Chris Wright's Blacklung is a story that lives up to the term graphic novel: densely textured, highly stylised and wholly original. In a night of piratical treachery when an arrogant teacher is accidently shanghaied aboard the frigate Hand, his fate becomes inextricably fettered to that of a sardonic gangster. Dependent on one another for survival in their strange and dangerous new home, the two form an unlikely alliance as they alternately elude or confront the thieves and cutthroats that bad luck has made their companions and captors.