The Loneliness of the Abyss by Dimitris Vanellis and Nikolas Kourtis

First published in Greece in 2022; published in translation by Europe Comics on November 29, 2023

A legend holds that Alexander, after slaying the Great Serpent who stood guard over the Eternal Waters, brought a bottle of the water to Babylon, where he planned to achieve immortality. His sister thought the bottle contained ordinary water. She drank it and became immortal, much to Alexander’s displeasure. The girl begged the gods never to let her see her brother die. They granted her wish by changing her into a gorgon. In that form, she roams the seas, asking passing ships whether Alexander is still alive and crushing those that admit his death.

The Loneliness of the Abyss extends the legend and brings it to a conclusion. The graphic story begins with a cargo ship that has lost power, surrounded by mist in a still and silent sea. The crew waits and broods for days before a giant woman rises from the sea. The crew member she snatches does not know the legend, so he fails to assure her that King Alexander still lives. She crushes him between her fingers, then capsizes the ship and tears it apart. All of this is captured in a few balloons of dialog and lovely drawings of the gorgon, the sea, and destruction.

The story adds to the Alexandrian legend when the narrator falls overboard. Instead of drowning like his shipmates, the narrator occupies a bubble of air at the bottom of the sea. The gorgon is there. He hears her thoughts. She explains that she spared him because he bears a strong resemblance to Alexander.

The narrator finds it in his interest to deceive the gorgon, so he tells her of the wonders of Babylon under Alexander’s immortal rule. The gorgon believes him but accosts more sailors to gain additional knowledge, then sinks their ships when they “lie” by asserting that Alexander is no longer king. Caught in the abyss, the narrator grows old and becomes lost in his own invented tales of Babylon. He takes drastic action at the end, after he is reminded of the life he once lived.

The art is well suited to the story. The sister looks more like a mermaid than a traditional gorgon (a deliberate choice to reflect the Greek take on gorgons, the artist explains). The coloring is a misty gray above the sea’s surface, deep blue with an occasional wash of green below. Human characters are drawn with photo-realism (perhaps assisted by some form of photoshopping?). The gorgon is either beautiful or demonic, depending on whether she is being told a pleasant lie or the unwelcome truth. In short, the art is striking and the story is cool.

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