Sea of Sorrows

Sea of Sorrows #1-5

by Rich Douek, Alex Cormack (Illustrator)

Plunge headfirst into the icy waters of dread in this graphic novel of deep sea adventure with a horrific twist! 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! From the creative team behind the Bram Stoker Award-nominated horror graphic novel Road of Bones comes an all-new tale of bone-chilling terror!

Genres: Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Supernatural, Graphic Novels Comics

137 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 19, 2022

About the author

Rich is an award-winning copywriter, and the creator of the independent comic series, Gutter Magic. He has worked on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Universe comics for IDW, and has published short stories in the New York Times-featured All We Ever Wanted anthology, for A Wave Blue World, as well as anthologies for Comixtribe and Red Stylo press. Additonally, he is a moderator of the Comics Experience Creator's Workshop, where he strives to help newer creators learn how to create their own comics and navigate the industry.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

A badly conceived story, stretched monstrously over five issues, could've been told in 2 or 3 issues. Has a completely unscary monster with big tits in it.

The art does nice things with lighting, but is also frequently undecipherable, especially when underwater.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The creative team of “Road of bones” returns for a new tale, they did not want to return with a sequel fearing that it would be a lesser experience for them and the reader.
They chose to tell a new tale which certainly despicts this horror story in the leading colour black.
The story is about a sunken U-boat and a fortune of gold, and so often the greed overcomes the common sense. Without giving anything away I can easily say that this is an impressive tale of horror. Good story and great art, well worth your reading time.

[Elizabeth A · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's the premise that hooked me - a horror tale around a treasure hunt that revolves around a sunken Nazi U-boat. The execution however left me wanting more.

There isn't much that grabbed me in this graphic novel. The story was rather like a B movie plot, and these characters were not fleshed out enough that their motivations were clear. The illustration style was not to my liking - too muddy - and it was hard to tell the characters apart. All, that is, other than the siren - which was a tad to cliched for my taste. A fast but not memorable read.

[Davie Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

An ugly book filled with ugly characters.

Usually this kind of thing would be right up my street but I just found it off putting.

Everyone is one dimensional and so similar, it’s hard to work out who’s who throughout. And there isn’t really much plot outside of what’s set up in the first issue meaning I was just waiting for the final issue where everyone would meet a grisly end.

[Dávid Novotný · Rating 2 out of 5]

Promising concept, but poorly executed. Story about group of shady sailors and criminals trying to pick up nazi gold from sunken U-boat somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic, only to be hunted by some strange siren. Although not really original, horror setting of empty sea, full of wreckages got me interested. But story lacks some point and motivation for characters and for main antagonist, all sailors looks the same and it's hard to distinguish who is who. Dark visual which helps sets the atmosphere of unknow terror is sometimes too chaotic and more conterproductive actually.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5
Horror con seres marinos siniestros es lo mío y si bien aquí hay de eso, oscuridad , escenario marítimo y una de las muchas caras macabras del ser humano motivada por la avaricia, a la historia le faltó para que la encontrara buena, tiene de todo lo que me gusta pero le faltó.

El dibujo sin duda me fascinó, además de. ofertas escenas que me parecieron 😍🙌

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Killer Mermaid!

[Billy Jepma · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of this I liked a lot. The grungy, grisly aesthetics; the shadow of WWI looming over the cast of royally messed up characters; the freaky creature designs; all of that stuff worked for me big time. What didn't connect for me was the broad stroke narrative, which touches on the post-war themes but doesn't delve as deep into them as I hoped. And the cast of characters is so large that it's easy to lose track of who's who. That problem is only exacerbated by the art, too, which is too bad because I dug a lot of the visuals and loved the pacing of the layouts. The issue is the darker scenes—of which there are many—are so murky that it becomes a challenge to follow the moment-to-moment action.

I think this would've benefited from another issue, as the narrative needed a little more room to lets its characters and tensions develop. As it is, though, Sea of Sorrow is a decent creature feature with some very gnarly moments and plenty of memorably haunting imagery.

