Shipwreck #1 Review

Shipwreck #1 Review
Writer & creator: Warren Ellis
Artist: Phil Hester
Colorist: Mark Englert
Inker:  Eric Gapstur
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: Aftershock
Review by Robert Coffil

Warren Ellis’s words craft worlds rarely seen in any medium. He’s had his comics turned into movies and T.V. shows (Iron Man Extremis is the basis for Iron Man 3. Global Frequency is the basis for the T.V. Show Alphas. R.E.D. the comic book being the inspiration for the eponymously named movie R.E.D.). Warren Ellis is prodigious and prolific in both his output and the quality of his work. His works are known for being a little weird/off kilter from the norm. Specifically, his indie work always has a broken person trying to fix a broken world. This trend continues in Shipwreck.

Shipwreck is about Dr. Johnathan Shipwright and his search for Isham, the man who sabotaged his ship. Shipwright was part of a secret project funded by the USAF called Janus. The experiment went south and Shipwright has been wandering the earth ever since.

Shipwreck is a book where every element of the comic serves the purpose of storytelling and it something I’ve rarely seen executed so well in a comic. Ellis’s plot is continually advanced by Hester’s art which is then enhanced by Englert’s colors.

Phil Hester I know because of his work with Kevin Smith on Green Arrow. On Shipwreck he has elevated his craft to another level. Dr. Shipwright is drawn as a gaunt and forlorn figure. He has hollowed out cheek bones and a distinctive wrap around his left hand covering up an injury that we have yet to hear the origin of. The way he draws shipwright’s disheveled overcoat I enjoyed. It’s tattered and beat to hell, but Hester draws Shipwright clinging to it as if it is his armor in this unfamiliar world.  Hester’s page composition, in terms of panels and storytelling, is wonderful. On page three he uses crows to lead you from one page to another. He has five panels on page three to show Dr. Shipwright traveling across a barren landscape. Hester controls the speed at which you read this page by having the 5 panel’s show what is a matter of seconds and it illustrates how fast Shipwright travels because of his abilities. Page 4 ends with Shipwright opening a door to a diner and that’s where the story begins. The opening pages work as a wonderful framework for what the story in the rest of the issue will entail.

Englert’s color work is nothing short of amazing. It’s also not just what he colors, but also the use of heavy shadows that are exquisite. Outside the diner, the world is colored bleakly and bland. Inside the diner, the pages burst with color.

Before I wrap up this review I wanted to talk about the word play in the book. The protagonist’s last name is “Shipwright”. A shipwright is a person in the trade of shipbuilding. The title of the book is Shipwreck. What I pull from this is a reason why Shipwright is so haunted by the disaster of the Janus project. It’s in the name. Speaking of Janus, Janus is the Roman god of doorways, transitions and beginnings. I think this is a clue to the project that Shipwright was working on, something that would traverse between worlds.

Verdict:
Must buy!!! If you are a fan of clever sci-fi thrillers, this is the book for you. Warren Ellis and his team have crafted a book that I eagerly await the next issue of.