By Jacob Cordas — For a while I was one of a number of unqualified people who piloted a small cruise ship for the elderly. And, as a consequence of my unbelievable bad luck, I seemed to always be the person steering during storms. The boat was older and still had a ship’s wheel on top of the modern controls. I was too fidgety for the fine motor skills required to finesse the controls so there I was mid-storm spinning a wheel as our elderly patrons slid across linoleum floors. 

In these storms there always came a moment where the bow crested over a wave. The ship would hang in the air for a moment. There would be wind and there would be rain but, most importantly, there would be silence. And after a few heavy moments, you felt the fall forward. The weight of fifty-seven (or so) people in their seventies plus crew plus however many tons the ship started-at plunging down.

I never found a way to get used to it. It would get under my skin. There was a threat in that weightlessness. No matter how empowering it felt holding a monkey rope as we approached shore, it was always easily taken away. 

It has been years since I worked that job. Outside of the humorous anecdotes I got from it*, it’s not something I talk about. Or even really think about. It was a job and now it isn’t. And that fear of the plunge doesn’t make much sense on land. 

Until I read Sea of Sorrows #1. Then it all came flooding back. 

Sea of Sorrows effortlessly captures a feeling I had forgotten I had. The story itself is of a different time. In the mid 1920’s sailors are diving for nazi gold. Tensions are high as divers descend into the darkness. But whether it be the sharks or the mermaids that reside within, the darkness only hides the real threat in the descent. 

Rich Douek’s writing crafts each character in this nightmare into a person within moments of meeting them. Screaming or scheming, smoking** or salivating, every character is alive with a world of internal conflict. Empathy is instantly established. 

And the rhythm of the story is perfectly paced. It slides between times and settings, even third person to first person narration without an ounce of sweat on the brow. It consistently ratchets up the tension in a method that is not only horrifying but narratively logical. 

None of this would work without the outstanding art of Alex Cormack. He serves as both artist and colorist and, after reading this book, I can’t imagine any other way this could be illustrated. He weaponizes the color black against the reader, making it a radioactive threat - almost glowing in the background of every page. 

It doesn’t matter if we are in a bar, on a ship or deep underwater. It doesn’t matter if we are in the middle of the worst war until the next one or we are watching a man vomit from sea sickness. The darkness is always there. It leers at the reader filling up the blank space that might otherwise be safe. 

There is an inescapable quality to the depths. It’s behind every door. It’s splashed across the face of your shipmate. It’s the feeling of a ship just waiting to crash into an ocean the couldn’t give a fuck about the safety of the passengers aboard.  

It’s horrifying. 

And I can’t wait to be horrified some more next month. 

Overall: Sea of Sorrows #1 is a phenomenal start to a horror story. The art and the writing take a solid concept and twist it into a horrifying experience. Read it while wearing a life preserver. 9.0/10

*I was marooned on a tourist island. It’s a funny story but not one that matches the tone of the article. Hit me up on twitter and we can talk about what being abandoned on an island is like. 

**Anyone who smokes (as I would never recommend someone take up smoking cigarettes) needs to smoke on a ship as it sails. I can’t say I trust all the characters in this comic but I can trust the ones that smoke on the ship have excellent taste. 

REVIEW: Sea of Sorrows #1

Sea of Sorrows #1
Writer: Rich Douek
Artist: Alex Cormack
Letterer: Justin Birch
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Price: $3.99
Deep sea adventure with a horrific twist! From the creative team behind last year's hit horror series, ROAD OF BONES, comes an all-new tale of bone-chilling terror! In the aftermath of the Great War, the North Atlantic is ripe for plunder by independent salvage crews. When a former naval officer hires the SS Vagabond, he leads the ship to a sunken U-boat, and a fortune in gold. Tensions mount as the crew prepares to double cross each other, but the darkness of the ocean floor holds deeper terrors than any of them have bargained for! Plunge headfirst into the icy waters of dread with another historic tale of terror from writer Rich Douek, and artist Alex Cormack.
Release Date: November 18, 2020
Buy It Digitally: Sea of Sorrows #1

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My name is Jacob Cordas (@jacweasel) and I am starting to think I may in fact be qualified to write this.