[Daniel Kovacs Rezsuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but unfortunately, the character development is very basic and surface-level. It's hard for the reader to care for any of their fate and it doesn't help that the quality of the art shifts dramatically, not just between, but within issues even, leaving the drama and action really difficult to follow at times. I really liked the core concept though and the depiction of underwater scenes was a breath of fresh air too. It infuriates me how bad most movies, video games, and comics are at representing deep diving by putting everything in a deep blue color cast while, in fact, it's pitch black down there. This comic gets it right with great effect.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intriguing. Some old tars and some land-lubbers are together on a boat off North America, trying to get a fortune in gold bars off a German WWI submarine precariously perched on the seabed below. Only, if you believe one of the people on board, she seems protected by a giant mermaid – a mermaid he saw when his own boat faced war damage. Is she just his PTSD talking? Or is there something unexpected down there, between them and their prize? Or will they just top each other off in the usual bickering that stands for conflict in more cheaply-realised comics?

One thing that doesn't seem cheap here is the artwork, which has a suitably dark mood to it, especially down in the depths. Unfortunately, it has that in lieu of clarity – the characters are grim types that are very hard to differentiate, and that's when they're top-side, and before the six of them suddenly become thirty from one panel to the next. So much so that, when someone does something and gets the [redacted] to do something else and everyone joins in, it's just an incoherent mess, passing as a horror comic. An intriguing one, at first at least, but an intriguing failure.

[Fátima Embark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Las dos estrellas por el dibujo!

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 1920s salvage horror on a boat in the middle of nowhere. What’s not to like?

Sea of Sorrows by Rich Douek is an example of isolation horror where the parties are attempting to recover something valuable…only to find there’s a reason it was buried there in the first place…

An expedition is organized when the possible location of gold belonging the Kaiser is identified.

The catch? It’s in a shake u-boat from the Great War.

Enter a spurious and rough crew anxious to get rich, only to start distrusting eachother without reason or seemingly obsessed with diving down or view the wreck.

As crewmen aboard the ship start going missing, they also start to wonder…just what caused the U-boat to sink nearly a decade ago?

Mermaids, sirens, or something else? Or are the crew just going sea crazy?

Decent yarn…

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stand out art- the mostly dark pages with just the hint of really well designed mermaids is great- the first issue has a great kind of jump scare moment that, even in the middle of a sunny day, was unnerving.

The story of a group of divers and boatman post WWII trying to recover some lost gold is an interesting start, the mermaids having actually lured them there is even better. I enjoyed this story for what it was, I think my just fine rating is due to it being so short, I read it on a day off and it was like watching a show- I wonder how much will stick with me in days or weeks. It was a great library pickup.

[Eddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. I didn't know this was a book series until now. I found this on the library bookshelf. At first I was mesmerized by the artwork and concept thinking "this will surely be 5 Stars" but poor execution made this drop from 5 stars. The art was fantastic. However it was too dark and muddy for me to see what was happening. Perhaps this is just how it goes with graphic novels that the reader is expected to accept weak continuity and jump cuts in the story (lack of flow).

The story concept is great a bunch of men (and 1 woman) on a warship looking for treasure and encounter a Siren mermaid leviathan. Now the mermaid was GREAT! Nice Rack and offensive to women GR readers (so you know they did something right here).

This could have easily been 5 stars with better more immersive writing and better character development (most everyone was pretty much the same), and clearer not as physically scrambled drawings (as much as the art was impressive).

I would read more from these authors. This is worth your time.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you take ALIEN and THE THING, mix them together and put them on a boat, you get this story. (Although really it's not as good as that makes it sound.)

It's not a bad horror story set on the high seas in the 1920s. A group is looking for gold on a sunken German Submarine, but of course, there are sea monsters guarding it.

The concept is great but at times the story is hard to follow, and the art is hard to follow as well. I still enjoyed it, but I feel like it could have been much better.

[Ethan Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

4*

yeah its short but it also is pretty cool and i like the lovecraftian elements. others complain about the art being muddy but i really enjoyed it?? sometimes it was difficult to discern exactly what was being depicted but that speaks to the absurdity of it all anyways. idk it made me want to make a submarine-focused video game though

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the set-up--a crew of hardened sailors, together with some landlubber mobster head off to plunder a sunken U-boat of Nazi gold. But the way this plays out is full of cliches and the muddy artwork is almost impossible to follow, either underwater or on the boat.

