The Castaways
Written by Rob Vollmar
Drawn by Pablo G. Callejo
Published by Absence of Ink
Dear Rob,
I've been living with The Castaways for a long time -- almost as long as I've known you. I've read the opening chapter maybe a dozen times...when you first e-mailed me the pages, when the AOIT preview came out, when the actual, real comic came out, and a few times in-between. But here, finally, after a couple of years of waiting and hoping, I hold the actual graphic novel -- a complete collection -- and I find that you have the ability to surprise me, with this story that I thought I knew so well.
You made me cry.
Now, you know I love this story, and that I am incredibly proud of you and the good work you've done here. I'm proud of Pablo, who I met through you and consider a friend, for the moving artwork he created that seems to so easily evoke a time and place that he's never seen himself. I'm proud of your publisher, Ed Irvin, for having the vision, integrity, decency and balls to release this graphic novel in the format it was meant to be seen in -- there's not a goddamned compromise that I can see -- even though there's not one damned superhero, nothing for anyone to fetishize of fantasize over at all. All there is is an historically accurate fiction informed by your family history and supplemented with a closing essay that brought me to tears.
Rob, you and I have never met in person. We've spent many a night talking for hours on the phone, and even more on the damned computer, but we've never been in the same room together. And yet, your gift for making human contact has always made the miles between us evaporate like a shadow. That gift, that ability to connect and relate and create a meaningful exchange of ideas and dialogue is here, complete and uncompromised, in this graphic novel you and Pablo have created.
The Castaways is a story of a boy, and a man, and the connection they make as hoboes and human beings and fellow travellers. It's a story of power and grace that speaks quietly but firmly of a truth being told and a message being transmitted: Love each other, we're all we have.
Ed Irvin sent me a complete, Xeroxed version of this a couple months back, and I didn't read it. I almost never do that. I love to read previews months ahead of time, it's one of the few perks of this job. But I knew, from my many readings of the opening chapters, that this was a special story, and one I wanted to finally finish discovering in its real, most perfect form.
I wasn't expecting the powerful conclusion you gave me, Rob. I knew this was a good tale, very well told, but I never guessed how it would end, and now that I know, I just want to tell you something.
I'm proud to be your friend. I love you, I love your work, and I think you and Pablo have created one of the best comics of the year -- a small story with big implications that will be remembered and read long after all of us are dust.
There's a lot of doubt about the future of comics. I'll tell you what, brother, if there is one, I hope it's in the hands of you and people like you. Thank you for making me cry. Grade: Priceless.