The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi. 63 p.Tardi is a big name in Eurocomics, but only a handful of his titles have been translated into English. This one is described by the American publisher as "icepunk." In 1889, a cruise ship discovers an iceberg with a frozen wreck of another ship embedded in it. When some sailors go to investigate, they discover the ship's crew frozen in position as if they'd died with no warning and instantly froze. Then things get weird....
The black-and-white scratchboard art is striking. The plotting and pacing is...odd. I'm sure it's mostly due to differing cultural expectations and conventions, but some of it is probably related to translation issues. (Twice the narration refers to something very specific that one character said, but he doesn't actually say it in his dialogue.) It's pretty clear that this was planned as the first installment of a series, but I believe it was never continued after this volume, so the story just kind of stops rather than wrapping up. Worth it for the art, though.
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