Lost at Sea (comics)

Lost at Sea is a graphic novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley. First published in 2003 by Oni Press, it tells the coming-of-age story of a shy 18-year-old named Raleigh, who believes her soul was stolen by a cat, and the road trip she makes across the United States with several kids from her school that she barely knows.

History

At the time that O'Malley was working on Lost at Sea, he was also working at Oni Press, doing a lot of "crappy, behind the scenes work," as well as lettering other books.^[1]

Plot summary

Raleigh is on board a road trip from California, where she was visiting her father and her boyfriend Stillman, back home to Vancouver with her fellow high school students Stephanie, Dave, and Ian, whom she meets by accident after missing her train. During the trip, she muses on her relationship with Stillman, whom she met over the Internet, as well as her belief that she has no friends because when she was 14 her mother sold her soul to Satan in exchange for career success, who then placed it in the body of a cat. Increasing her already great existential confusion is the bizarre emergence of a series of cats, seeming to follow Raleigh through her journey. In her confusion and curiosity, Raleigh, with the help of her new friends, attempts to catch one of the cats, believing it to be in possession of her soul. The task acts as a bonding activity for the students, and a catalyst in revealing insight into each other's character.

Related comics

Apart from the graphic novel itself, several other Lost at Sea comics were published:

• 6 webcomic strips for Onipress.com's Sunday Comics, formerly available on O'Malley's website (12345Bonus).
• A 2-page full color comic in the Oni Press Color Special 2002.
• "Smiling Is Something Other People Do", described as "a little 'Lost at Sea' comic," in SPX 2003 Anthology.
• "Babyfood", featuring the characters Stephanie Ferguson and David Weldon.

References

External links

• Lost at Sea