Mermaids in Comics 3 – Sailor Twain, or, The Mermaid in the Hudson

We LOVE First Second books! First Second is a US publisher of graphic novels. Julie has a huge collection of American and translated European works from its catalogue. So we were delighted to discover that Sailor Twain Or The Mermaid in the Hudson has just been released and as the title tells you—it features a mermaid.

We haven't read it because it was released just last week, but it was reviewed on the ICv2 website. Here's part of the review:

In Sailor Twain, Siegel introduces readers to late-nineteenth century New York, specifically the culture and life of the Hudson River. Siegel deserves commendation as Sailor Twain is more than a modern and affectionate experiment in or homage to genre fiction--instead, Sailor Twain finds common ground in the serialized nature of nineteenth-century literature, the horror and atmosphere of Edgar Allan Poe combined with the intrigue of Arthur Conan Doyle, and the comedic sensibilities of travelling stage performances that later formed the basis for vaudeville as well as early silent cinema and newspaper comics. Told in retrospection through a conversation between Captain Twain and a mysterious, unknown woman named Miss Camomille, the story traverses the Gilded Age and Civil War eras aboard the Lorelei, along the shore, and below the Hudson River itself. With a cast resembling a ship of lost souls, Siegel has crafted an original and innovative supernatural and romantic tale involving the disappearance of passengers coinciding with the arrival of a wounded mermaid named South.

You can spot the mermaid in the video from the 0.39sec mark. Looks like this is one for our Christmas list... to give to each other, of course.