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arresting visuals and strong storytelling can combine for a gripping, stimulating journey.
Marlow reads as a complex yet pulpy adventure with a loyal band of allies, a cold-hearted villain, scheming pirates and a throng of soul-dead zombies. “[As a writer] you have to think about … the interplay of words with images and the density of the page—what’s the relationship of the story to the page [and] to the panel?” he says. “You have to break [the story] down to its most efficient point for each panel.”
Pulp Friction
The story contained within Marlow’s panels is, at times, dizzying. It’s the account of one man’s journey into the abyss of his own soul. Marlow is a former Marine who has been injected “like a lab rat” with a nanovirus that’s now turning him into a zombie. Nupharma, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, is responsible for Marlow’s condition and the firm’s Dr. Arcos holds the key to his survival—via pills that hold off Marlow’s complete descent into the land of the living dead. Marlow’s physical indebtedness to Arcos and Nupharma puts him, of course, at their mercy. The company’s enlisted him as a hit man, a job Marlow unhappily accepts—his survival depends on the death of others. As a result, Marlow’s alienated nearly everyone once dear to him, namely his wife and daughter.
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Eventually, he realizes that this life he’s chosen to live—a loveless, cold existence—is hardly any life at all. Perhaps, Marlow muses, he’s truly a zombie after all. “Marlow is in a double bind,” explains Nelson. “He’s had to do some really bad things but he’s also been able to retain some sense of who he is as a human—if he doesn’t do the right thing, then he becomes this monster.” The graphic novel actually comprises two separate stories—Soul of Darkness and River of Symbols. Nelson wrote the first installation in 2006, intending it as a serialized comic. But Soul of Darkness was a hit, eliciting praise from comic aficionados including Ain’t It Cool News, which lauded Nelson’s story as “[S]urely one that will stick with you, given the war-torn state the world is in today.” And so, at the behest of his publisher, Nelson wrote River of Symbols. Now, collected in one volume, the two stories complete a cohesive story arc but, Nelson says, embody key differences. “[Soul of Darkness] is pretty dark—by the end [Marlow] comes to the revelation that he can’t win either way and decides to stop playing the game altogether,” Nelson says. “But in the second story, he’s turned a corner and become more hopeful. He’s at peace with himself.” River of Symbols’ overall tone and pace is, Nelson says, also lighter, with quick-witted barbs, pirates and a kindly Italian riverboat captain, who guides Marlow on his journey. “It’s a bit more pulpy … it’s more of this jungle adventure that he’s on.” Still, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom it’s not. “[Marlow] is in that milieu of characters,” Nelson says, “in that he’s being chased across the jungle by this band of characters, and it’s fun and adventurous—but he’s [also] fighting some personal issues.”
Aaron Nelson, who lives in Shingle Springs with his wife and four daughters, wrote Marlow, a pulpy zombie-ish adventure. The graphic novel is being released this week.
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Sacramento Kings phone home Zombie crush Certainly, Marlow dives into a venture so volatile and dangerous, that ol’ Indy would likely think twice before swinging his whip within 100 yards of its action. Set in Romania, Marlow draws on Heart of Darkness for inspiration but, rather than paralleling the original’s exact storyline, instead echoes several prevalent themes. In Conrad’s book, for example, a narrator named Charles Marlowe recounts an assignment for a Belgian trading company, on which he served a riverboat captain in Africa. Along the way, Marlowe encounters grave dangers and is witness to the European’s cold, cruel treatment of African natives. “[Heart of Darkness] takes what the British and European empires are doing to Africa and turns it on its head,” Nelson says. “It shows that these justifications based on the idea that they’re savages can be applied to us—that we’re the ones acting in the savage manner. “I liked that, and I wanted to flip it around,” he says. “I wanted to do that with zombies. What is a zombie? Maybe we’re the zombies? Maybe we’re the ones killing to make them more like ourselves.”
“What is a zombie? Maybe we’re the zombies? Maybe we’re the ones killing to make them more like ourselves.”
Aaron Nelson, author of Marlow Oh yeah, about those zombies. If you’re looking for ones of the flesheating, Walking Dead variety, then keep looking. Here, the zombies that Marlow encounters embody a classic interpretation of the term, Nelson explains. “These are more Caribbean/West-African zombies—someone who is under the control of a master—that’s definitely different than the [filmmaker George] Romero zombie.” As such, Marlow finds himself one of the afflicted. “It turned me into a zombie instead of healing the psychological damage inflicted by years of warfare,” Marlow says at the beginning of the book’s second installment. “It’s blackmail. If I don’t work for them, they cut off the supply and I become a freak.” But it’s not just Marlow’s personal dilemma that drives the story. As Marlow tries
Ten bucks. That was the going rate for a game ticket last week between two bargain-basement basketball teams: the woeful Washington Wizards and, of course, the Sacramento Kings. Other than the price, there was little reason for anyone to head out to the arena on a cold weekday evening in Washington, D.C. Sacramento Kings fans, however, had one possible sweetener, or bittersweetener, in this case. Depending on how the Sacramento City Council votes soon, with the team’s future as up in the air as a DeMarcus Cousins’ free throw, it may have been one of the Kings’ many farewell games representing Sacramento as a major-league town. True, the matchup featured two last-place teams in their respective divisions—teams that haven’t been in sniffing distance of the playoffs in recent years. Even so, a long way from home, a handful of faithful Kings fans turned out in D.C., decked out in their purple and black. An informal count on the concourse at halftime, in fact, yielded about 20 fans in Sacramento Kings jerseys, hats and jackets. They were outnumbered, of course, by hardy—or possibly foolhardy—Wizards fans dressed in red and blue, and even some outfitted in Brigham Young University blue (presumably for Kings’ rookie Jimmer Fredette). But still, the Kings’ fans were there, cheering on. Sacramento’s lone major-league team and finding common ground through their hometown colors. “I hope they stay. They help put Sacramento on the map,” said one fan wearing a Kings’ cap, while waiting in line at the concession stand. Added another man behind him in line in a Sacramento jersey, “They kind of let people know Sacramento is out there.” Well, that’s one way of putting it. Meanwhile, over at a condiments station, another fan, this one dressed head-to-toe in purple, waited patiently for a little mustard. “They’ve treated my grandson real well, been real supportive,” Herb Scott said of Sacramento fans. “Which is good, since he is a terrific kid,” he added of his grandson Donte Greene. Unfortunately for Scott, Greene didn’t play in the Kings’ 115-107 victory, one in which the team steadily cruised by the Wizards for a win in front of a twothirds empty arena. And while the Verizon Center, a.k.a. the Phone Booth, may have been mostly vacant, the Sacramento City Council may want to note that the real action occurred outside the venue. There, in a once dead and blighted neighborhood that underwent revitalization after the city’s arena was built 15 years ago, the streets were lively and well-lit. Here, Washingtonians packed neighboring bars and restaurants in what has become a hip and gentrified part of town. Instead of $10 spent on a game ticket, they laid down money on mojitos and pitchers of craft beer. For them, last call happened sometime after midnight. Meanwhile, for Sacramento fans across the street at the Verizon Center, last call for their team happens this month, with the shot clock quickly winding down. —Hugh Biggar
“art of darkness” continued on page 19
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03. 01.12
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