Abarat - Who is Christopher Carrion?

Who is Christopher Carrion?

Clive Barker’s Abarat books have given one of the strongest links between images and words. September 27^th 2011 will see the publication of Abarat; Absolute Midnight, book three in the series and the book that will change everything for both the reader and the Abarat.

Looking back at Clive Barker’s Abarat and all the drawings and paintings you can see characters grow and change through time. Although Candy Quackenbush is the character who’s story we are following, many of Barker’s legion of admirer’s have gravitated towards the more complex character of Christopher Carrion.

Like all the great Monsters, there is so much more to Christopher Carrion. He has suffered at the hands of his grandmother Mater Motley and has to follow her every demand of face her wrath. Carrion shows signs of a heart and signs that love is the key to everything.

Below is the earliest version of Christopher Carrion, entitled ‘The Collar’ it clearly shows Barker working on his Monster, even before the Monster came to life on the page. You feel a sadness looking at the work, you feel that he is hiding behind his collar and you feel empathy for his disfigurement even though you cannot see it. The eyes carry a sadness that gives 'The Collar' a real sense of character. Looking at it now the painting is like a sketch for the more complex signature painting that Barker would create for his Abarat books.

Clive Barker in two paintings then depicts Christopher Carrion. The first painting is the classical image from Abarat 1. This is a image that is full of character and identity, you can see his relationship with ‘The Collar’ but he is much more regal and powerful. One of the other main differences is the fact that Barker paints ‘The Collar’ as a 24 x 24 inch piece and ‘Christopher Carrion’ is 48 x 60 inches.

Clive Barker’s depiction of one of his central characters ‘Christopher Carrion’ has become one of the key artist works of his varied and expressive artistic life. It is an image that belongs on the wall of one of the great art galleries of the world.

‘Young Christopher Carrion’ has yet to be seen in the Abarat books although it was most likely painted before his older self. It was shown in Visions of Heaven and Hell and it can be seen that Carrion’s back-story is told in this painting. Your can see his mouth stitched up by his evil grandmother so giving a degree of sympathy to a young Monster. But as Clive Barker has often shown us, Monsters are often more than just an image of a figure. Monsters and their monstrous actions often lurk in the hearts of men.