Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Atomic Diner, Comics, entertainment, indie Comics, Malachy Coney, Noe, Robert Curely, Stephen Downey, The Savage Boy

Noe, The Savage Boy: An Irish Tale Of Barbary Pirates

Published Mon, 24 Nov 2014 17:00:00 -0600

by Hannah Means Shannon

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By Patrick McAleer

Noe, The Savage Boy is a wonderful piece of historical fiction from the small press Irish publisher Atomic Diner. Using the almost forgotten story of the sacking of the small Irish town of Baltimore by Islamic pirates in 1631 as it's backdrop, this title charts the tale of the eponymous Noe as he struggles against the pirates and tries desperately to uphold his families honour as he, his mother and his sister (as well as about 100 of his townsfolk) are captured and transported to the distant lands of North Africa to be sold as slaves. With a plot by Robert Curley, script by Malachy Coney and art by Stephen Downey, Noe really does highlight the respective strengths of each of these creators.

Curley's plot is perfectly weighted with enough historical reality and references embroidered amongst the experiences of the fictional Noe, that what results is an altogether bewitching tale. Incorporating the infamous Pirate King Murat Reis the Younger as part of this book's Rogues Gallery, lends a sense of authenticity to the plot. It is in the scenes with Murat Reis that Coney's scripting shines, imbued with a sense of the dramatic and dripping in a lyricism you don't find very often. One particular scene in issue #2 sees Murat contemplating the life he leads as he writes in his journal, how he has become inured to the cries of suffering from his human cargo below as "They wail for balance in a world of broken scales". Just superb stuff.

The same scene also demonstrates the full majesty of Downey's ability with a pencil. Carried in an evocative black and white, his precise linework and impressively detailed background evoke the status that Murat has on board the ship as he writes in his journal, whilst smaller panels on the right hand side serve to focus us as readers on the intensity of the character's contemplative mood. It's only a matter of time before Marvel or DC come knocking on Downey's door. There are some quite violent scenes in Noe, but never gratuitously so, rather, necessarily as this was a time when violence was it's own language and it's a language Noe must become fluent in if he is to have any hope of saving himself, or what remains of his family. Steeped in history, yet beautifully original, Noe The Savage Boy demonstrates that very often the gold in the comic book industry is to be found off the beaten track.

Patrick McAleer lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland with his John Carpenter DVD collection and his long boxes of silver age Marvel and noir comics. He loves Gambit and thinks you should too. Catch him on Twitter @RepStones

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