Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Who knew that the big galoot who can't pay his tab and gets kicked out of a tavern is a poet at heart, gazing longingly into library windows on dark, abandoned streets? Certainly not the scurvy seadogs who kidnap him and send him to sea as a replacement for their lost crew, where he learns that the waters are possessed of a much different poetry than he ever suspected. With elegant simplicity, this comic-book fable unfurls the tale of a life cast on an unexpected course and the melancholy wisdom accrued upon the waves. First-time graphic-novelist Weing has produced a beautiful gem here, with minimal dialogue, one jolting battle scene, and each small page owned by a single panel filled with art whose figures have a comfortable roundness dredged up from the cartoon landscapes of our childhood unconscious, even as the intensely crosshatched shadings suggest the darkness that sometimes traces the edges of our lives. A loving and very sophisticated homage to E. C. Segar's Popeye, it would make a fine tonal companion for Scott Morse's Southpaw (2003) or S. A. Harkham's Poor Sailor (2005). Weing's debut is playful, atmospheric, dark, wistful, and wise.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
After a career turning out much-admired Web comics and small self-published work, Weing produces a classic tale of the sea and self-discovery in his graphic novel debut. The unnamed hero is a poet who writes overblown verse about the wonders of sea life, while trying to pay his bar bill with promises of book dedications. That attitude quickly changes when he's shanghaied aboard a clipper bound for Hong Kong. At first a lumbering victim, the poet is pushed to the limit in a battle with pirates and discovers the strength and courage he never knew through violence. Presented almost like a Big Little Book for grownups, with one lovely panel per page in a small volume, the hero's journey in this tale isn't particularly unpredictable, but Weing's mastery of both small details (the hero's waxing and waning love affair with language) and sweeping vistas (from the glaciers to a steaming port city) gives it richness and emotion. After a lifetime of adventure, the doggerel poet learns that experience and suffering are the best motivators for real art, leaving open the question of whether art is worth the suffering. Weing's E.C. Segar-influenced drawings elevates what could have been an oft-told story into a powerful fable. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
