Shipwreck

Doctor Jonathan Shipwright has just survived a shipwreck.  Nevermind the fact that when we first meet him he’s staring up at some birds from his back on a dusty road.  We learn about his situation when he has a conversation at a broken-down diner with a yellow-coated inspector who gives the impression that he knows more than he’s letting on.  Said inspector is also completely indifferent to all of the spiders crawling around the booth where he’s sitting. Dr. Shipwright eventually has enough of the inspector’s questions and teleports into the kitchen only to find himself face to face with a rather talkative woman who’s cooking up what’s left of her boyfriend.

If that sounds too crazy and/or weird to you, then it might be of some comfort to know that the story manages to work its way towards a certain kind of sense by the time it’s all over.  I’m glad that it did because it’d be really be hard to recommend this comic on any level it it remained inscrutably weird for its entire length. What it becomes, however, is the kind of series that I think would’ve been better appreciated back in the 90’s when the weirdness would’ve stood out more and the idea behind the shipwreck of the title might’ve captivated on its own.

I say that and the fact that this comes from Warren Ellis does make it slightly more disappointing for that reason.  Ellis’ works from that era really stood out for their big and crazy ideas because no one else was telling stories like that.  “Shipwreck’s” brand of “inscrutably weird” is a lot more common these days and has been done better elsewhere. This story does have the stylishly angular artwork of Phil Hester who does his damndest to give the book a dreamlike feel where the creeping dread gives way to moments of visceral horror every so often.  It’s not enough to get me to fully recommend this story which has washed up on our shores two decades removed from when it would’ve been best appreciated..