Book Review: The Idris File by Dix

When a quiet teen boy and his mother move to a remote seaside town in Wales, they enter a gloomy 1970s world of odd locals, a fiendish plot decades in the making, and supernatural elements. Written and drawn by Welsh native Dix in his solo graphic novel debut, The Idris File immediately establishes a firm sense of the dreary locale, but fumbles character and plot development, leaving character motivations a maddening puzzle until late in the game.

With his mother busy housekeeping for a cranky old man, Idris is left to explore on his own, bringing him in contact with an impetuous teen girl who takes an interest in him. Turns out she’s actually a ghost, tethered to the area due to the sordid details of her demise. And yet that’s not the craziest thing about the area, as Idris eventually stumbles across a Nazi plot involving veteran embedded foreign agents who have been waiting 30 years to raise a concealed submarine off the coast filled with cryogenically frozen soldiers and their leader. So just an average summer holiday in Wales then.

Dix’s artwork is in color, but in such muted, somber tones that it feels like shades of gray. Sorry, grey. His page layouts are nicely varied, while the panels are generally composed in closeups, maximizing detail and avoiding negative space. Character models are somewhat loose and lumpy, giving them something of a claymation appearance, especially with their minimally expressive faces. It’s a distinct, unconventional form of cartooning that I found to be quite charming, even as I struggled to decipher the plot.  

The story is gleaned more by inference than exposition, with loosely established characters having mundane daily interactions as we cast about for plot momentum. When it finally surfaces, the Nazi plan is full of holes, making its bungled, horrific execution ripe for comedy. Even if they succeeded, it’s not clear what one submarine full of troops would hope to accomplish decades after the war, especially in the hinterlands of Wales. Still, it’s definitely a memorable plot device, so fantastical that it far outshines the bland teen angst of the lead character of the book. It may be called The Idris File, but if there’s one thing readers will long remember about the story, it’s not Idris.