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[Number 83 - Essex County - Part 4]

Number 83 - Essex County - Part 4

Where to find it

Easy one this. While there are three original graphic novels these are no longer in print and to be honest not the best way to get this. Rather just get the Complete collection. Its available in most places at a really good price.

Also available digitally if that tickles ya fancy.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page but there's not much there!

Really nice write up from a place called url=https://www.bookforum.com/print/1503/essex-county-by-jeff-lemire-2760]Book Forum[/url]... well I say nice any website / person that describes both Joe Kubert and Alex Toth as  'journeymen' can't be all good! I mean in the strictest sense yes that's true but really Joe Kubery and Alex Toth reduced to that... I'm getting off the point here aren't I!

And another nice summary from Panel Patter

And another one from The Captive Reader.

To be honest there's loads out there extolling the virtues of Essex County. Just remember to add 'comics' or 'Lemire' to your search. Well unless you want to read about Chelmsford. The world's your oyster for this one, from both comics and prose focused review sites. This one really cuts across the boundaries.

Apparently there a [TV adapation of the comics. I'm not aware of this being available in the UK and while I can take or leave most comic adaptations this one intrigues me so I might try to track it down.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

[Number 83 - Essex County - Part 3]

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.

[Number 83 - Essex County - Part 2]

Number 83 - Essex County - Part 2


Copyright - him what created it

The second aspect I find so impressive is very specific. He draws solid men, so often ice hockey players, that feel so hard and beaten by life and yet with a vulnerability that belies their physical grandeur. While it's a very specific thing I notice it reveals something that runs across what he is able to do with his art. Firstly while his style could be said to be cartoony, almost caricature once you get into its rhythm it becomes very real and grounded. The faces he gives characters and I'll use those hardened men as the example here, can appear almost grotesque, yet they are immediately recognisable, they relate and reveal so much. I lose myself in his representations and just see these people, so often broken and bewildered. Their solid jaws and flattened noses give their history and the context in which they have lived their lives. Yet at the same time the lines that mark their faces reflect their worries and sadness behind that exterior presentation.

This carries on to the immaculate way he gives these same characters weight through their body language and the way they carry themselves. These big men, muscular and looming can present as intimidating and no nonsense when they need to. Quiet, hard men that I grew up with. Then in the next moment a slight stoop will be apparent in their postures, a sloping of their shoulders that give you the weight that they carry with them. I see in them that those broken hard faces have come at the cost and not just a physical one. Quiet, hard men so often mask the pain and worry they have to allow them to fit into the demands the world requires of them. The pretence they must maintain is a burden and one Lemire is so fantastically and subtly able to convey.

Once again we see how the very best comic artists are able to give the reader contrast and juxtaposition in a single image. They can use their art to display the contradictions we all have in a single frozen moment... with Jeff Lemire that just happens to strike me most with his old ice hockey veterans, or at least I can find a way to express it with those hard, quiet men, but he does it with all his characters.


Copyright - him what created it

Finally another aspect of how he presents character is an amazing 'trick' he seems to have mastered with the way he draws eyes. I mean they are apparently just so simple, black circles with a highlight, often, no detail, little variation in shape and form and yet they are incredibly soulful and penetrate into the characters and so into the reader of those characters. Quiet differences in placement, size and the eyebrows and lines around the eyes, so an attention to detail which works so well, rather than the number of intricate lines often used to present them (eyes) but mask them.

It's quite astonishing how with apparently so little he is able to give the reader so much. There's a depth presented in the simple, deep black circles he uses. They carry weight and importance. The fact that they are so simply realised means that those tiny subtle changes around the eyes hit with so much power. Their simplicity also makes them so relatable to the reader. There is little to distract us from what Lemire wants us to see, so we see it and are able to relate it to ourselves. Quite how he makes his eyes so soulful and powerful is astonishing. The work of a master of his craft with the apparent confidence to know what he is giving will allow the reader to get what they need.

[Number 83 - Essex County - Part 1]

Number 83 - Essex County - Part 1



Number 83 - Essex County

Keywords: Canada; Ice hockey; coming of age; graphic novel, not a graphic novel

Creators:
Writer - Jeff Lemire
Art - Jeff Lemire
Colours - Its in beautiful black and white baby

Publisher: Top Shelf

No. issues: 3 Graphic novels; collected into one bumper 500+ page collection
Date of Publication: 2008 - 2009 originally 2011 as a complete collection

Last read: 2016

I sometimes forget that Jeff Lemire's


Copyright - him what created it

was originally presented as three stand alone short stories. I forget 'cos those stories feel so perfectly bound together into a magnificent 500 page whole and work so much better as such... I assume, I've never read them separately but it's really hard for me to imagine doing so.

The three stories are all set in Essex County in Ontario Canada, though my understanding is that while the places are real, the history and specifics of the region are altered to support the story being told. Characters from each tale filter through the others, but each is distinct as a story and the connective tissue between them is really just in tone and theme. Largely how they deal with family. So while the stories are more closely linked than those in say Contract with God, each could still work perfectly in isolation.

