What is she looking at?
Lost At Sea is a graphic novel by Scott Pilgrim's creator Bryan Lee O'Malley, published in 2003 by Oni Press.
It tells the story of Raleigh, a girl who believes she lost her soul when she was a child. The story chronicles her inner thoughts as she tags along on a road trip from California to her home in Vancouver, as well as covering her quest to recover her soul. She's accompanied on the trip by acquaintances Stephanie, Dave, and Ian, who invited her on the trip after they contacted her by accident.
This graphic novel contains examples of:
- Coming of Age Story
- Deal with the Devil: See Soul Jar below
- Deadpan Snarker: Stephanie has some Snarker moments.
- Emotionless Girl: Raleigh believes that her soulless nature makes her this, unable to feel anything or have any friends. Upon realizing that she never lost her soul, she promptly bursts into tears, lamenting that her problems have ruined her new friends' roadtrip.
- The Faceless: Raleigh's boyfriend, Stillman, is only seen in silhouette or with his face otherwise hidden.
- Friendless Background: Raleigh presents herself as this. Her best friend moved after Grade 8, and didn't really connect with anyone after starting at the Sturton Academy. She herself claims "I want to say I had no friends but, I mean, that's bullshit. I had cold, grey, useless friends..."
- Good Bad Girl: Downplayed with Stephanie. She's less "chaste" than Raleigh despite no mentioned relationships, being The Lad-ette of the group that swears like a sailor and engages in vitriolic banter with Ian, but is still a good friend to Dave and especially Raleigh. Could also count as a Lovable Alpha Bitch.
- Identical Stranger: The group finds a picture of past diners in a restaurant that looks like it contains a younger Raleigh and two other children. It may or may not be a younger Raleigh, and younger siblings she may or may not have had.
- MacGuffin: Raleigh's soul. At the end she realizes she never lost it, she just felt like she did because of her breakup with her boyfriend, Stillman.
- Nice Girl: Stephanie, despite being a Snarky Sir Swears-a-Lot and volatile towards Ian, is otherwise a total sweetheart who is incredibly nice towards Raleigh and helps her come to terms with her emotions.
- No Sense of Direction: Ian admits that he's just driving aimlessly, to the point that he's not even sure where they are anymore. Early in the story he guesses that they're in Northern California, even though they started their journey in Northern California and have been on the road all day.
- The Quest: A large part of the novel is devoted to finding Raleigh's soul.
- Shout-Out: The title is this to the Radiohead song "In Limbo", as confirmed by
O'Malley on twitter. - Soul Jar: Raleigh believes that her mother sold Raleigh's soul to The Devil in exchange for career success and that The Devil placed her soul inside a cat.
- The Soulless: Raleigh thinks she is this. She isn't.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: As Stephanie requests a cigarette, she says "Yo, light me up, bitch!"
- Title Drop: Raleigh drops the title as the last line of the comic.
