Lost Boy - Graphic Novel Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Lost Boy tells the story of a young teen travelling home from a skiing trip with his father, passing along a remote road in they Wyoming mountains. Jack, the boy, didn’t want to go skiing, just wants to be back home in Los Angeles, and doesn’t seem to enjoy spending time with his father. The atmosphere between the two of them on the drive back is colder than the snow-covered mountains outside. When a deer steps out onto the road, Jack’s father swerves in an attempt to avoid it, and crashes through the safety barrier, plunging the car off a cliff into the forest below.

When Jack comes to, the sun has fallen, and he’s been thrown through the car’s windshield. Finding the wrecked car, his father sits inside, dead. At first just curling up with his deceased father, hoping that he might wake up and be fine, Jack begins to drift asleep. It’s then that a voice in his head tells him that he has to move, that if he falls asleep he’ll die too. So, grabbing what supplies he can from the ruined car, he starts to try and make his way back to the road. But, with the cliff seemingly un-climbable, and a pack of wolves closing in on him, Jack sets off down the mountain. Along the way he finds an injured fawn, and the two of them work together to survive.

Lost Boy is a grim story. It begins with one off the worst things that can happen, a young boy losing his father to tragedy, but it also ramps things up by having the last moments they had together be one where they’re arguing and upset with each other. However, rather than wallow in the guilt that Jack must be feeling, the book instead chooses to put his journey to safety at the forefront. And all things considered, Jack is a pretty smart teen. He knows enough not to just wait by the car, he grabs useful stuff from the wreck before setting off, and he has something of a plan in mind. However, he is still just a kid, so ends up doing some pretty bad things along the way.

The main cause of Jack’s strife are the wolves that are following him, and the fawn that he befriends. There’s not much that can be done about the wolves, but there are a couple of times when Jack ends up putting himself in danger and makes things worse for himself to save the fawn. But I also know I’m the kind of person who’d act the same so can’t hold it against him. These moments help to humanise Jack, however, and it gives him something to focus on, and something to talk to. Jack ends up needing that baby deer to survive, because it keeps him sane, and it keeps him fighting.

The book is both written and drawn by Jay Martin, who does a really good job at bringing the story to life. The Wyoming wilderness looks absolutely fantastic throughout, and Martin makes it feel cold and remote. From the moment the car goes over the edge you’re worrying for Jack, because the place he’s in is not one humans are built for. One of the ways the book conveys this is through colour, with the night scenes in particular looking fantastic thanks to the use of darker tones, and lighting effects.

Lost Boy isn’t a long read, and you’ll get through it pretty quickly, but it’s an enjoyable journey. It’s the story about the fight to survive in a terrible situation and against awful odds, and the fact that it’s been crafted by the same writer and artist makes it stand out as a labour of love.

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