Saladin Ahmed's literary career has really taken off in recent years after his novel Throne of the Crescent Moon was nominated for a Hugo Award, which is the publishing industry's equivalent of an Oscar presented annually to the best science fiction writer of the year, and he was awarded the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Star Wars fans will appreciate that among his works, Ahmed contributed a short story to the Canto Bight: Journey to the Star Wars: The Last Jedi anthology. He just recently began writing for comic books, scripting Marvel's Black Bolt series as well as this new mini-series from Boom Studios. Both titles have been receiving praise from critics who have reviewed them. Next up, Ahmed will be writing a new Exiles series for Marvel about a group of alternate universe super heroes that dimension hop to save their reality from a variety of different threats.
Paired with Finnish artist Sami Kivela doing the artwork for this Boom Studios comic book mini-series, Ahmed told me that in ABBOTT they will try to paint Detroit's own uniqueness for audiences rather than just use generic city imagery in portraying the story. He commented that his European colleague Kivela doesn't have pre-existing biases or notions about Detroit like many Americans have and has focused on providing an authentic image of the city as a backdrop for the story. Ahmed said that the series will include actual Detroit references and locations within it. In the first issue for example, the main character walks past the real life newspapers, Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, on her way to work at the fictional Detroit Daily. Ahmed remarked to me that people familiar with the city of Detroit will enjoy seeing that its island park, Belle Isle, will be prominently featured in the mini-series third issue. As someone who has lived in the area a majority of my life, I'm going to enjoy reading through these comics looking for the realistic touches of Detroit being included within the artwork and script.
The story revolves around a female journalist of color named Elena Abbott who is investigating a series of grisly crimes that the police seem to be ignoring -- crimes that appear to be the same as a dark magical force that murdered her husband 10 years prior to the ones currently taking place. As she searches for clues, Abbott finds herself in the cross hairs of an occultist menace with a thirst for causing death. Adding to the tension of the story is its setting at a point in time when Detroit is just beginning its downward spiral of urban decay from which the city is just now beginning to emerge from.
This historical context combined with the paranormal investigative and noir detective story aspects of this comic book makes ABBOTT a compelling read. I really enjoyed the first issue and encourage you to check out this Boom Studios series filled with shadowy magic and social conflict. You can pick up print issues of ABBOTT from a local comic book shop like Vault of Midnight or purchase a digital version to read from comixology.
