There are a lot of comics out there, but some just stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we’ll take a relatively spoiler-free look at a limited series you might have lost track of over the last two years, “Shipwreck” from Aftershock Comics.
Who is this by?
“Shipwreck” is written by Warren Ellis, the mastermind behind “Transmetropolitan,” “Planetary,” and “Global Frequency.” The prolific comic industry veteran has also penned two novels (2013’s Gun Machine landed on the The New York Times Bestseller List) and written for his fair share of superhero titles. His short-lived run on “Moon Knight” is a personal favorite. Phil Hester provides the artwork for the series along with ink and color assists from Eric Gapstur and Mark Englert respectively. Hester is another veteran with over twenty years of steady work in the comic book business, but his work on “Swamp Thing” with Mark Millar in the mid-90s really put him on the map. You could see his trademark style develop during his two-and-a-half year run on the title.
What’s it all about?
“Shipwreck” is the story of a scientist who finds himself on a rocky shore on an alien (but not too alien) world after his interplanetary vessel explodes and flings him into the ocean. The scientist, the aptly-named Dr. Jonathan Shipwright, is on the trail of the saboteur who caused the crash, but he’s forced to navigate a strange landscape to reach his destination, the location of his adversary and the site of his potential rescue. Shipwright also has some pretty nifty tech of his own design implanted into his body that allows him to teleport over short distances, Nightcrawler-style but without the BAMF!
What makes it so great?
This word gets thrown around a lot (and sometimes by me) but “Shipwreck” begins with some seriously Lynchian set pieces, and they are glorious. Once the story settles into fairly straightforward storytelling late in the series it’s a little bit of a letdown after the gonzo promise of the earlier issues. It’s difficult to fault Ellis for pulling back the reins to give what could have been a very obtuse conclusion to the series, but for as much as I adored 5/6ths of this series, the final issue felt perhaps a bit too conventional, as if Ellis was just ready to end it or perhaps had taken the concept, an odd notion during a long flight, as far as he could.
If sticking the landing isn’t your thing, and let’s be honest, it’s a very difficult thing to do in comics even for a pro like Ellis, readers will be rewarded with an endlessly inventive book that plays out in perfect simpatico with Hester’s dreamy artwork. Everything seems to swirl in a kind of golden mean-inspired surrealism. Hester’s figures have an organic geometry that plays off the swooping and desolate landscape, and there’s a gruesome beauty in the book’s mutilated cadavers. Oh yes, there’s a few of those. It turns out they have different ideas about last rites and the funereal practices in this place.
After an extended wordless opening, “Shipwreck” morphs into a meaty read that finds Shipwright encountering strange people who seem to know more about him than they should. At times it feels like a more dreadful alien version of Richard Linklater’s “Slacker” with each person Shipwright meets having something to impart about him and some strange corner of arcana, but the overall effect is both interesting and more than a little creepy for the protagonist and for readers.
Shipwright is a fantastically designed character as well with his tattered trench coat, unfurling bandages, and elongated features, and his burned left hand is almost a talisman, like a futuristic albatross constantly reminding him of his failures of hubris. By the end of this classic man-out-of-place series with a twist, readers will likely find their level of enjoyment equal to how well they relate to Shipwright, a brilliant man who learns to accept something about himself by the end of the series that leads to an inevitable and tidy conclusion. You may wish it ended as weirdly as it started, but it’s hard to complain about the simplicity with which Ellis wraps everything up. It was a wild strange trip, but it’s time to go home.
How can you read it?
The final issue of this limited series is out this week, nearly two years after issue one hit stands in October 2016. If you let the first five issues pile up like I did, it’s a good time to pull them out of the longbox. The trade paperback was recently solicited for a July 18 release, and the series is also available on Comixology.
