Mutiny Bay

by Antoine Cossé

1519. A Spanish fleet leaves Seville, heading west. Portuguese Captain Magellan is convinced of the existence of a South American strait that will expedite trade with the Indonesian Spice Islands. Months later, in a deserted and inhospitable land, mutiny brews, two men are marooned and the world explodes in a riot of hallucinatory colour. Antoine Coss's most substantial work to date is a fascinating drama, examining one of history's most intriguing mysteries.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Antoine Cossé is a French illustrator and cartoonist. Cossé was born in Paris in 1981. He studied Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts in London, where he still lives.
His comics have been published by Breakdown Press, Retrofit comics, Fantagraphics Books, most notably Mutiny Bay (2014), Showtime (2017) and Metax (2022).
His illustration works have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wetransfer, The Guardian, Les Inrockuptibles, Libération, Le Monde Diplomatique and others.

Reviews

[Ludwig Aczel · Rating 5 out of 5]

8.5/10
What a beautiful piece of work!
London-based French cartoonist Antoine Cossé turns a historic sea voyage into a phantasmagoria full of humanity, and with that human despair.
The 1520 Spanish expedition in search of (what we now call) the Strait of Magellan is decomposed, like light through a prism, into the personal tragedies of a bunch of characters. Magellan himself, his cousin captain de Mesquita, Spanish mutineer captain Juan de Cartagena, a mouthy sailor named Carraõ, a priest on the verge of losing his faith and a few others. All sailors lost at sea. All men lost in life. Of noble and poor descent alike, men hunted by memories. By regrets for what could have been. By dreams of women they loved and nightmare of women they wronged.
The story has poetic moments, but never sounding heavy-handed or snobbish. As well as dreamlike moments, but never falling into too much nonsense. It's a solid tale with a lot of visual beauty.
The storytelling in particular is my jam here, with mostly 3x2 page layouts that allow the story to breathe and develop elegantly.
The art is simplistic but tasteful. Most pages are black and white, with grey watercolours. (I wonder if they were originally all in colours, but then printed in b/w.) When the story moves into flashbacks, the white is replaced by pink, which gives me a newspaper-like feeling. The final act is in full colour, and here Cossé's simple but effective watercolours really shine.
If I had to write a comic book about a travel to sea, it would probably be close to this in tone.

Looking forward to discover more from this guy.

[Kitty G Books · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately this graphic novel really didn't work for me which was a real shame becuase I was hoping to find it really interesting. When I saw this in the shop I flicked through some of the pages and the watercolour imagery and the images of ships in particular definitely made me really intrigued. However, I guess I didn't look closely enough (my fault entirely) becuase the way that the people were drawn really bothered me and they all had hugely exaggerated faces. I am not a fan of this style of image-making, and although the watercolour technique did appeal, the actual content of the images and story didn't.

So what is this book? It's basically a rather wacky reimagining of a mutiny which happened in 1519 to a Spanish fleet. The idea was strong, but the actual execution felt a little sloppy at time and for me the artwork has to be good to make a story work in graphic form, and this one suffered not only from the art, but also the story.

I was hoping for a great pirate romp, and unfortunately I got more of a weird fever-dream retelling of events which was fascinating every now and then and just disturbing/weird the majority of the time!

In all honesty it's probably my fault for not checking it out a bit more carefully when I bought it, but it was a disappointment and soI could only give it a 1.5*s becuase it's not terrible, but it just did not work at all for me.

[Fx Smeets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mutiny Bay by Antoine Cossé, is also my first Cossé. Cossé is French but writes in English, like me – at least Mutiny Bay is written directly in English and published in the UK. It shows. I can spot the odd words, the awkward sentences and the occasional grammatical error (what’s the use of having a publisher if they can’t even correct our grammar and spelling?). This is completely anecdotical. Mutiny Bay is a slow story that mixes distant narration and diary, inked drawings and vivid colours, meticulously researched historical background, dreams and hallucinations. It does not offer the reader any closure, it stays on the fence of many ethical questions. It makes big use of ellipses and shortcuts, to save space for Cossé’s lavish cinematography. Drawn in his very personal, deceptively simple style, Mutiny Bay reads and reads again, for the story, for the mise en scène of movements, for the Poean, Maupassantian insertion of the unreal within the real. It’s a book you want to keep on your bedside table because you know that at some point you’ll want to open it and flip through a few pages. The story stays with you.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rinsed with watery colours for a watery tale, drifty and spacious, as if being marooned on a desert island were drifty and spacious.

[Larakaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hum I expected a bit more from this. The story of this mutiny wasn’t new to me and there wasn’t a lot else to think about in it. Neither emotional nor philosophical nor psychological.

[Charlotte · Rating 1 out of 5]

I went into this not expecting a lot, as my flatmate gave me it because she was getting rid as she didn't like it. I'm obsessed with all things sailors, ships and pirates and thought this would be right up my alley. I had low expectations but I didn't think it would be this bad.

The story is a mess, the colouring is random and the drawings are just meh. This really let me down. I was bored throughout so I guess I'm lucky it only took 15 minutes.

Would not recommend.

[Leen · Rating 3 out of 5]

great artwork, interesting storyline. unlike anything i've read before.

[Kira Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful book, particularly it's last section, with a gripping story. However, some of the key players look confusingly similar, a challenging problem to solve I admit given its black and white and the style is not very detailed. Additionally, the narrative feels a little too ambiguous (but if I were certain of who was who at all times, perhaps this wouldn't be the case).

[Soseum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roman graphique visuellement intéressant dont la narration est découpée en plusieurs grandes parties. Le style graphique est beau, mais cependant, on a du mal a reconnaître et identifier les différents protagonistes (mais peut-être cela est-il voulu par l'auteur ?)

[Jackson Wehrli · Rating 5 out of 5]

a very creative story from a great illustrator/author as per usual

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the different point of view. Felt of a different animal than other comics while still holding the line of narrative. Maybe it took more risks or different risks.

[Mimmo · Rating 2 out of 5]

difficult to follow. Some nice drawings but other than that i didn't find it very engaging.

[MariNaomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully rendered and interesting enough that I read it twice in a row.

[Ahermano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the artwork, good story.

[Liz Yerby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice coloring and pacing // but like, I don't need more comics about a colonizing perspective?