Set to Sea [Hardcover]

Drew Weing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 2010

A nautical debut graphic novel from a major talent.

The central character is a big lug and an aspiring poet who runs up tabs at the local bars by day and haunts the docks by night, writing paeans to the sea-faring life. When he gets shanghaied aboard a clipper bound for Hong Kong, he finds the sailor’s life a bit rougher than his romantic nautical fantasies. He helps rebuff a pirate assault, survives a gunshot to the eye, and learns to live—and love—a Conradian life on the sea, all the while writing poetry about pirates, bad food, unceremonial funerals, foreign ports, and unexpected epiphanies. By the end of his life, he’s found satisfaction in living a life of adventure and finding a receptive and appreciative readership. What more could one ask for?

This is Drew Weing’s debut graphic novel, after honing his craft with numerous, lovingly produced self-published comic stories. Drawn in an elaborate crosshatched style that falls somewhere between Gustave Doré engravings and E. C. Segar’s Popeye, Set to Sea is part rollicking adventure, part maritime ballad told in visual rhyme. Every page is a single panel, every panel is a stunning illustration, every illustration a part of a larger whole that tells a story in the deft language of cartooning. 144 pages of black-and-white comics

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*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. Grades 8-12. --Jesse Karp

Review

“At its core, this book is imbued with appropriately romantic notions of what living one’s life truly means. ... Weing is something of a classicist in his artistic approach, from the E. C. Segar influence he clearly wears on his anchored sleeve to his garish use of hatching—but the style suits the subject matter quite well.” (Brian Heater - The Daily Cross Hatch )

“With hints of The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Popeye and Treasure Island, Weing has created a modern classic in the pirate genre.” (School Library Journal )

“Set to Sea is the kind of comic that you give to people you love with a knowing look that says 'read this, you'll thank me later.' The kind of book that is not exclusively reserved for aficionados of the comics art form. The kind of work that, by virtue of its poetry, leaves the reader in an emotional state once he's read the final page, and that simply demands to be flipped through again immediately so that the reader might breathe in this adventure's perfume for a little longer.” (Thierry Lemaire, Actua BD (translated from French) )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics (August 10, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606993682
• ISBN-13: 978-1606993682
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 6.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #840,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The way such books SHOULD be made August 6, 2010

By blistrone

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This beautiful little gem is nothing short of a masterpiece. The packaging, the design, the printing, are all so lavish and well-suited to the work, but let's get to that work.

Ostensibly this is a story of a protagonist who is impressed into service at sea, but what it's really about is a man who has lost his passion (in this case, for writing) and somehow, without knowing it and almost against his will, he regains it. But that's not quite right either. This by turns unfortunate and almost supernaturally blessed soul finds genuine inspiration where he never would have sought it. Only a hack poet before his maritime career, he is finally moved to write, to communicate in a very real way only after he's, well, lived. Not unlike the real life of many an artist.

And still again, there's so much more to it than that. Gorgeously illustrated and sensitively written by the remarkably talented Drew Weing, this book has to be seen to be believed. The art is sweet, yet finely detailed in such a way that it creates a very real-feeling kind of world, and the spare dialogue perfectly complements that overall effect. I read someone else compare it to the Big Little Books of the mid 20th Century, and that's a fair analogy, but my God, I wished those BLB's had been this good.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An exquisite book August 5, 2010

By Edward

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is an exquisite little book, with every page a stand-alone work of art. I read it with the same excitement that I first found with Edward Gorey books years ago in that it's not simply a book as a vehicle for a story, but a book as an artwork in itself (but Set To Sea does not have Gorey's affectation of ghoulishness in the least). Each page is beautifully drawn and apparently meticulously researched for historical accuracy. The story is literally for all ages: for the young, an inspiration to work and experience, and for us oldsters, a message about the dignity and satisfaction of having worked and experienced. It's a book to linger over and to give to friends.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Treasure Found! September 21, 2010

By Mr. Daniel L. Fry

Format:Hardcover

This is a beautiful book... A heartwarming story along with the most lush artwork you could possibly hope for. It's a delight for the eyes.