A creepy, mysterious tale about the monsters we make and the monsters we fear we are.
Creative Staff
Story: Martin Stiff
Art: Martin Stiff
What They Say
Nominated for BEST COMIC at the 2013 British Comic Awards, The Absence rips apart a small village on the coastal edge of Southern England as it struggles to recover from the tragic losses of the Second World War. Yet any hope of healing its wounds is suddenly rocked by the return of a man long presumed—and hoped—dead.
In a place where everybody is hiding a guilty past, what terrible secrets does this hideously disfigured exile bring back with him? And what exactly happened to him during his absence?
A masterpiece in jagged, haunting storytelling tinged with horror and pathos, this acclaimed series is collected here for the first time and is for anyone who loves their tales loaded with menace and shadows!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Absence is about monsters—the ones we create, and the ones we fear we are deep down. There are three monsters in this story—one obvious, the other two subtle—and their tales come together like a well-made timepiece, culminating in a story of loss, hatred, and penance.
Marwood Clay returns to his home village in Southern England after serving in the Second World War. Of all the young men sent to fight, he was the one everyone openly hoped would never return. He survived when the others did not, but not without a price: the skin around his mouth had been flayed away, leaving him with white teeth set in a raw, red mass of flesh, marking him outwardly as the monster his village believes him to be.
Marwood is treated with open contempt and hostility the moment he returns home—first by one of the local police officers, then by the patrons of the local pub. Even his former best friend Helen wants nothing to do with him. The only person in the entire village who can stand the sight of him is a young, lonely boy whose mother is eroded by grief and anger over the death of his older brother in the war.
At the same time that Marwood returns, a stranger, Dr. Robert Temple, buys a section of land outside of the village in order to create a most improbable house. Temple takes an interest in Marwood and Helen, as well as the number of strange disappearances that have been occurring in the village. Temple also served in the war, but not as a solider. Instead he worked in a secret government think tank dedicated to using fringe science to save Britain and defeat the Axis Powers. The formula he creates changes the tide of the war and makes him a very wealthy man, but the cost of its creation as well as its power to cause harm, make it a terrible burden for him to shoulder.
This is, of course, a secret he holds. The details of who he is, what he did during the war, and the nature and function of his most improbable house are parsed slowly through the work, as are the secrets kept by Marwood and the village. Small communities are knitted together by threads of shared experiences, assumptions, and secrets. The irony of this is that the secrets are known to all, but are so large, so threatening to the welfare of the community, that they can never be uttered. As much as this work is about monsters, it’s equally concerned with the secrets that the monsters keep and the secrets that created them.
Which brings me to one particular weakness in an otherwise engaging and fascinating comic: the secret behind the village’s reaction to Marwood. For those of you who wish to avoid spoilers, please skip down to the next paragraph. We learn early on that Marwood is considered a murderer by his village, but why that is or even who he murdered are not revealed until later. Marwood was married and his wife was pregnant with their first child. One night he leaves the house to meet with Helen at her request. Helen, who has always hated the village, is finally going to leave and she wants Marwood and his wife to leave with her since they are her best friends. (It should be made clear at this point that Marwood and Helen never had a sexual relationship and he never cheated on his wife.) While they are talking, a fire breaks out in Marwood’s home, and he rushes to save his family. Unfortunately, the flames are too hot and he can’t get in. The rest of the village stands around and he pleads for their help, but they just stand there and watch. As they watch the fire rage they hear Marwood’s wife screaming his name. Once the screams stop the villagers begin accusing Marwood of murder, and the title stuck. To understand this moment, the reader has to understand how small, insular communities operate. What the villagers did was a moment of group projection, putting all of their guilt at their inability (perhaps even unwillingness) to help all on Marwood. In some sense he becomes the sacrificial lamb: the focal point of the community’s sins sent out to the wild to expiate their guilt. The problem in this case is that the lamb returned. I can justify and understand this, but there is a certain ineffable, undefinable quality that made this revelation awkward and somehow rings false. It’s almost as if the writer pulled back from doing what he really wanted with the character. I wonder if making Marwood more culpable in the situation would have made it make a bit more sense, but I’m not certain. As it stands, the whole moment just feels off to me.
As it stands, this is the only real hitch I had in an otherwise strong and tightly-plotted story. There are more mysteries behind Marwood, Dr. Temple, and the town itself and going into them would partially ruin the fun of reading this work. What I will say, in broad terms, is that the pacing of the story and the revelations is very good and it is counterbalanced nicely with the strong, believable characters. I’ll also say that the art is particularly well-suited to the story. Stiff has a rough style that skirts the edge of being a bit too busy, but actually works in favor of the tale. The line work is dark and given that this is a black and white comic, Stiff utilizes that to good effect. He also does well delineating flashbacks from the present story by giving the flashbacks a ghostly, almost washed out appearance, which I thought worked quite well.
In Summary
There are many types of monsters—some are unrepentantly vile, others hide their wickedness beneath the veneer of urbanity, and others are forced to be monsters because that is the role that their society has placed on them. The Absence is a story of monsters and secrets and we see many different types of both throughout this work. It’s a dark story, both literally and figuratively, with a strong mystery, fascinating characters, and even more interesting concepts. While I did take issue with one particular part, I also recognize that my issue is rather vague and subjective and that it doesn’t take a great deal away from the overall quality of the work. Highly recommended.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Age Rating: Suggested for Mature Readers
Released By: Titan Comics
Release Date: March 4th, 2014
MSRP: $19.99