I come from a family of prolific readers.  My Dad has read every Louis L’Amour book ever written.  My Mom started my brother, sister and me out on the Hobbitt when we were little kids.  She bought me J.R.R. Tolkin’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy when I was 9 years old (its still sitting in my home office, mostly unread). 

My Mom, no doubt, has read more books than anyone alive.  She stills perfectly quotes Shakespeare lines she learned in college in the early 1950’s (not bad for a girl born in Calion – population 600 – Arkansas). 

But me?  I loved comic books.  Still do.

One of my favorite comic books is Papy Plouf (a/k/a Grampa Splash).  I have read it cover-to cover, over-and-over.

This is an absurd comic book, en francais, written and drawn by Martin Veyron.

What’s it about you ask?

Older passengers on a cruise ship begin dying mysteriously.  The ship doctor has to try and determine why this is happening – while keeping the cruise line’s executives happy by secreting disposing of the mounting dead bodies.

But before he can do so, a mutiny breaks out on the cruise ship.  The staff captain tries to depose the Captain.  Pirates try to board the cruise ship. Then a tsunami heads to destroy the sick and mutinous ship! 

Is this just fictional writing by a creative writer? 

No. It actually sounds a lot like the recent travails of the "Cursed Cruise Ship of the High Seas" – The Balmoral – the focus of my last article.  Hundreds of puking passengers, pirates trying to board, a cruise ship bouncing around in extreme weather . . . all the while acting like everything is just fine.

This is why I am intrigued by cruise lines.  They try to live in a world unto themselves. 

Everyday I walk into my office and learn of the latest cruise debacle, I feel like I am entering a world more absurd than any Papy Plouf comic book I have ever read.  

 

Credit:    Martin Veyron