Moby Dick: Back From the Deep is a web-comic written by Matt Schorr.  The artwork is done by Joe Bilicic. This tale brings the iconic characters from the 1851 novel by Herman Melville straight into ghost story territory.  There are already 47 pages of the comic available online at www.backfromthedeep.com.  And they just wrapped up a successful kickstarter in August and promise more pages by the end of September.  If you do check it out on the website I would recommend using the scroll slide where you can select what pages to view since that worked best for me personally.  

The story thus far centers around the Barlow family.  Specifically Kathryn whose father has been mayor of the beach town known as White Sands Beach for almost as long as she can remember.  But now her Dad has been voted out in a very bitter election that turned the town against her whole family. I don’t know if the writer intended this or not but I did find it interesting to note the anger and hostility placed on the innocent family members and how that paralleled with the original Moby Dick novel and how Captain Ahab placed all his anger and failures onto the whale.  

As Kathryn’s father tries his best to make the most of his last days in office a wrecked ship is found and a young woman is missing.  The first chapter feels like the beginning of any animal run amok movie that you watch. A sleepy town finds a mysterious gruesome attack and as they investigate the bodies pile up until they realize a menacing creature has shattered their innocent existence.  But then right at the end of Chapter 1 this webcomic takes a sharp turn that I found surprising. It then quickly speeds things up and moves the narrative into a more supernatural direction.  

The writing is intriguing and has a very cinematic feel.  Every time a question is answered more questions arise which helps pull you along.  Although the beginning can feel like another version of Jaws the story in Chapter 2 brings in elements of the Pirates of the Caribbean.  For fans of either of those movies I would definitely recommend checking out Moby Dick: Back From the Deep as so far this story feels like a hybrid of the two.  The art is black and white and a little sparse. Some pages feel more like storyboards for a film than a comic but it still moves the story along well enough. Sometimes I found myself wanting a little more detail, especially regarding Moby Dick himself, but I still felt satisfied enough to keep going.  I for one will definitely be checking back to see where things go later on in September when they start posting new pages.

RORSCHACH RATING

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Credits: Moby Dick: Back from the Deep is property of Moby Dick: Back from the Deep. We do not own nor claim any rights. Whale image courtesy of Pexels.