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Red Prophet: The Tales of Alvin Maker #1
Book Released: 29 March 2006
Review posted: 12 April 2006
Writer: Orson Scott Card/Roland Bernard Brown
Artist: Renato Arlem with Klebs Moura Junior
Artist: Renato Arlem (cover 'a')
John Buxton (cover 'b')
Letters: Bill Tortolini
Colors: David Curiel
Publisher: Dabel Brothers Productions, LLC
4.10 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by J. W. DeBolt Jr.
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The Dabel Brothers — Ernst, Les, Pascal and David — started their line of comicbooks with the intention of avoiding the superhero genre, and, according to managing editor Sean Jordan, they can make a sufficient splash in an already-crowded pool by licensing works from big names that audiences will already be familiar with. So far, they have managed to snag Robert Jordan (author of the Wheel of Time series), Tad Williams (of Otherland fame), Raymond E. Feist and others. They seem to be going through the authors included in the recent anthology Legends, so I would not be surprised to see Robert Silverberg and Anne McCaffrey next. But, first, here they have obtained the blessings of one of my favorite writers: Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game, Homebody), to adapt Alvin Maker (and, soon, Wyrms).
Adapting someone’s creation to a different medium can be a double-edged sword. And adapting into comicbooks can be a Klingon’s betleH. On the one hand, you have the benefit of not having to come up with ideas, which, as writers know, is one of the toughest aspects of writing. Another benefit is that you can, in taking a novel or series of novels, extract the most exciting and interesting parts to put into the much-shorter comicbook version. The tough part, on the other hand, is that you can’t change too much without the permission of the originator — depending on the contract, I suppose. And even if you have free reign, you may get negative criticism from fans about how poorly you’ve transferred the ideas, or how far you strayed from the creator’s intentions, and that could hurt future sales.
But all that doesn’t matter. A good story is a good story. And instead of comparing this comicbook to the original novels, we can discuss it on its own merits and the credit or blame for excellence or subpar work can be received by the appropriate parties and they can put it in their grist bag and constructively carry it forward to their next work.
So, in this story, in an alternate-history America where magic is extant, a flatboat owner called “Hooch” ships whiskey down the “Hio” River in territory where “Kicky-Poo” tend to attack pioneer families, but he does so relatively safely because the “Kicky-Poo” know that he’ll blow up the boat, whiskey and all, if they try to take it. And the Indians have by now become so addicted to liquor that they subsume all priorities — and, for some, even self-respect — to get more liquor.
Governor Bill Harrison runs the stockade in the area called Carthage City, which he has declared the capital of Wobbish (which he also declared as a State). He operates with autonomy — and the corruption that comes with it out on the frontier. Harrison’s promises are seen as the fabrications they are by the Shaw-Nee Ta-Kumsaw when Harrison says he will incarcerate Hooch for breaking the law by selling whiskey to Indians. Ta-Kumsaw, in the same spirit, implies that his people will not kill farmers who settle on their territory. Hooch observes, to himself, “…when both parties are lying and they both know the other party’s lying, it comes powerfully close to being the same as telling the truth.”
Harrison keeps by his side a Shaw-Nee known as Lolla-Wossiky, who remains constantly drunk to the point of senselessness, and while his sad story adds to his pathos, the reader gets the feeling that eventually something big is going to happen in Lolla-Wossiky’s life that will change his condition and his relationship with characters who humiliate him.
Hooch is apprehended by a Tennessee lawyer who you’ll remember from history and taken into custody essentially to show that Harrison has the power. Meanwhile, Ta-kumsaw stands back and silently observes what’s going on, making a fateful decision by the end of the story that could bring about great changes for the future — and a lot of action.
What keeps you reading: the tension you feel as Ta-Kumsaw witnesses Lolla-Wossiky lying in pools of his own spittle, and then the indications that the poor wretch is going to wake up soon and transform into something powerful. I want to see how Lolla-Wossky transforms, what Ta-Kumsaw does, and how that all leads into the growing conflict between the Indians and the settlers.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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