[Judah Radd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gotta give props to my dudes Rich Douek and Alex Cormack. I just re-read Sea of Sorrows now that the trade is out, and jesus fucking christ what a horrific slice of horror this is. Easily one of the freakiest horror comic books I’ve ever read. Thoroughly upsetting. Great work!

[José Nebreda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deslavazado y errático. Un guion fallido para un buen dibujo. Un sinsentido, vamos.

[Erica Pehrson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but found it a little confusing.

What I liked-

- the art style! Alex Cormack's style is dark and gritty, the use of black in this was SO cool! The sea felt so dark and terrifying!

- the girl's nasty rat teeth. Normally, women in comics are so pretty and perfect. This woman was the tough, no-nonsense first mate on the ship, the only woman. She WAS super tough but also beautiful. Except her teeth. They were BAD BAD. I loved that detail as a reflection of her character as well as just a nice human element.

-scary sea monster. I found myself audible gasping when the monster was revealed. Also there is a shot with the MC waking up in a pile of rats that is definitely gonna haunt me.

What I didn't like-

-i was a little confused with the backstories of some of characters regarding what was past and what is present. That seemed important.

I wish I could've heard the music. The is a siren song that haunts the characters and this was hard to track just with my eyes. Would've loved to have HEARD it!

[William O’Pomegranate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Douek and Cormack are back at it again. WWI is over. There's a creepy man who claims to know the location of a sunken warship with a bunch of gold. A criminal bankrolls an expedition to get it, but demands his gangsters ride along to ensure no gold 'goes missing,' There's an uneasy alliance between the ship's crew and the gangsters.

It's a great premise for a horror story, and the art is good, but sadly Douek misses the mark again. He's obviously talented, and I will read another horror story if he writes one, but the 'twist' ending of this book makes the rest of the story irrelevant.

The mermaid isn't a mermaid. It's a tentacle of a giant leviathan squid monster that can easily sink a ship. It can also easily slip its tentacles into every nook and cranny on a ship. It does not need this elaborate plan to lure ships. It doesn't need a person helping sabotage ships. It could just sink ships traveling across the Atlantic.

[Jenn Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sea of Sorrows is a deep sea adventure story with a horror twist. It was done by the same creative team that created Road of Bones. This contains the entire run of 5 issues. The review copy did not include the creative team, so I am not able to place it in my review.

The art and colors are amazing. In the underwater scenes there is a solid black background which makes the brighter colors of the animals and materials pop. Even when things are full of blood and gore it is still beautiful.

I loved Road of Bones and this book does capture the same feelings. The creative team is so good at creating a build-up of emotion that I found myself looking around the room because I swore I was not alone. When they finally reveal the "monster" I actually yelped.

Even though I already read the single issues monthly I will definitely be picking up the trade.
5 stars!

[Alli Heinz · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an absolutely dark, mysterious, gritty, and horrifying tale. Sea of sorrows does a lot with its creature and eerie atmosphere. The pages are soaked in black to truly bring out the confusion onset by the extreme shadows. Your mind will pick faces in the wreckage and bubbles in the depths. But what the story lacks is character development. We only really get time with a few characters, but the only ones that feel truly developed is Nick and Pfeifer. The rest are major characatures. It's difficult to balance a cast when working on a comic or graphic novel, but in this tale the wife cast kind of works. I personally like to get to know characters a bit more so there are stakes when they are put in peril. However, the mystery behind the creature and the extreme gore make it for an interesting read.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this horror graphic novel, in 1926 a ship goes out in search of a sunken u-boat and German gold. On the ship are the ships crew and also a bunch of people who work for the crooked financier of the expedition. Tensions are high. The diver finds the gold but he also finds a siren, the old kind that lure sailors to their death.

The art is heavily dark and hard to parse. Sometimes that's intentional, but there are pages with no words where the art should speak for itself and I had no idea what was going on.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Microrrelato en formato comic. Se lee en un ratito. Interesante, entretenido con una historia bastante chula pero con un dibujo tan oscuro y recargado que hace que a veces sea difícil entender que estás viendo o que ha ocurrido.