The first story 'Tales from the farm' tells of Lester Papineau sent to live with his Uncle Ken after the death of his mother and with his father long since gone. The pair are united and separated in their grief at the loss of Lester's mum, who was Ken's sister. Lester forms a curious friendship with Jimmy, an ex hockey player, who suffered from a head injury and has a secret history with Ken and his family.

'Ghost Stories' the second tale slowly reveals the history of the relationship between two more ex-ice hockey players, in this instance brothers Lou and Vince. As we learn more about their pasts we learn about the course their lives took and the events that drove them apart.

Finally we meet Anne Quenneville. A Country Nurse who travels Essex County caring for people while also trying to care for her ageing mother who now lives in a nursing home. On her rounds she comes across characters from previous stories and through flashbacks reveals some history of Essex County. In many ways it's this story that brings everything together and unites the initially separate story into a whole.


Copyright - him what created it

While I primarily consider Jeff Lemire a writer I like, I feel I need to consider the impact of the art on Essex County first and foremost to start to unpick why I think Essex County is so good. His style doesn't strike me as something I instinctively gravitate to. It's loose and at first glance feels awkward and unrefined. That's so often something I would be drawn to, but in Lemire's case stylistically there's just something that doesn't leap off the page and draw me in. In fact when I flick through something by him I can find it a little off putting. Then as soon as I start reading I rapidly get beyond any supreficial concerns and quickly see the depth and power to his work. Any stylistic qualms I might have are washed away and I relax and enjoy the comfortable, expansive nature of what he's doing.

In Essex County that is particularly true, his art is just magnificent and so well constructed to carry the stories it holds. There's a few particular aspects of that I want to delve into. Firstly the way he creates open, sweeping landscapes that with apparently simple lines and brilliant use of white spaces he creates a cinematic feeling of wistfulness and isolation. By situating his character in these environments they are immediately given a lonely sadness that is really effective and often haunting. It gives me an emotional connection to the characters I can really relate to by the way they view the world around them, in the way Lemire places them in the world he drafts.

I find an interesting comparison to the way I discuss how Steve Yeowell opens up worlds in Red Seas (no.119). They both do so with similar choices in their use of white space and spare details but to very different effects. Yeowell does so to give epic scope and to add to the sense of wonder that Red Seas demands. In Essex County Lemire makes the space and landscape feel isolating giving a far more intimate emotional reaction to them. The comparison of common techniques (if different styles) to have such starkly different impacts is fascinating to me.

So watching 1987's The Gate and well I've not finished it yet but I'm half way through then the only exciting thing that's happened so far is 27(ish) minutes in Terry the best friend of the led Glen played by Stephen Dorff not less is dancing in his bedroom and on his wall you can clearly see the cover of Prog 458 (The Adrian Cockroach cover) is clearly visible...

I've seen quite a few good movies lately
4. Godzilla Minus One

7. Monster (Korea, 2023)

Really want to see Godzilla Minus One - must sort that out.

is Monster good? I think its on Prime (or was it Netflix) and forgot to tag it but if its worth watching will pop back to do so.

Both are superb, MONSTER is making my top 3 of the year. Did not have 'Rashomon for the education system about three autistic people and their struggles to communicate' on my bingo card for 2024 but here we are, and its great.

Cool beans I'll remember to check that one out then...

I've seen quite a few good movies lately
4. Godzilla Minus One

7. Monster (Korea, 2023)

Really want to see Godzilla Minus One - must sort that out.

is Monster good? I think its on Prime (or was it Netflix) and forgot to tag it but if its worth watching will pop back to do so.

By the way folks sorry for not posting Thursday - just silly busy so it dropped off the plate... I mean its not as if you are all desperately hanging on waiting for my next post here BUT in my dream where folks are I'm informing those imaginary folks that I hope to have things back on track Monday.

Looks interesting, pity that it was never reprinted or collected. I originally watched 2001 I just disliked it today I think I am more "mature" and would most likely like it.

Defo worth a try - its really good and holds up I'd say.

I love that the icon box on the top left shows that the central characters here are an apeman, a spaceman, and the monolith itself.

yep that is rather brilliant - wish I'd thought to mention it!

I've read a handful of these issues and love them, they are super weird and beautiful. I'm not much of a Kirby guy but his slightly left-of-mainstream comics - including this and OMAC - really help paint him as not just the precursor of superhero comics, but also of pretentious arthouse (Sci-Fi) comics.

I think the continental European pretensious arthouse (Sci-fi) get there first but yep!

Um, I feel like I should be really careful as to how I put this due to site rules, but it is available online for free and can be found quite easily via google. But I don't want to post links to any dodgy sites (dodgy as in copyright infringement, nothing more than that).

I mean let's be honest you can probably get any of this stuff from those kinda sites and when something isn't available and so you're not taking away from anyone I kinda don't see why not to do that.

Oddly enough, the set of comics I have next after I finish my modern Marvel run (almost there) is... the original Machine Man run, which I won for $1 on eBay years ago.

Its not bad... just not Kirby at his best for me. There's some cool Ditko stuff too if that's your thing. I'm not so much of a Ditko fan to be honest. At that price though - WOW!

