Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Set to Sea by Drew Weing YP FIC WEING

Arrrr it’s a sailing life for our hero, just not by choice. He is just a gentle giant of a poet who fell asleep on shore looking for inspiration about his book of sea poems, when a sailing crew forces him to be a part of their crew. At sea he faces pirates, storms, and all measures of danger and along the way finds a new kind of poetry in this rollicking and original graphic novel adventure.

Drew Weing has done a load of work on webcomics (a great place for free indie comics!) and single story work, but this is his first bona fide graphic novel. I already can’t wait for what’s next. His style looks like a mix between old Popeye comics (read at 741.5973 SEGAR) and Jeff Smith’s Bone (YP FIC SMITH), but feels like something all its own. Each panel is a full page, but it is a small size book, so the panels aren’t that much larger than they would be in a normal sized graphic novel. It still makes for a huge visual impact to only have one picture per page. The story is pretty simple, there is very little dialog, we don’t get to see character’s thoughts so that leaves only the images to tell the story. That’s a bold feat for an artist and Weing really pulls it off. So if you want a truly fun fast read about the sailing life and like indie comics, then Set to Sea is a sure bet.

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