Sailor Twain: Or, the Mermaid in the Hudson (review)

It's 1887 and the reading public is all agog over the reclusive writer C. G. Beaverton, who has just released a volume of history and lore of the Hudson River Valley. Among the anecdotes are tales of persons mysteriously drowned in the river over the past centuries, and in particular, those lured to their deaths by mermaids. This is of vital interest to two men aboard the steamship Lorelei—the current owner, Dieudonné Lafayette, a womanizer whose older brother was lost upon the river; and Captain Twain, who has actually rescued an injured mermaid, nursed her back to health, and fallen in love with her. Lafayette enters into correspondence with Beaverton, trying to get additional information on how to recover from a mermaid's spell, and the author agrees to make a public appearance aboard the Lorelei. It's then that the revelations begin to roll. Beaverton, to the horror of her readership, turns out to be a woman; Lafayette has been seducing women because he believes loving seven at once will release him from a mermaid's thrall; Twain is drawn into the mermaid's kingdom as her last best hope of breaking her father's curse, which has locked her heart away until a mortal man loves her of his own free will. This mature fantasy graphic novel deftly blends humor, pathos, eroticism, and social critique as it explores the soul-splitting powers of love and lust. That the legend of the siren and her intoxicating song should play out on the Hudson rather than the Rhine or the Danube makes it all the more potent for American readers. Siegel's illustrations underscore the multiple themes of deceit and deception: softly blurred charcoal riverscapes transform the Hudson into a proving ground for dark magic, and the doe-eyed characters are nowhere near as innocent as they look. You're never too old for a well-told fairy tale.