Title: Lost At Sea Volume(s): 1 Author(s): Bryan O’Malley Format: Unflipped; Left-to-Right Publisher: Oni Press, Inc. MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Action Rated: Teen (13+)

I had no idea what I was picking up when I was browsing the shelves at my local library. I came across this and felt, “What the heck? If it’s bad, I get to write an entertaining review; if it’s good, then I get entertainment.” And I felt it was going to be a good comic. After all, the back had a blurb from Craig Thompson, author of Blankets and Goodbye, Chunky Rice. Here’s what he said: “O’Malley’s drawings are simply yummy, and his book captures the clumsiness, isolation, and aimlessness of adolescence.” I have a vague idea of what he means by yummy drawings, and I do agree that the books knows what it’s talking about when it comes to feeling awkward as a teen as well as being isolated. But aimlessness? I’m not so sure. Maybe it’s like Kevin’s opinion on Ghost World: since I do have goals in my life and plans to go to college, publish books and maybe syndicate a comic strip that I’m working on, then I can’t relate with the main character who doesn’t seem to have a focus. Neither do the people she’s with, so that means that while I’m reading about aimlessness, I’m going, “Huh?”

A basic summary is that a girl named Raleigh is on a road-trip with three other kids who go to her high school. (The full story’s explained at the end, but for now I'll just say that it’s a twist of fate.) Raleigh is antisocial and believes that she doesn’t have a soul. In little bits she tells us why this is so- or how this may have come to be. She doesn’t really know. In long captions that could be passages from a diary, Raleigh tells us what she thinks happened to her while she slowly opens up to the trio with her- Stephanie, Dave and Ian. What results are interesting events- from her new friends hunting the cat with her soul late at night to Raleigh jumping on a motel bed with Stephanie because it’s fun to the guys not knowing which direction is north. It’s fascinating, confusing, poignant, and full of heart. Remember when I said that O’Malley knows how awkward and antisocial kids can get? I still believe that upon rereading. Sometimes I say things and my family thinks they they’re hilarious. The same thing happens to Raleigh. What about not being able to find true friends, specifically girls for friends, because you can’t relate to them? He either has a teenage daughter or his wife remembers high school. For some reason most girls in middle and high school seem to care about only what kind of make-up they’re wearing, what songs are on their I-Pods, and what happened on the O.C. or Lost (just listen to girls first period). Raleigh isn’t that kind of girl and neither am I. And the way the two boys butt heads with each other reminds me how the last time I went to an Academic Team tournament and had to endure two similar male freshmen arguing in the back while our advisor was driving.

I think the message of Lost at Sea is that even if you’re going nowhere, you’re going to end up somewhere, and you have to keep on living even if you have unanswered questions. Eventually you reach a destination and you learn from your experiences from the journey. The Cheshire cat told Alice this; Lewis Carroll knew what he was talking about over a century ago. I do kind of understand Raleigh’s confusion; in the past year I have lain awake at night for several days in a row trying to figure out what the meaning of life is and what is the point of living if all of a sudden I get hit by a car and get killed. Talking with my Taoist English teacher only helped a little. Eventually I learned to stop asking myself unanswerable questions, but sometimes they still pop up in my head. Same situation here: if teenagers try to find the answer, then they end up more muddled than they were to begin with. It’s best to let life move on. What about the art? Surprisingly, Bryan O’Malley has his own manga style (okay; MOST American mangas don’t look like Sailor Moon, but O’Malley combines his art style with manga characteristics in order to create a VERY unique style). Character designs are original, and the backgrounds reflect the story like a mirror. (However, Raleigh resembles Terra from the show Teen Titans. If any of you fans remember what Terra is like, then the comparison will make interesting discussion for online forums.) You do notice that the girls seem to be wearing tight shirts, but if you focus on the story and not the artwork that deeply, then I don’t think your girlfriends will mind too much for reading this. (More likely they’re going to make you read a mahou shoujo where all the characters are ten years old.) I also give kudos for how he blends the captions with dialog and making it an actual story instead of a boring narrative. (The Quitter, anyone?) I can believe that this story happened in real life, which is saying a lot. It probably didn’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

In fact, my biggest complaint is not the art or the story, confusing as it can be at times, but of a certain plot element that starts the whole story. Raleigh for a year has been chatting online with a guy she’s never met in person. Then she goes to visit him in California, telling her mom that she’s gone to visit her dad in Fremont. Nothing bad happens and he lets her leave and gives her a letter. She doesn’t open it, which implies that she’s worried that it’s a break-up letter. Things like this in a story make me tear my hair out of my head and scream like a maniac. A lady warned us this year in school to NEVER date online or to go visit someone that we only know on the Internet as child predators go after teenagers. (Not many students took her seriously because she had met her husband online, but I did.) The only other story where I’ve seen online dating as an okay is in A Cinderella Story, and boy do we know how good that movie is! Hilary Duff at her highest glory! The evil stepmother that would never exist in real life! Ditto for Duff’s Prince Charming and her evil stepsisters. (Sarcasm aside, I do wonder how movies like that are made.) That gripe aside, this is a book worth reading at the least to see if you or your adolescent children can relate to this book. In fact, it reminds me of another scene with Alice, this time with the white queen: Alice is running with the Queen, and when they stop she finds herself and her Majesty in the same place. The Queen explains that in this world you have to run very fast to stay in the same place and twice as much to get somewhere else. I can’t think of a better analogy. Lost at Sea chronicles a girl’s social fall (losing her old friends) and her eventual rebirth (gaining new ones). Although there are still questions lurking in her mind, she has no choice but to go on, even if she doesn’t have a soul. Life waits for no one.

- -Review By Jaya Lakshmi- -