Comic Shots #27 with Ryan Haupt: Birra Forst Sixtus and ‘The Amazon’

Each week, the iFanboy “Comic Shots” staff passes along a tasty drink recipe and an even tastier comic book recommendation. The cocktail and the comic can both be enjoyed independently, but they have a common theme and when served together they can make for the perfect reading experience.

This week’s comic shots came about when I went to the liquor store late in the evening and just made my own six-pack out of funky beers I’d never really noticed before. These beers have yielded a surprising number of upcoming comic shots, but I’ve decided to begin with a Sixtus by Birra Forst. The brewery is Italian, and the name literally means “Forest Beer” which made the pairing a breeze. But before we get too far into the book let’s make sure to take a moment to ponder the beer itself.

Sixtus is a doppelbock, a doubled up version of a traditional bock, which is a traditional and highly versatile German style of beer. Usually on the sweeter side, mildly hopped, with higher than average alcohol content. Yet Sixtus, as a doppelbock, is actually on the light side. Kind of bright, low-ish ABV for the style, and imminently drinkable. It’s the kind of beer I’d poor on a hot and rainy afternoon, which is exactly the kind of setting one might expect to find in a tropical forest.

Which also happens to be the setting of The Amazon, written by Steve T. Seagle with art by Tim Sale. The series was originally published in 1988 but has since be recolored and reprinted in a nice hardcover by Dark Horse Comics. Much like The Pride of Baghdad, this is the kind of book you wish was more of a lens into history than a lesson for the modern world. The story follows the journey of a reporter, Malcolm Hillard, who’s looking into the disappearance of an American logger, and the subsequent reports of the return of the spirit of the Amazon to fight against continued logging. It doesn’t take a genius to put the pieces of the puzzle together, but that’s hardly the point of the narrative.

Malcolm is the ultimate unreliable narrator. The caption boxes alternate between his actual journal notes while in country and his eventual published piece to the masses. His abject horror at the ecological havok being wrought is artfully concealed behind efficient euphemistic prose. Although I suppose the credit for this technique should be given to Steven T. Seagle, whom I’ve always appreciated as a thoughtful and delicate scripter, never lacking in thought-provoking stories, but always giving the artist room to shine. Which brings me to Tim Sale, whose art I unabashedly adore. This book serves as an excellent peak into the progress of an artist I admire. These pages predate his breakthrough work at DC, Challengers of the Unknown Must Die!, and while this book represents a far cry from his eventual style, you can still see the pieces starting to come together, especially when juxtaposed against updated covers in his new, more painterly mode.

I personally never found the story preachy, but then again for me it was already preaching to the choir. There are no black and white characters. The loggers are not evil imperialists determined to pillage the rainforest for all it’s worth, nor is the missing American become tropical Swamp Thing a lily-white avenger. This balance maintains the reality of the story, and thus drives home the true impact of the destruction continuing in the actual Amazon to this day. But the greatest irony is just how upset the loggers are that their resources are being stolen and their tools damaged, yet they never stop to think about how that mirrors their own relationship with the forest. It’s like The Giving Tree if that was even more of a tragedy than I always considered it to be. At least that particular tree sacrificed itself willingly.

This book is an excellent showcase of two creators in their early days. The Amazon is a bio-conservation fable attempting to teach a lesson of stewardship, and though that may be a heavy subject to ponder over a beer, sometime those are the moments you need a Forst most. So grab a copy, get comfy, and pour one out for the trees.

Ryan Haupt met his girlfriend in the jungle, so there’s yet another reason not to cut it all done. Hear him reason his way through academic topics with drink in hand on the podcast Science… sort of.