The other answers are both partly right, but to be more specific: The albatross is really good at navigating air currents and ocean winds even when very far out at sea. If you could see an albatross, chances are you were safe from storms and such, and supposedly sailors would even sometimes use them to navigate by to stay safe. Seeing an albatross was good luck - not seeing one for an extended time was bad luck
So the comic inverts that from an Albatrosses point of view. Being followed by ships is an annoyance to them
That’s why the Mariner in the poem seems to bring a curse upon his ship when he shoots the albatross - he has literally destroyed a symbol of good fortune
The other answers are both partly right, but to be more specific: The albatross is really good at navigating air currents and ocean winds even when very far out at sea. If you could see an albatross, chances are you were safe from storms and such, and supposedly sailors would even sometimes use them to navigate by to stay safe. Seeing an albatross was good luck - not seeing one for an extended time was bad luck
So the comic inverts that from an Albatrosses point of view. Being followed by ships is an annoyance to them
That’s why the Mariner in the poem seems to bring a curse upon his ship when he shoots the albatross - he has literally destroyed a symbol of good fortune