CANMORE – Devastating climate change and uncovering historical artifacts and lost knowledge in a dystopian future where the population is at each other’s throats were key elements Bill Slavin wanted in a quest story he began piecing together in 2007.
He never intended Secrets of Jarrow to be a preachy cautionary tale when writing the futuristic tale. As time has passed though, the multi-award winning author and illustrator can’t help but be amused at how times haven’t changed much.
“Strangely enough, it’s still 13 years later when I came back to it. It was relevant as when I had started in the first place. Nothing much has changed, it just got worse,” Slavin said with a laugh.
Not to be cynical though, the Canadian storyteller is fairly confident in the survival of humankind. Slavin’s just a bit pessimistic about humankind in general, which, in his story, the problems of the imaginary world trace back to past ignorance.
“Humans have always been expecting the end of the world in one way or another, you know, for a really, really long time,” said Slavin. “That may just reflect human condition and we just have to change our ways of thinking almost, you know, that we can’t just create stuff and then react to it afterwards. We’re gonna have to come up with better ways.”
There’s much more meat on the bone to Slavin’s story than surviving the collapse of civilization though.
Set in the not-so-distant imaginary future, Secrets of Jarrow follows Mordecai Crow, a young drifter trying to find family roots. While Mordecai searches for himself through the civil war-torn world, the protagonist is accused of murder and must clear his name.
To capture the story’s emotional scope, tonal colouring was heavily added in the illustrations such as blues and greens. Slavin’s artistry is polished and the illustrations do the heavy lifting of storytelling.
Bringing the murder mystery to life on the pages is Canmore’s Renegade Arts Entertainment, which is making Mordecai Crow’s story arch into a trilogy. Parts two and three of the series will be out over the next two years.
“As a reader, you’re going through with Mordecai Crow trying to guess yourselves who did it,” said Alexander Finbow, publisher at Renegade Arts Entertainment.
From Belleville, Ont., it’s Slavin’s first time working with the local family-run publishing company, but his futuristic story with call-backs to medieval times immediately caught the eye of the Renegade Arts staff.
“A lot of stories, when you have those kind of [dystopian] settings, they concentrate on that side of the story,” said Finbow. “It’s about the politics. It’s about the leaders. It’s about which side of the faction is right, in the author’s opinion. But what Bill’s done is created a mystery, like a thriller, about a young man searching for his long lost family. [Mordecai is] having to travel through this world trying to find clues as to what could have happened to his parents and where they are now, or any of the siblings that are alive and what's going on.”
A talented author and illustrator, Slavin has published more than 100 children’s books. However, Slavin has been reinventing himself as a graphic novelist over the past few years. With the Mordecai Crow trilogy, Slavin is mostly stepping away from the children’s aspect in his thriller for all ages.
“I wrote the sort of story that I want to read and that I enjoy,” said Slavin. “So I just hope it finds its audience and the people that find it and enjoy it.”
Secrets of Jarrow is available online and at Café Books in Canmore. The graphic novel can also be found at the Canmore Public Library, along with other Renegade Art books.
