Darwin’s Diaries: The Eye of the Celts

The concept is off-the-wall great: Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist turned not-so-mild-mannered monster hunter is investigating a series of grisly murders of railroad workers and their horses deep in 1860s Yorkshire woods. So far so good.

He has been hired by the British Prime Minister for the case because of his little-known interest in the Sasquatch, Almas, and other clawed cryptids. Even better.

But somehow the great idea and occasionally terrific artwork doesn’t quite gel. It’s visually too sensationalistic to capture the era (or, at least, my modern reading of the era), yet illustrated in naturalistic tones which suggests that it is to be taken semi-seriously. Still, some of the character expressions are so spot-on, adding subtly to the writing and ‘performances’, that it’s hard for me not to be impressed every other page.

The writing equally misses its mark, despite potential. My problem is that the book posits itself in a difficult middle ground between outrageous entertainment and serious historical drama, thus managing to be neither as exuberant nor literary as it should. Recent publications with somewhat similar content that hit those marks include Jacques Tardi’s Arctic Marauder and the latest Blake & Mortimer adventure, Gondwana Shrine (which may be the best yet of this long-running series).

So while I recommend Darwin’s Diaries to anybody who is either interested in the subject or who likes the artwork, I can’t help but feel it’s a good attempt at something that should have been great. Also, if you liked the film Brotherhood of the Wolf, you might want to give this a shot.

Having said that, Darwin’s Diaries is rated for the 15 and older crowd for its fairly vivid gore. I would have absolutely loved this book when I was 12.