Customer Reviews

Lost at Sea

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I came to Bryan Lee O'Malley's Lost at Sea after reading his two other books (Volumes One & Two of the Scott Pilgrim series) and thus, am of two minds about Lost at Sea. This is a very different book in both tone and humour than Scott Pilgrim. It's more somber, the art and feel are less stylized, the main character is prone to multiple page internal monologues about her feelings. In light of the Scott Pilgrim series it is easy to see that Lost at Sea came first. It is obviously an early work.
This does not make it bad.
Lost at Sea is about a girl (Raleigh) whose soul may or may not have been stolen by a cat, going home to her mother with friends that she doesn't even know. It is a story about self-discovery, about finding both yourself and the rest of the world all at the same time. At times heartbreakingly earnest, at times lightly comic it is a 160 page exercise in raw emotion. It would be wrong to dismiss Lost at Sea as cliched, to look at it's basic premise (girl finds herself and her friends on road trip home) and make assumptions about what it has to say and, more importantly, how it says it. O'Malley is an excellent writer, and he handles the obvious moments in Lost at Sea without a wink or nudge, he doesn't make these characters a joke to the reader, he honestly portrays their feelings in the way that they feel them. And that is the best part about Lost at Sea, when you're 18 and lost you think you're the only one and O'Malley write Raleigh as though she is.

I maintain that Bryan O'Malley is one of the few artists actually doing something different that stands on its own merit, and doesn't try to emulate anything else that's being done right now. His art is a refreshing change of pace, and his matter-of-fact storytelling succeeds in capturing the thought processes we all have and puts them on paper. Bryan doesn't mess around. Every panel in Lost at Sea is there for a purpose, and every panel has something to say. There are no computer-colored splash pages or implied action panels, just a wonderful story backed up with a wonderful artistic style. You owe it to yourself to read this book. If you've just been a casual reader of comics until now, this might change the way you look at comic books entirely.

What really impressed me about Lost at Sea was the effortless way in which Mal blends the angst of his narrator, Raleigh, with the sardonic humour of her companions. The book is by turns hilarious, sinister, melancholy and surreal. There is a wisdom in Raleigh's comments -especially at the end- which transcends the bland self-pity that so many other introspective characters fob off as insight.

Raleigh's friends provide the perfect balance to her introspection, their meaningless arguments and amiable bickering is a constant backdrop, an intensely entertaining soundtrack to Raleigh's car journey of self-discovery. The art is perfect: strangely realistic despite its cartoony style, and unexpected details such as the health warning on the cigarette packet had me laughing out loud.

Mal has produced a compelling story, and its imagery and characters are subtle and charming enough to stick with you a long time after their crummy old car has puttered away into the night. Highly recommended.

i first learned of "Lost at Sea" (and Bryan Lee O'Malley) by reading the Lost At Sea comic strips on the Oni Press webpage. after reading all of the web strips, i started visiting Mal's webpage and became an avid fan. thus, i had been waiting for this book to come out for close to two years.
its rare that i say something like this, but it was worth the wait.
i have read a LOT of graphic novels in the past few years, and the only one that moved me more than Lost at Sea was Craig Thompson's "Blankets." (Mr. Thompson, coincidentally, wrote the shining review on the back cover of Lost at Sea)
this book is both playful and mystifying. heartwarming and achingly sad. adorable and thought provoking.
the story really hit close to home for me as it reminded me very much of the relationship with my last girlfriend and many of the conversations we shared. Mal has obviously had his share of beautiful moments in relationships, because no one could write such honest and well-developed dialogue and soliloquy on these topics without having been put through it themselves.
of course, the story and the script isn't the only beauty of this graphic novel. Mal's art is superb. i don't think anyone else with any other style could have ever illustrated this story as effectively.
Mal's cartoony drawing style portrays an innocence and magical quality that is not only adequate for the themes explored, but is absolutely enchanting. the thick lines and heavy spaces reinforce the serious, unsteady nature of the lead character, raleigh. her struggle and insecurities are exemplified by mal's broad strokes and dynamic illustrations.

as i said, the book is thoroughly engaging and heart-touching.
it may only be a half-hour read. but it is one i intend to read at least once a month until august. probably longer.

thank you, Mal, for finally putting this together. now make another, please.

Four college age kids are driving back home for the holidays. Three of them are good friends while the fourth, the girl and main character of the story Raleigh, is a casual acquaintance. It becomes clear from her silence that Raleigh is a troubled girl and as the journey goes on they begin to discover that Raleigh's silence is due to a broken heart from a recently ended relationship.

This is the first book I've read of Bryan Lee O'Malley and I'll say it's not bad. While the drawings are alright at best (manga heavy with few individual touches to distinguish it from other manga art), the story is at times compelling and other times cliche. The overall story of Raleigh and her internal monologue is ok, but her surreal search for a soul lends the story itself an element of intrigue.

However if you look at the rest of the book you see how cliche the rest of it is. Teen sarcasm spots the script like acne, while overly precious emo moments like waking up in the middle of the night and saying "we've got to look for my soul - I think it's in a cat" make for cringe-worthy moments. Imagine if someone did that to you - I think I'd tell them to shut up and go back to sleep. Of course that wouldn't lend itself well to the story so the four wake up and wander the town in the middle of the night trying to catch cats. Ergh.

