Darwin’s Diaries Volume 1: The Eye Of The Celts
By Sylvain Runberg and Eduardo Ocana
You want strange concept? Try this on for size – Charles Darwin gets roped in by the Prime Minister to investigate a particularly series of gruesome murders in Yorkshire that look like the work of some as yet unidentified predator. Here’s the Cinebook blurb:
“Victorian England. In Yorkshire, several men and horses working on a railway line have been killed—slaughtered, really. The police suspect some kind of wild beast. The government calls upon controversial naturalist Charles Darwin to help with the investigation. A reasonable move, but one that is dictated rather by the least known part of his work: research on what other people would qualify as legendary creatures. It won’t be long before the scientist discovers that he may be right about them after all…”
Yes, Charles Darwin. Yes, THE Charles Darwin. On The Origin of the Species Charles Darwin. A man not exactly known for being a great investigator of unsolved crimes. (Am I missing the bit of his life spent researching these “legendary creatures“? I did have a quick google around, and there’s a little bit on wild-men but always in connection with the theories of evolution he was developing. But nothing more than that. Anyone know any different?)
But it gets weirder. No, really. This Charles Darwin turns out to be quite the man of action as well, and seemingly fond of the darker things in life; with gin, prostitutes and vicious street fighting all part of a night out. And all the while he’s investigating the Yorkshire beast. Which happens to be very, very real, very dangerous and most decidedly not something he’s seen on his travels. This is something new, something even the great scientist can’t explain.
See. I told you it was a strange concept.
So here we go…. It’s 1860, and Darwin’s ideas are beginning to reverberate around the world. He’s on the cusp of greatness, of fame, of infamy as the church begins to marshall it’s power against him, but Darwin here doesn’t have a chance to get involved in all that, as Runberg flips everything when Prime Minister Palmerston invites him to become a Yorkshire big game hunter:
It’s a bizarre moment in a book rather full of them, and the ease with which Darwin is convinced just seems a little too easy to me. But then again I don’t think Runberg’s motivation here was historical accuracy – and I can’t complain, as once you settle into the concept, everything comes together bloody well.
And of course, that Darwin doesn’t quite behave the way we think he would here soon pales into insignificance with the Darwin we’re soon going to meet.
Off he pops to Yorkshire, accompanied once in God’s own county by the smart and liberated daughter of railway builder Howard Dickinson, and together they set off to look at the scene of crime. Yes, Darwin CSI happens, with Charles working the bodies to attempt to work out what the hell caused such gruesome deaths.
And then there’s the other side of Darwin that comes out on his night off….
Yes. It’s quite obviously bonkers. But it’s also brilliantly, over the top and knows it type bonkers.
And it’s this that makes it a ridiculously over the top great read. Once you get over the extreme new Darwin idea, there’s a certain something about the strangeness and profound silliness of the concept that actually works.
As mad as that sounds, this Victorian action-adventure with one of the world’s most famous scientists as a hard drinking man of mystery really does work. I know, it surprised the hell out of me as well.
Sylvain Runberg writes Orbital, a sci-fi series that couldn’t be further from this is it was trying. There are weaknesses here, stunted dialogue at times perhaps the worst of it, but it doesn’t really matter – this one wins on the insane idea. And Ocana’s art is dark. Very, very dark. But I do rather like his artwork, very much a sort of new European style, taking a lot of keys from the US and beyond, yet retaining something uniquely European about them. And you really get a lot more action and fast motion in here than you ever expected, all handled rather well, and I like what Ocana does with the panels to get over the insane speed of whatever the hell is eating things in Yorkshire….
I have absolutely no idea where this one is going with the second volume, and after meeting Runberg’s version of Darwin, I’m not even going to guess.
But I’ll be looking out for it, the strangeness of the story and the polished manner of Runberg and Ocana’s delivery wins out.
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