Portrait of a Drunk

In this graphic novel, three cutting-edge, world-renowned cartoonists team up to tell a tale of an 18th-century pirate ― one who's more gallows fodder than a Hollywood swashbuckler.

Guy is no master mariner, with a clipped red (or black) beard. He's just an ordinary member of the crew ― able enough, but also a lazy, cowardly liar, a drunkard, and a thief. His story is told in two allegorical parts: "The Blowout" and "The Hangover." Three contemporary comics titans, Belgian Olivier Schrauwen (Parallel Lives) and the French duo Ruppert and Mulot (The Perineum Technique) collaborate to bring you the best pictorial and narrative elements of the great tales of the sea ― bright colors, grand battles, gallows humor ― in this tour de force of black comedy. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Jérôme Mulot is best known for his comics collaborations with Ruppert; each French artist both writes and draws. The two met at the National School of art in Dijon and began publishing their creations in their fanzine Del Adventure. Together they won the Revelation Prize from the Angouleme International Comics Festival for Barrel of Monkeys (Panier de Singe). They began publishing the crime fiction le Grande Odalisque in 2012.


Olivier Schrauwen was born in Belgium in 1977 and studied animation at the Academy of Art in Gent, and comics at ESA Saint-Luc in Brussels. He currently lives in Berlin. He is the author of the books The Man Who Grew His Beard (2011), Arsène Schrauwen (2014), Parallel Lives (2018), and Sunday (2024).

Florent Ruppert is a French comics writer and artist who frequently collaborates with Mulot. The two met at the National School of art in Dijon and began publishing their creations in their fanzine Del Adventure. Together, they won the Revelation Prize from the Angouleme International Comics Festival for Barrel of Monkeys (Panier de Singe). They began publishing the crime fiction le Grande Odalisque in 2012.

Jenna Allen is a freelance translator based in Colorado.