Number 83 - Essex County - Part 3
Copyright - him what created it
What is true for the art is also true for the way he provides so much from the stories he creates. Everything I've said about the art is reflected in the quality of his writing. In Essex County he uses those same aspects to tell his story with a quiet effectiveness that allows them to have a massive impact on me as a reader.
Vast open landscapes and small, tattered towns and locations that say as much about the compelling characters he fills them with. Archetypal people that we know and have met, all be it in different specific circumstances that are used to say so much more about themselves and through them ourselves. Simple, soulful reflections represented in how we see the character and how they interact. Seemingly using so little to say so much and say it in a way that is relatable and reflects on ourselves as much as the characters he uses to convey those themes and ideas.
Essex County has big ideas and plays with themes that have scope and yet are intimate and personal. Family, isolation, even when amongst others. The need for connection and the things in us that can drive those connections apart. How a quiet 'simple' life can have such importance and significance, measured not in 'Likes' or 'Hits' but the eyes and souls of the people living those lives that Jeff Lemire lays out so honestly in front of us. These are 'small' lives and 'small' stories but they matter, both in and of the characters themselves but what they can say to the reader about themselves.
I have a curious relationship with Jeff Lemire. As said I think of him primarily as a writer, yet his art is so important to this work. Also as I don't think of him as a writer I particularly follow or read everything by, I think of him as someone whose writing I like, don't love and an artist I think works best on particular works and not so much on others. That doesn't really stand up to the scrutiny of this list as he will have two further entries to come and so will have 3 well placed series in my top 100, two of which he also draws... and this from someone I don't immediately think of myself as a big fan of!
I think in part this is due to how I came across his work. I became aware of Jeff Lemire through his mainstream work at DC and Marvel (I think, has he done Marvel work?) and it was all so okay. It was fine. Often good, never amazing. It was only after that I started to find his other works and I got Essex County as part of some Humble Bundle or other, having a vague awareness that it was seen as really good. When I got around to reading it, it was with a curiosity about how this lauded work would read to me given what I knew of him to that point - though I think I was reading one of his series that I'll get to later in this list by that point - and it blew me away.
Essex County was not what I was expecting from what I'd read of his mainstream work and even the works I'd read of his elsewhere. That in part might inform something of why I love these stories so much. Just as if I have expectations set high when I go into something. Or as I've said before, if I'm aware something is hyped and if I don't quite see why, regardless of how good it is, I find I might push against that. Is the opposite true as well. If I go in with limited expectations and what I'm reading defies that in ways I'm not ready for, might that elevate my enjoyment?
It's possible, but even if that's the case none of that takes away from how good Essex County is.
There still remains little pull to me for this other work, which seems odd, but there you go. What I have read of his creator owned work is generally really good, some bits amazing, such as Essex County, but he seems pulled to genre pieces that maybe aren't where I always see his strengths. Though we'll likely get into that more as we go on with this list.
Copyright - him what created it
Essex County is yet another example that makes contrast work and in doing so really works for me. Its themes and story feels both universal and personal. It's both wide in scope and intimate. Quiet and reflective yet speaks volumes. Whatever it is, well worth reading whatever else of Jeff Lemire's work you have read.
Copyright - him what created it
What is true for the art is also true for the way he provides so much from the stories he creates. Everything I've said about the art is reflected in the quality of his writing. In Essex County he uses those same aspects to tell his story with a quiet effectiveness that allows them to have a massive impact on me as a reader.
Vast open landscapes and small, tattered towns and locations that say as much about the compelling characters he fills them with. Archetypal people that we know and have met, all be it in different specific circumstances that are used to say so much more about themselves and through them ourselves. Simple, soulful reflections represented in how we see the character and how they interact. Seemingly using so little to say so much and say it in a way that is relatable and reflects on ourselves as much as the characters he uses to convey those themes and ideas.
Essex County has big ideas and plays with themes that have scope and yet are intimate and personal. Family, isolation, even when amongst others. The need for connection and the things in us that can drive those connections apart. How a quiet 'simple' life can have such importance and significance, measured not in 'Likes' or 'Hits' but the eyes and souls of the people living those lives that Jeff Lemire lays out so honestly in front of us. These are 'small' lives and 'small' stories but they matter, both in and of the characters themselves but what they can say to the reader about themselves.
I have a curious relationship with Jeff Lemire. As said I think of him primarily as a writer, yet his art is so important to this work. Also as I don't think of him as a writer I particularly follow or read everything by, I think of him as someone whose writing I like, don't love and an artist I think works best on particular works and not so much on others. That doesn't really stand up to the scrutiny of this list as he will have two further entries to come and so will have 3 well placed series in my top 100, two of which he also draws... and this from someone I don't immediately think of myself as a big fan of!
I think in part this is due to how I came across his work. I became aware of Jeff Lemire through his mainstream work at DC and Marvel (I think, has he done Marvel work?) and it was all so okay. It was fine. Often good, never amazing. It was only after that I started to find his other works and I got Essex County as part of some Humble Bundle or other, having a vague awareness that it was seen as really good. When I got around to reading it, it was with a curiosity about how this lauded work would read to me given what I knew of him to that point - though I think I was reading one of his series that I'll get to later in this list by that point - and it blew me away.
Essex County was not what I was expecting from what I'd read of his mainstream work and even the works I'd read of his elsewhere. That in part might inform something of why I love these stories so much. Just as if I have expectations set high when I go into something. Or as I've said before, if I'm aware something is hyped and if I don't quite see why, regardless of how good it is, I find I might push against that. Is the opposite true as well. If I go in with limited expectations and what I'm reading defies that in ways I'm not ready for, might that elevate my enjoyment?
It's possible, but even if that's the case none of that takes away from how good Essex County is.
There still remains little pull to me for this other work, which seems odd, but there you go. What I have read of his creator owned work is generally really good, some bits amazing, such as Essex County, but he seems pulled to genre pieces that maybe aren't where I always see his strengths. Though we'll likely get into that more as we go on with this list.
Copyright - him what created it
Essex County is yet another example that makes contrast work and in doing so really works for me. Its themes and story feels both universal and personal. It's both wide in scope and intimate. Quiet and reflective yet speaks volumes. Whatever it is, well worth reading whatever else of Jeff Lemire's work you have read.