(Originally published in Multiversity Comics’ Webcomics Weekly, October 2019)
Admiral
Pages 43-49
Updates: On hiatus since August, updates soon
By Matt Aytch Taylor
Reviewed by Cathal Donovan O’Neill
You’re on the Titanic. You’ve found out it’s going down, you’ve seen it with your own eyes. You know that the unsinkable can’t escape sinking. You know it’s your fault. After all, you built it.
“Admiral” explores the last hours of Thomas Andrews Jr. and the boat he built. It’s a meticulously researched piece of work, but it never loses sight of Thomas’s character. Past and present blend together to create a portrait of a thoroughly decent man in a thoroughly awful position. The most recent updates ratchet up the dread. Andrews wanders the ship, observing the final moments of many of the passengers, helping where he can. As he passes the lifeboats being loaded, he casts his mind back to when Harland & Wolff decided that a meagre 20 lifeboats would be sufficient.
Throughout the comic there’s a feeling of detachment to Thomas. He knows that the boat has become a floating coffin and although he helps where he can, he becomes more removed from the events around him. Although he makes suggestions to crew members, he mostly exists to observe the final moments of ordinary people. Taylor puts a shimmer effect around Thomas near the middle of the comic (as of writing) and, as the boat reaches its end, the shimmer increases. He becomes a ghostlike figure, his aura of white energy disrupting the shadows around him. The inking gets darker throughout the night, but the shimmer becomes a cold glow. We know going in that Andrews will die with the ship, but this effect makes sure we never forget it. It’s like we see him slowly becoming a ghost. As it gets stronger, so does our sense of tension. The horrifying, the inevitable, draws closer to us.
One of the quirks of “Admiral”are the plaque-like captions that introduce characters and dates. At the start of the comic they serve as a stylistic flourish, a way to point out how much research went into the story, but as we reach the end of the Titanic they take on another meaning. Reading Taylor’s historical footnotes to every page isn’t required (although they’re super fun on a reread), but knowing that they’re there gives those plaques a weight. They become more and more frequent, identifying everything from otherwise-nameless strangers to lifeboats. It becomes overwhelming. Everything and everyone has a story, everybody suffered and almost everybody died, and as the plaques pile up we feel the personal scope of the tragedy balloon outwards. We become observant ghosts like Thomas Andrews, walking through a living memorial.
Admiral’s on hiatus at the moment, which means it’s the perfect time to catch up. There’s only fifty pages and it’s a great choice if you’re looking for some historical comics. The story of the Titanic has been told over and over, but this adds more than enough new elements to be worth your time.