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“Shipwreck” #1

By | October 7th, 2016
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

You awake on a highway. The sun burns down on you, scorching the sand. A flock of night-black birds circle overhead and follow you as you start down the lonely road. This is the story of Dr Jonathan Shipwright, a man shipwrecked in nowhere. This is “Shipwreck” #1, from Warren Ellis and Phil Hester, and this is one strange comic.

Read on for our full review of “Shipwreck” #1! I will warn you, though, there may be mild spoilers below!

Written by Warren Ellis
Illustrated by Phil Hester
Dr Jonathan Shipwright, sole survivor of a very unusual and very secret
shipwreck, doesn’t know where he is. Seemingly trapped on an endless
road, in pursuit of a saboteur who holds the key to his salvation — or
doom. Industry legend WARREN ELLIS joins AfterShock comics with this
mysterious and captivating tale full of shock, secrets and surprises.

If you go into “Shipwreck” #1 expecting a straight-forward and conventional narrative, you’ve picked up the wrong comic. This new first issue from Warren Ellis and Phil Hester, with inks by Eric Gapstur, colours by Mark Englert and letters by Marshall Dillon, is a dreamlike exploration of isolation, desperation and the pursuit of salvation. The issue eschews a traditional narrative in favour of dropping readers into the world of Dr Jonathan Shipwright and his pursuit of answers for what happened to him. If you’ve been reading Warren Ellis’ other recent series like “Injection” or even “Trees”, this style of narrative shouldn’t be too unfamiliar, but this is the issue that takes that to new levels.

“Shipwreck” #1 has two modes. The issue opens and closes without any dialogue, focusing on the artwork to tell the story and establish mood and setting. The middle bulk is made up of two different dialogue scenes in which a different character just talks at Shipwright for a couple of pages in non-sensical sentence fragments. It’s a wave of ideas unbound by logic or sense washed over the main character – and the therefore, the audience – in order to create a surrealist atmosphere. It’s… strange, to say the least. It makes this issue fairly hard to break down because, well, most of it is hard to actually parse through the nonsensical presentation of the dialogue to understand what is actually being said and, most importantly, why.

It’s an interesting conceit for a first issue because, for all the information we’re given about Shipwright and his past, it’s presented in such a way that it’s hard to connect with it emotionally. It’s like if Twin Peaks‘ episode opened with Dale Cooper in the Black Lodge talking to The Man From Another Place. Instead of presenting a facade of normalcy to stripped away, revealing the surrealist underpinnings, Ellis and Hester have dove headfirst into the surrealism. That’s a gutsy move because it’s going to alienate a lot of readers, even those ready to accept the weirdness of the issue, but I can only imagine that Ellis is so well known a writer nowadays that it won’t matter.

While it might be hard to parse through the nonsensical nature of the writing, it’s not difficult to enjoy the artwork presented in “Shipwright” #1. Phil Hester’s linework is stark, rough and somewhat crude. The word is built on harsh lines and rough geometries, squared off and claustrophobic. The layout of the pages capture this also with many of the panels presenting the characters in harsh closeups. It’s hard to get a read on the world around them with little in the way of establishing shots that pull away from the character to show their environment. It’s an element that adds to the claustrophobia of the issue, keeping the reader on edge through. A trick Hester employs to this effect is to frame a panel in silhouette against the shadow of Shipwright’s coat. Hester’s entire art philosophy with this issue seems to be built on isolation and claustrophobia and he nails it to a tee.

That rough, crude geometry is brought out of Hester’s artwork by the inks from Eric Gapstur. The inkwork is thick and heavy, drenching each page in heavy shadows. The contrast is stark and brings a harshness to the pencils by Hester. Shipwright, in particular, becomes a figure defined by a chiaroscuro-like effect where his shadows define his features as much as what is brought to light. I would imagine that speaks to a darkness hidden in his character, but it’s a little to early to really tell. The sensation of isolation in the artwork is rounded out by the colour palette used by Mark Englert. The colours are pastel, washed out and muted compared to the perfect blacks of the inked shadows. Even the use of wild greens and yellows in the diner scene to evoke the stomach-churning uneasiness are muted in the background. The play at the fringes of the page, not drawing attention away from the figures, but acting upon the impressions of the reader to keep them off-kilter.

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Everything about the artwork is set to reinforce the strangeness of the script. While the dialogue may be hard to understand under the layers of obfuscation, the artwork is clear in its intention to keep you from feeling comfortable in this world. The way Hester’s layouts that emphasise closeups and panels that are silhouetted against other panels mix with the harsh black inks of Gapstur and the muted yet off-kilter colour palette creates a sense of unbalance in the reader that is as interesting as it is strange. This is a comic that does not want you to be comfortable. It is a comic that, in a sense, does not want to be enjoyed so much as it wants to be experienced.

Recommending this comic is a difficult task because I’m not entirely sure who’s going to get the most out of it. In all honesty, I’m not even sure if I enjoyed it. I can appreciate the artistry that went into the creation of the issue from the scripting to the artwork to create a first issue that balanced creating an atmosphere as much as giving the reader information, but that information is clouded in so much surrealism that by the time the last page has turned, it’s hard to grasp what just occurred. It’s a first issue that gives no indication of where the series is going to go and that sense of mystery is intriguing when coupled with the atmosphere built by the artwork, but it’s also an issue that leaves something of an emptiness once finished. There’s no spark that makes the wait for a second issue unbearable, but it’s enjoyable enough that when the second issue comes around it might be worth giving it a go.

Final Verdict 7.4 – A strong example of surrealism in comics even if it does eschew convention so much that it’s difficult to connect with emotionally.


Alice W. Castle

Sworn to protect a world that hates and fears her, Alice W. Castle is a trans femme writing about comics. All things considered, it’s going surprisingly well. Ask her about the unproduced Superman films of 1990 - 2006. She can be found on various corners of the internet, but most frequently on Twitter: @alicewcastle

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