle of the ocean, as well as the hierarchy
of the navy bureaucracy.  However, the
portrayal of the emotions of the characters lacks subtlety, so ultimately the
work fails to grip the reader. 

Link:  NBM Books

© 2003 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is Chair of the Philosophy Department
at Dowling College, Long Island, and editor of Metapsychology
Online Review.  His main research is on philosophical issues in
medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Fiction, ArtAndPhotography