eleventeen's Reviews > The Boat

Please take 30 minutes (on an iPad or computerx not a phone, mobile doesnt quite work)and scroll through this dynamic webcomic. Even if you're like me and not a huge fan of most graphic novels or comics, just take 30. The design is INCREDIBLE, the use of sound and music highlighting every moment of this, and the inventive use of comic panels that reacted to the reader scrolling down as well as to the sound effects is just goddamn brilliant.

THe story too, is poignant, though it didn't quite grasp me as fully as i think it should, considering the subject matter. This is no happy memoir, but I think I need longer narratives to truly connect with anything, and this felt like an excerpt from a longer story (and may be, since I believe this was adapted from an actual nonfiction collection not originally designed for web consumption).

What you'll see from other reviews of this is that most people don't know shit about Vietnam, and did not understand the conflict, so the impetus for the beginning of this story is left murky until the descriptive text at the end, and I think that's part of what prevents readers from feeling connected. A part of me wishes this information was worked in organically to the story so the impact could be that much more, but I also understand their choice to let the suddenness and jarring impact of the first few moments drive the plot. It's a cool choice, but one i think that paired with the shortness of the tale are why I can't give this the full five stars that the UNBELIEVABLE DESIGN deserves.

Seriously, just watch it. Click on the url, scroll through, invest yourself in the moments and in such a wonderfully, uniquely modern way to tell a heart-wrenching story.

http://www.sbs.com.au/theboat

Tw: death/war/sickness/enclosed spaces