It's these moments of unbelievably twee actions that let down the book. That and the fact that the story is centred around a broken heart. Remember that sketch from "Family Guy" where they satirise teen dramas? "Nothing in your life will ever be more important than what's going on right here, right now, by this locker!" - "High school is such a serious thing... these problems matter!". It's like that. You want to tell Raleigh that hey a broken heart sucks and first love is both euphoric and shattering but you get over it. Overall it's not that important and sooner rather than later you'll look back and wonder what the hell it was all about.

"Lost at Sea" is an alright book that feels at times too much like a cartoon version of "Dawson's Creek". Two of the four characters never become more than cyphers while the remaining two have their moments but ultimately feel shallow and their actions contrived. Not a terrible book but not good enough to make me want to read more from O'Malley.

It all started when I saw the Scott Pilgrim movie. Once i saw this movie i imediatly fell in love with O'Malley's work. Then I heard about Lost at Sea and i thought ok this seems like a nice book so ordered it off of good old amazon got it today read it and instantly fell in love with it. I was already laughing reading this book its humorous,sweet,and a fun read yea its not scott pilgrim but who cares this is amazing the art is very simple yet nice to look at. You wont be dissapointed reading this.

"Lost At Sea" is easily the best work from the "coming-of-age" genre that I have ever read. The story follows eighteen year old Raleigh as she embarks on a road trip from California to her hometown in Vancouver. During this time, she laments over her past with memories of her new boyfriend, Stillman, her former best friend, her parents, and the notion that she has no soul, which she thinks was sold to the Devil by her mother when she was 14 (she also believes that her soul was implanted into a cat). The novel explores the the "clumsiness, isolation, and aimlessness of adolescence" (as described by Craig Thompson, creator of "Blankets"), captured in Bryan O'Malley's amazing dialogue and fantastic artwork. The story is very beautiful and expressive with sort of an "avant-garde" feel, compiled with an "almost anime" style of artwork that perfectly fits it's "coming-of-age" genre. Overall, a perfect score of ten out of ten!

If you've read Scott Pilgrim, I recommend that you leave all of your preconceived notions about O'Malley at the door before you read this book. Other than the artwork, this book is nothing like that series. If you're expecting some cutesy book, you're in the wrong place.

Lost at Sea follows the character of Raleigh, an overly timid young teen who is completely at a loss as to who she is. She claims to have no soul, a result of certain actions occurring in her youth. Raleigh finds herself on a car trip with three of her classmates at her school, unsure as to how to interact with them. But as the miles pass by, Raleigh will find herself opening up to her fellow passengers about herself, her doubts & her life.

I really loved this book. I'll admit, it was a bit slow to get into, but it really was a fantastic read. The artwork is all wonderful, which is something I've come to expect from O'Malley throughout the years. I loved how some of the most serious issues in the book- most notably the one major reason why Raleigh is the way she is- are all done subtly. It's up to the reader as to whether or not they pick up on the smaller details. If you aren't careful, you'll miss an entire element of the book that'll take the story to a whole new level.

I would honestly recommend this to anyone who loves a good indie comic. Again, I'll warn the Scott Pilgrim fans that this is a very serious book, so if you are looking for laughs & cute stuff, you may want to pass this one by. I hope you give it a real chance, as this truly is a book worth reading & sharing with your friends. One thing I'll add to this review is that if you like his work, you should also check out his work in the Hopeless-Savages series.

I bought this book at Comic Con and read the first little bit in my hotel room. Once I saw a lot of scene taking place in a car traveling long distances, I decided to save it for the ride home, but anyway I started off by getting sidetracked!

In short, Raleigh is someone I know very closely. Her moments of social anxiety, confusion, and romantic dealings with a boy who lives far away and whom she met on the internet all remind me of a certain somebody I know very well. With that said, I have to say that Bryan Lee O'Malley perfectly captures what that kind of girl is. How she acts, talks, and presents herself to her friends feels so very authentic. I would say that you ignore the 1-star review that states this book misrepresents teenage girls. It's not that it misrepresents them. It's just that it choose to represent two (of many) kinds of girls, but more specifically that awkward, anxious, confused 18 year old. Shamelessly lifting from the back cover of the book, I'd have to say that this short statement sums up why I recommend this book to my friends: "If you've ever been 18 or confused, perhaps you should read this book."

For every yin, there is a yang. For every left, a right. For every Sonny, a Cher. And for every Scott Pilgrim, there is a Raleigh. Whereas Bryan Lee O'Malley's Proustian epic 'Scott Pilgrim' features a protagonist who dives headfirst into every situation with all the overblown confidence of youth, Raleigh (the main character in 'Lost at Sea') suffers silently, waylaid by her own doubts and insecurities. O'Malley's penchant for taking a straightforward narrative idea - in this case, the good old-fashioned road trip story - and subverting it to a point of almost unrecognisability is clearly evident in this, the author's first graphic novel. The road trip itself fades into the background, as Raleigh struggles with her inability to communicate with her travelling companions. Their trip is punctuated not by tourist destinations but by the visions of cats which follow Raleigh on her journey. Raleigh's mother sold her daughter's soul to these cats in exchange for her mother's personal success, so these cats become, by extension, responsible for the young girl's failure - her failure to connect. Through an internal monologue spoken to an unknown 'you', the wide-eyed Raleigh addresses - albeit obliquely - the sorrow of puberty, the yearning for acceptance, the fear of derision.

It's a brilliant book, full of genuine understanding and pathos and told with an artist's eye for detail. And hey, it's got cute cartoon cats in it - what could be better than that?