About the Comic
Going to Weather is a nautical ghost story set on the stage of a New England whaleship, spanning three acts. It’s written and illustrated by SJ Costello.
Updates once mid-month on the 2nd or 3rd Wednesday every month in page batches here as well as on Tapas. Supporters on Patreon will have early access to pages as they’re drawn throughout the month.
Synopsis
1843. New Bedford is the city lighting the world. Its wealth is drawn bleeding from the ocean depths. Whale oil lamplight glazes domestic life and spermaceti candles burn long at the tables of the rich. Their warm glow belies the brutal work that set them there.
From the chaotic harbor bristling with ship masts, a cobbled-together crew boards the whaleship Valor bound for the Pacific. Among them is Lawrence Manner, a landsman hoping to shed his onshore life, and Ezra Carter, a second mate striving for a captaincy in a nation that has few other options for him.
The ship’s master—Barzillai Waite—has built a reputation of great success, returning time and time again with thousands of barrels of oil in the Valor’s hold. But the Captain’s lucky image is dogged by a tale that he was once the sole survivor of a wreck at sea. The Valor, now on her fourth voyage, somehow feels older than she should. And out on the isolated stretch of ocean, as the tryworks smoke and bubble, an unseen and unwelcome passenger begins to make itself felt.
Content Warnings:
• Animal cruelty / animal death (whaling)
• Blood and gore (human & animal)
• Violence (shipboard, creature, and supernatural)
About the Creator
Call me SJ. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—I fell into an obsession with the history of the New England whaling industry. Its contradictions captivated me: A voyage’s long stretches of boredom and the folk art that sprang from those doldrums. The punctuating moments of terror that spilled the blood of both men and whales, all to light a distant house at night and build a dry stranger’s wealth. A ship with all her cruelties balanced against beautiful moments of humanity as the years stretched on, where the only constant company was one’s crewmates; the only destination the sea, and all its fathomless uncertainty.
I wanted to tell a story in this place
I’m a writer, illustrator, and museum educator. Born and raised in New England, I’m now based in New York City with a cat named Bosun and a concertina. My work draws largely upon my fascination with ghosts in all their forms: the stories of people who came before me, secondhand objects that have tales to tell, and the memories that settle in forgotten places.
