Writer: Christofer Emgård / Penciller: Tomas Aira / Letterer: Mauro Mantella / Collects: The Secret Land #1 - #4 / Dark Horse Comics
30th May 2022 (Released 16th March 2022)
The Pitch: Two lovers torn asunder by World War II face a terror from beyond the stars in this cosmic horror. The war is over, Katherine is dead, and Ben is trying to move on. But then the Navy receives a message from her. At a base in Antarctica, the Third Reich is plotting its return, powered by strange and foreboding technology. Katherine is there, and Ben is coming to get her.
“Aishiteru.”
It's a Japanese word, meaning 'I love you'. You'll hear it a lot in The Secret Land. There's another Japanese saying that applies to this story: “Meeting is the first step to separation”. I found myself thinking about that a lot while reading this story. Although ostensibly a WWII horror/thriller, there is another vein running through the book that is perhaps more important to the thematics: the lost love created as war tears people apart. Ultimately, it's vital to the mood of the book, perhaps even more so than the creeping dread the horror elements create. And it's desperately vital to the bittersweet nature of the ending. No, don't worry. I'm not going to give it away here. But when you get to it, you'll realise there was no other way things could have gone. The Secret Land is a fatalistic book, full of doom.
SECRET LAND MIXES ELEMENTS OF ENNIS’ ‘OSS DARING-DO’ AND MIGNOLA’S LOVECRAFTIAN CREEPINESS
That's not to say it isn't good, or enjoyable. There are a lot of great things in the book, things that will be familiar to readers of Garth Ennis war books and Hellboy. Secret Land mixes elements of those, such as Ennis' OSS daring-do and Mignola's Lovecraftian creepiness. But the overriding, pervading mood is one of world-ending, doom-tolling resonant bells. “The end is nigh! The end is nigh!” I'm jesting a little, but it does feel very European. It's interested in the emotion behind the violence, even if that violence is the mass-scale industrial horrors wrought by the Nazis. A tough read, but rewarding if you can stand it. Emgård and Aira don't shy away from the evil that men do. They show the flippant cruelty of the SS, comparing it to the perhaps even more monstrous cruelty that prepares to come through the interdimensional gates the Nazis have opened. There's a sense that we're being given a lesson and that lesson is that Hitler was just the tip of the iceberg and what he had awakened in some facets of German society was far worse than anyone could have imagined. I think it's safe to make the leap that Ben and Katherine, the lovers torn asunder in the book's early pages, could represent the loss of innocence that Europe experienced once the full extent of Hitler's plans were known. This is set after his death but like the unseen forces that guide the violence in the book, you feel his spectre lurking there, in wait. This is a dark book and one shouldn't tread lightly into it.
THERE’S A FEELING OF SOMETHING WAITING FOR YOU, OUT THERE IN THE DEPTHS
The book has the feel of European albums, interested as it is in the philosophies of violence, love and darkness. There is plotting, of course. But there is also the feeling that the plot could be dropped at any moment for a stroll through some of the wider ideas. But that's not a bad thing. It gives the story an unusual feel, like being on a ship at sea, knowing that there's something out there in the depths waiting for you yet never quite being able to put your finger on it. Does this make it directionless? Far from it. But it does make the book seem more leisurely, even for a four-issue series. The frozen tundra of the book's setting becomes a plateau of violence and satisfyingly so. The Secret Land that is the story's setting could also be a metaphor for the chasm between Ben and Katherine. The unknowable space of emotion and distance.
Emgård keeps everything under control, within the confines of the destination you feel you're going to. The scope of the story actually opens out towards the end, rather than narrowing. There's a bittersweetness to the ending, a tragedy, though not the one you might be expecting or the one you may feel the book is preparing you for. Emgård gets the emotion of lost love and that the real horror of war is the divides it creates. Aira's pencils are nice, recalling Klaus Janson or Denys Cowan's energetic, fine lines. Mantella's letters are clean and tight. The Secret Land is a book that seemingly comes out of nowhere, like the evil that waits in the Nazi's base. But, as the book proves, love also waits. So take a look inside and see which one wins you over.
The Secret Land is available at your local comic shop now.