… unbound set free in limbo lost at sea.

May 25, 2009 by Joshua    1 Comment     Posted under: book feature, books

Whenever I hear friends and close associates get into conversations regarding The Watchmen and comparing the movie to the graphic novels, I make sure to slip in a comment to see if anyone has heard of Bryan Lee O’Malley‘s Scott Pilgrim, an unfinished graphic novel series that is being adapted to film. Unfortunately, in most cases, I get confused looks and shaking heads. Seems very few people are familiar with O’Malley, let alone his work. Sure, Scott Pilgrim isn’t necessarily in the same genre as Rorschach, but both franchises certainly have their entertainment value.

Anyway, after reading the latest installment of Scott Pilgrim, I felt like I couldn’t wait another year or so for the next installment to come out. So, in an attempt to sate my hunger for O’Malley’s quirky storytelling and cartoonish drawings of semi-fantastical yet down-to-earth situations, I picked up a book he wrote before the series in 2003, Lost At Sea.

Image courtesy of coverbrowser.com.

Title: Lost At Sea

Author: Bryan Lee O’Malley

Genre: Drama, Comedy, Teen

Raleigh has no soul.

At least, that’s the conclusion that the main character of O’Malley’s Lost At Sea has come to. Raleigh is stranded in life, out of place, and she knows that there was a time when she did not feel this way.

She has every characteristic of the typical lost teenager type. She’s quiet, shy, slow to warm to others, not confident in herself, introspective, and depressed. Her thoughts become jumbled in run-on sentences and vague statements, coming to no conclusions and further pushing her into mental isolation.

But Raleigh is not alone. Due to a random turn of events, she has found herself on a road trip from California to her home in Canada with three schoolmates she never talked to before. Yet despite being in a car with them for a long period of time, she feels cramped, uncomfortable, alone, disconnected.

All of this is, of course, heavily treaded ground. In this bildungsroman, this story of self-reflection and realization, Raleigh fits a well-worn mold. She has an affinity with Salinger’s Holden Caulfield or Chbosky’s Charlie. At a quick glance, the plot may seem tired and thoroughly overdone. That would be true, if this weren’t a story by O’Malley.

The characters are quirky but believable. Steph has the look of a punk girl and an attitude to match – outspoken, blunt, easygoing. At the same time, though, she is close to her friends and capable of maturity. Ian, the driver, is rash and confident, paying little heed to where they’re going and doing his best to make the most of the trip. Dave is the quiet sort, laid back and putting on an air of cool, though he often comes off as easily disgruntled. It is easy to imagine that these characters served as early prototypes for some of the ones found in Scott Pilgrim, slightly less developed given the shorter length of the story.

The art style is patently O’Malley. Everything is hand-drawn, clear yet not crisp. Bodies are appropriately angled and faces are a bit cartoonish, slightly in the style of anime with their round eyes and simplified expressions of shock. Despite the cartoony appearances, however, the content is clearly mature. The language occasionally verges on coarse, and the issues are deeply rooted in the hearts of the characters. At the same time, the interactions and behaviors of the four teenagers is genuine – the dialogue isn’t trying too hard, and pop-culture references and teenage witticisms are easily worked in with little discontinuity.

Now, about the plot and how it sets itself apart from the rest. As previously established, Raleigh is the introspective sort. Over the course of the graphic novel, she reveals bit by bit how she came to be the way she is. Initially, she explains that after her parents divorced and her best friend moved in the eighth grade, she has felt like she has no soul, like all joy and meaningfulness in her life has left forever. Over time, she elaborates on the events preceding the road trip, how she traveled to California to meet a boy, how he made her feel whole and confident, and how her departure from him left her an emotional wreck that was haphazardly picked up by this crew of carefree teens.

Later, after a few bizarre occurrences, her over-analyzing mind leads her to believe there is more to the story than she previously believed. Someone took her soul and sold it, along with her sisters, and the answer is somewhere in this unidentified town on the road between California and Canada or some close tangent. As Raleigh’s sense of reason strays further from reality on account of deep emotional stress and an oncoming breakdown, she leaps to even more bizarre conclusions. Her stretches of imagination lead to some hilarious and altogether unreal scenes in which the four of them are searching around the town in the middle of the night, trying to find the cat that has her soul.

But I digress. This is a story of self-realization, and as such, it contains some clear themes and morals for the lost teenager in all of us (especially those of us who are, um, lost teenagers). Most importantly, it says that everyone is a little messed up inside, nobody has all the answers, and nobody is alone unless they want to be. After the climactic cat-chasing scene, Raleigh comes upon a number of truths in life. She has developed over the course of the trip. She has come to conclusions – and found that some questions just can’t be answered.

So how good is this book, and who should read it? If I had known about it around the time it came out, when I was still in high school, I think I would have fallen in love with it for sure. Lost At Sea hits on issues that befuddle so many teens – issues that, later in life, may seem silly or inconsequential. It is a story about fitting in, told from the perspective of a girl who is at a major crossroads in her life. It may appeal to anyone who can empathize with such circumstances, or anyone who is absolutely in love with O’Malley’s art and/or storytelling ability.

Given that Lost At Sea is a graphic novel and not a music album, I can’t provide a nifty YouTube video as a demonstration of its artistic value. What I can do, however, is link to some free short comics O’Malley made that are not part of the work but do involve its characters.

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