Review - That Salty Air

That Salty Air
By Tim Sievert
Published by Top Shelf Comix. $10.00 USD

That Salty Air is a graphic novel that really had to be published by Top Shelf: heavily inked art style not too many nautical miles away from Craig (Blankets) Thompson; spacious storytelling; and, unfortunately, an editorial stance that pretty good is good enough. Let's start with the good stuff, and there's enough of it that the book merits a look. Sievert's art is big league in the silent, scene-setting panels, a little less polished but still appealing with the figures. I like that the wife is just as much of a lead character and not merely window-dressing--she goes out and tries to fix things herself rather than wait on her mama's boy husband to get his shit together. And the cover is lovely.

As for the not-as-good stuff, well, the lead character is, as mentioned, so broken up about the death of his mother (unseen until near the end) that he abandons his responsibilities as breadwinner and expectant father. He only takes responsibility again when his wife pleads with him, and even then reluctantly, and his actions even then are spiteful, destructive and irresponsible. It's really hard to feel much for him or his redemption (more just an escape) because it's not earned, nor do we feel anything about his relationship with his mother because it's not shown. Sure, most of us love our mothers and would be broken up about their deaths, but so what? Beware of blurbs calling a book "deeply felt" because it's not relevant how deeply the author feels about what they've created; it only matters how he makes the reader feel. At the end, what I felt was kind of sorry for the wife, who has chosen to stick with this shithead, now even less useful.

And while I understand the story isn't meant to be realistic--it's rightly described as a parable, deeply felt or not--I had difficulty buying into a vengeful and then forgiving octopus, handing (tentacling?) out judgment on whether someone exceeds the fishing limit. It just seemed clumsy and too convenient. Sure, we'd all like to know our dead parents have gone onto a better place, but isn't it more moving for a character to grow up without the aid of ghosts and deus ex cephalopods? It's not that this is a bad book--it's a nice-looking, good-hearted, fairly competent little story--but while I think Sievert has demonstrated enough talent that he bears watching, I also think this isn't good enough to be called good. It's a start, and the next one needs to be a whole lot better.