1898 / Audiobook / 145 pages / USA
***
The short novel that James Cameron filmed as Titanic a century later, though he took a lot of liberties and they're not all that similar. He should've kept the polar bear and the drug trip.
1992-93 (collected 1994) / Ecomic / 24 pages / USA
****
Mysterious, ancient artefacts, a smouldering volcanic island, mutiny, shipwreck, scurvy pirates, a sea monster and old-school diving gear, this packs a hell of a lot into a short, cliffhanger-led serial. It's a shame it wasn't a longer run. Or a film!
1995 / Ebook / 124 pages / Ireland
***
The philandering genius' Impressionist masterpiece is just the right length to obsess over at one side of an LP, though I'm not convinced by the intimate psychoanalytic take. It's balanced out by presenting a variety of grasping interpretations from down the years, just like the composer explicitly discouraged.
1995-96 / Ecomics / 96 pages / USA
****
The Dark Horse comics finally picked up at the end with this scurvy serial introducing memorable rogues, but all the readers who'd abandoned ship during earlier mediocre exploits weren't to know that, and the series couldn't avoid cancellation.
2008 / Audiobook / 117 pages / USA
**
There's only so much you can say about a collection of stripped-down cover songs, so the writer fluffs out his magazine review with a sea shanty that I can't imagine being of much interest to anyone.