[Omargg7785 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historia un tanto sencilla pero con un dibujo, una ambientación y un monstruo que acaban mereciendo la pena.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volviendo a recordar que el océano es un espacio de profundo misterio negro más cercano que el espacio exterior. "Sea of Sorrows" recupera esa tradición de terror marítimo de forma bastante literal. También ligado al trasfondo histórico de posguerra que propicia una troupe de personajes tirando a gris oscuro en una búsqueda desesperada de un tesoro de guerra hundido protegido por algo más que la presión del mar.

Hay que alabar totalmente el poderío visual de Alex Cormack. Que logra aprovechar el potencial de insondable tenebrismo de las profundidades marinas para jugar con la oscuridad comiéndose todo intento de luz. Realmente Sea of Sorrows es una lectura inmersiva (sic.) en este sentido. Y es una pena que la historia de Rich Douek quede tan correcta tirando a olvidable. No hay mucho que rascar cuando la amenaza abisal se muestra como apenas un "añadido" para "adornar" un poco mejor un suspense vacío al no llegar a definir totalmente a ningún personaje con fuerza protagonica. Es cierto que la historia termina centrando su foco en uno en concreto. Pero más que nada para poder jugar con ese desenlace ciclico . Se da cierto interés en el único personaje femenino. Pero el guionista se esmera en tirar de la carta "sáfica" para restarle de forma bastante chapucera el check de "romance" de rigor con cualquiera de los compañeros de agua salada. Y dejarla en igualdad de condiciones con estos mismos, por lo que no termina descuadrando esa decisión de despacharla de cualquier manera en la recta final.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea for this book had some rich promise --sirens who draw in people to slaughter them for their greed. The execution was a little soft. I thought the madness and mind control were a new perspective that made the story richer, but the contrivance of the plot was not very well established. I just don't believe, however desperate these people were (before the Great Depression) that they would get on this ship together. It feels artificial from the start, which hurts the plot overall.

This title felt like it would have made a fun B movie on a science fiction channel --it draws on the Lovecraftian and classic Greek traditions of horrors at sea. It just is not a particularly strong standalone graphic novel.

Also, was that Nazi hold they were after? Before WWII? Before the rise of the Nazi party? (Go back and look at the page with the gold bar --those are swastikas on the German gold that are likely meant to imply Nazi gold.)

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you loved mediocre adventure movies about Nazi Gold hunters, then you might find this story to be ... average. There is little to no storytelling finesse, no character development, no intriguing twists or surprises. It's like someone lifted a B-movie plot, cut out everything but the scenes with conflict, and laid it out into a book. There is not a single person to root for or care about. I would root for the siren to eat everyone, but since there's no meat to any of the charactacters, I don't think the siren should waste her time on them.

The art was very C- Hellblazer, where one character had interesting teeth, and the sirens were well-designed, but everything else was flat. Really, the best part of this book was the coloring, which allowed the occasional panel to pop.

If you do pick it up, tt's not going to be The Worst Thing You've Read This Year because it isn't interesting enough to be awful, just disappointing.

[Rinee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Resumen: Es entretenido y muy corto. El dibujo es muy oscuro y se va construyendo el ambiente de terror hasta casi el final. Los personajes son bastante planos y a veces pueden confundirse. Traducción mejorable.


Me gusta mucho el ambiente gráfico: el mar y sus profundidades, con un diseño oscuro y con las sirenas terroríficas propias de las leyendas. Es entretenido y muy corto. Llevo tiempo buscando historias de terror de sirenas y pensé que este sería el equilibrio perfecto, pero no. Percibí el potencial de la historia que, en su lugar, decidió quedarse en una alegoría sobre cómo te consume la codicia (lo cual, creo, podría haberse hecho mejor). En ningún momento llegué a empatizar con ningún personaje e, incluso en ocasiones, los confundía.
La traducción podría haber sido mejorable, a veces notaba demasiado que las conversaciones no eran "reales" y que estaban escritas.