The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier – review

Pirates, the sunken land of fabled Atlantis, merwitches, and a skull of pearl–these are the things of dreams, the subject of grand and amazing adventures. And none is grander or more amazing than the adventures Walker Bean experiences in the wonderful graphic novel, The Unsinkable Walker Bean, written and illustrated by the remarkable Aaron Renier, and colored by the inker extraordinaire, Alec Longstreth. If you, too, like amazing stories about pirates and surviving despite the odds being stacked against you, then this book is for you!

When Walker’s inventor grandfather, an Admiral in the Navy, becomes desperately sick and claims he has fallen under the curse of the skull of pearl, all hope seems to be lost. Before he becomes sick, in the first few pages, Walker’s grandfather tells him about Tartessa and Remora, the evil merwitches who had once been beautiful mermaids. They destroyed the entire city of Atlantis, and now live in a deep trench in the ocean near the Mango Islands. They’re surrounded by the bones of their victims, which they turned into pearls by scooping them up in their mouths and coating them in layers of their “thick, nacre saliva” like oysters do with grains of sand. Walker’s grandfather says that the bones are magical, and they hold many secrets, but if one gazes on them, he will become sick and die.

In an antique store one day, Walker’s grandfather hears a voice calling out to him to “Buy me!” It is the voice of the skull of pearl, calling to him, wanting him to purchase it, and to take a peek at it, which he does. Soon after this, he becomes sick, and is bedridden. He can’t count on his son William, Walker’s dad (a captain in the Navy), to help him, because William doesn’t seem to care very much for either his father or even Walker. Instead, he’s concerned about getting the skull of pearl for himself, and selling it for a lot of money.

It looks like if anyone is going to save his grandfather, it has to be Walker Bean. He needs to somehow get the skull, take it to the trench, and give it back to the merwitches, or his grandfather will die. This is easier said than done, though, because everyone who learns about the skull of pearl wants it for themselves. He stows away on a pirate ship, and their cabin boy, Shiv, befriends him and hides Walker below decks. A girl pirate with red hair who is a friend of Shiv’s doesn’t like Walker at first, but she also eventually becomes Walker’s friend.

The captain of the pirate ship is tricked by the skull to look at it, and he becomes very sick, and the Navy (because of Walker’s dad) is after the pirates to try to get the skull back. What can a mere kid do when faced with such odds against him? How about things like altering the very constellations in the night sky, to make the pirates go off-course and head for the Mango Islands, and then getting the pirates to add wheels to their ship when it gets stranded on land?

The artwork in The Unsinkable Walker Bean is gorgeous, and there are some eye-popping full-page illustrations that kick the book to a whole ‘nother level. Walker gets into scrape after scrape, like being tied up with Shiv and thrown into the sea to drown, for instance, yet he somehow always manages to escape. The graphic novel is very suspenseful, and you keep hoping that Walker will make it to the Mango Islands in time to save his grandfather. The artwork reminded me of the style of the Belgium comic strip, Tintin. 75 different colors were used, and some pages were scratched and torn by razorblades to make the effect of rain and splashes.

The Unsinkable Walker Bean is a treasure of a graphic novel that’ll put a smile on the faces of pirates (and non-pirates) of all ages who read it. It’s an adventure-filled book that you’re sure to want to check out today!