‘Hearts at Sea’
Created by Cyril Pedrosa.
60 pages - Full Colour - £3.99 digital on ComiXology - 17+
The Story - ‘Jean-Paul is a shy, slightly gawky young man leading a rather unremarkable life in which his oppressive mother is all too present. As the anniversary of his father's death approaches, he feels increasingly dissatisfied with his life, and increasingly aware of his loneliness. It's time for things to change. So, without telling anyone, he embarks on a singles cruise and takes his first steps in a brave new world.’
The Review - I’m a bit slow to read this one as it came out in September 2016 but I’m both overjoyed that I found it and a bit embarrassed that it took me so long. It’s a story that focuses on people and what they do and who they cling to. It’s a book that is set on a smallish scale but speaks to us universally in the areas of love, longing, loneliness and just the basic day to day functioning of the human condition. It’s also very, very funny.
Jean-Paul is the everyman of this graphic novel and might not even succeed at that badge. He lives in the shadows of others but has his own introverted ideas of what could/would make his life improve. His mother is a tiny bit overbearing and something of a talker much to his silent frustration. He sits alone for chunks of the book. His moments alone however exist in different environments. Sure we get him in his room toying with the aspects of his life but we also get that familiar ‘lonely in a crowd’ feeling. You watch as he falls through life drifting and finding himself in some pretty awkward/sexual/funny/argumentative and even borderline violent situations. Both a party to what is happening but also a passive observer.
He is actually a person with quite a few friends but seems to fail to notice that he is actually part of a group and a community. He drinks in bars and plays football but is ever restless and a tiny bit lost. So, suddenly in a moment that made me cheer over my morning coffee the scene shifts a third of the way into the book and you find him onboard the ocean liner ‘The Lorenzo’ on a ‘Singles Cruise’. Forced to wear a blue ‘lonely heart’ on his shirt the scene screams of fish out of water awkwardness. Stuck in a situation of his own making he dives in and heads to the opening night’s ‘Cocktail Party’. A whirl of gyrating bodies of all shapes and ages! He is spied by a friendly gold digging GILF and as the book progresses things happen and we actually see him enjoying himself in the company of others.
The art is outstanding. It has a caricature assuredness that I would compare to a looser style of someone like Jordan’s Lafebre’s. It shifts from grand landscapes as the ocean liner leaves and arrives at ports to the crazy flurry of a night of drink and drugs. These images move so quickly that you are drawn along in the psychedelic dreams of the protagonists. I’ve never seen a night of booze and coke drawn or realised so well. The highs and the moral lows of the night and the following morning are deftly crafted as I swiped through this speeding guided view comic.
Fucking masterful!
The writing is also just moment to moment triumphantly structured. It grabs the character, personality and outrageous actions of every single character and pushes them one step further. You know everyone in this book before they open their mouth, you hear their voices and their stories in your head!
How happy should we be with our lot? Does adventure beckon us away from our hum-drum lives? Who can tell you what to do and what’s best?
Do drugs and booze and sex solve anything? (Well maybe you won’t solve these problems but there are clues along the way.)
This book!
If you read anything I recommend this is the one. Literally the best thing I have read in ages. Why isn’t this being mentioned more?
GET IT!
I bought mine on ComiXology. And so should you dear reader!
Here’s a little about Mr Pedrosa from the Europe Comics site.
‘Born in 1972 in Poitiers, Cyril Pedrosa was a huge comic book fan during his childhood and adolescence. At the time he was leaning towards studying science. However, after some trial and error, he ended up taking an animation course at the Gobelins school in Paris, and became a colloborator for the fanzine Le Goinfre. For a few years, he worked as an illustrator for Walt Disney studios in Montreuil (Seine St. Denis), as well as working on the sketches for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Afterwards, as an assistant animator he worked on the animated feature film Hercules. There he acquired a speed of execution and a sense of movement that would serve him well in the future. His meeting with writer David Chauvel would change everything, ultimately bringing about his conversion to comics. The two of them created the series Ring Circus with publisher Delcourt, and Pedrosa began to take part in various collaborative works from the same publisher. Then, in 2006, his own graphic novel Cœurs solitaires was released by Dupuis (published in English by Europe Comics, Hearts at Sea)’
No comments:
Post a Comment