AJ Dungo is an illustrator and surfer whose graphic novel In Waves joins surf history to a personal account of love, illness, and grief. Its restrained visual language lets the two timelines speak to each other.
A tale of love, heartbreak and surfing from an important new voice in comics. In Waves is Craig Thompson's Blankets meets William Finnegan's Barbarian Days. In this visually arresting graphic novel, surfer and illustrator AJ Dungo remembers his late partner, her battle with cancer, and their shared love of surfing that brought them strength throughout their time together. With his passion for surfing uniting many narratives, he intertwines his own story with those of some of the great heroes of surf in a rare work of nonfiction that is as moving as it is fascinating.
In Waves intertwines a history of surfing ↗ with Dungo’s account of his late partner Kristen’s cancer and death. Nobrow’s spotlight calls the book a rare work of nonfiction ↗ that is both moving and fascinating; Dungo describes its origin as a project born from grief, belief, and timing.
Dungo’s interviews make the form legible: research comes first, then writing and panel construction, while a limited palette ↗ carries two connected narratives. Liquid Salt and Surfer both return to the book’s balance of personal loss, surf history, and visual restraint ↗.
Dungo’s work also extends beyond his own graphic novel: publisher listings credit him as illustrator of Skating Wilder ↗ with Brandon Dumais and Wake Now in the Fire ↗ with Jarrett Dapier. The author store places these collaborations alongside In Waves, showing the wider range of his illustration work.