Steve Albini record producer and leader singer of the brilliant Shellac died of a heart attack.

Beyond gutted he was such a talent with amazing ethics and principles. Damn

Guardian report

Every year for about 5 years now I've been promising I'll make Lawless someday. Think it was about 2 years ago I promised myself I'd make it, if I wasn't able to do so sooner, to the 10th anniversary convention.

Initially I wrote it off, as the weekend in question is when I was supposed to be doing a van run to help my sister move into her temporary summer digs in Manchester before she starts Uni in September.
Turns out that's been delayed until the following weekend, so might sneak in a cheeky Saturday only trip.
See folks there!

oh that's fantastic news. Its been too long since we caught up Zac.

I'm much the same I've been meaning to get to Lawless for years now but for one reason or another never quite got to it. Having finally taken the plunge I'm now super excited. Hope this inspires me to get back to Thought Bubble as well after far too long. That's for after however...

[#84 - Part 3]

#84 - Part 3

Where to find it

Unfortunately due to licensing issues around the rights to the movies these comics grew from this series has never been reprinted, unlike almost all of his other work. I'm not sure if this is likely to be sorted anytime soon if it hasn't by this point.

For this reason they aren't available digitally either it would seem.

Fortunately even though they have never been reprinted they are still available in the aftermarket and not at silly prices. Be patient however as folks will list these for far more than they would normally sell for. I picked up a full set for about £20 a few years ago. They have gone up a bit since, particularly issue 8 the first appearance of Machine Man. Even so if you wait you'll get a full set south of £40.

The original Treasury adaptation will go for that and more. Hence I've never picked it up, much as I'd love to. It is out there but be prepared to shell out for it if you do decide to buy it.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page

Wired has a decent article about the comics and their relationship to Kubrick.

Peerless Power of Comics has a great page about the movie adaptation with some glorious images from the comic to blow your mind.

Most of the talk on the internet is about the movie adaptation. But good ol' Cartoonist Kayfabe has a great video that covers both that and then moves onto the ongoing series. Jim Rugg also thinks its one of Kirby's best works.

Norton of New York 2040 a.d. from issues 5 and 6 is put under the spotlight by Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse. While Mars will send no more cheekily reproduces the whole of issue 1 for you to check out.

Finally Steve does comics has a look at my favourite issue 7. So there's stuff out there to explore if you nosey around.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

[#84 - Part 2]

#84 - Part 2


Copyright - complicated!

We're not done yet though. King has another of his skills to show off. Having all but done with the trappings of the movie he uses the series to create yet another character in the already bursting pantheon of superheroes he's created. Whether this was a decision driven by Kirby, or an attempt to boost sales by bringing  in a more superheroic element to the series I don't know. Whatever it was it was a success.

Mister Machine, who would become Machine Man debuted in issue 8. He had some very tentative connections to the previous ideas in the comic. He's an android created as part of a programme which when abandoned required the destruction of those androids for fear they may have destructive traits. Mister Machine is spared as he had been taken home by his creator for some more specific development. On hearing the request to detonate the minibombs that had been placed into the robots as a safety measure the creator of Mister Machine, designated X-51, removed the bombs and sends him on his way into the world.

Mister Machine is captured but then encounters the monolith - allowing him to escape. The implication being the monolith pushes an 'developmental leap forward' for this machine in the same way it does with humans and their predecessors. Machine Man as he will soon be called is then off again onto adventures across the Marvel universe.

While not one of Kirby's most celebrated characters I have a real soft spot for Machine Man and love the inventive way he's used. Hunted across the Marvel comics world he allows Kirby to play with similar ideas to those he did with Silver Surfer. His 9 issue run on the Machine Man series that spun out of 2001 which came to an end with issue 10 are great fun and I did consider including them here. I choose not to in the end as they lacked quite the same creative engine of the 2001 issues and feel like 'just' typical Kirby superheroes.


Copyright - complicated!

And it is that which makes 2001, A Space Odyssey standout for me amongst Kirby's many great works. It's why it's my favourite. By being unshackled from a superhero mythos it has some much fun and allows Kirby's creative brilliance to run into all sorts of amazing places. In doing that it provides a perfect summary of what makes Kirby's work so compelling. At first he shows how even tied to a set of rules created by developing someone else's stories, he is able to do so with a vigour and drive that pushes those stories into incredibly interesting places.

Then in a very short period of time it demonstrates that you can't contain such a massive imagination and he pushes against the preconceived ideas he's working within to push them to their natural limits and stretching them out to one of their potential limits. He does this without breaking those boundaries. Rather maximising the potential within them, all be it within the confines of a mainstream comic industry then aimed at a young audience. There's a bravery of taking those potential and perceived limitations of the intended audience (perceived by others, Kirby knew no such limits) and pushing the stories to the places he does.

Finally he takes what's left of that and 'reverts to type'. That type being a creator able to utilise a mainstream superhero universe to create yet more characters and concepts. He does that with the skill and creativity others of that 'type' could barely dream of achieving.

He does all that in just 10 magnificent issues.


Copyright - complicated!

A few years ago at the height of my passion for Kirby there would have been numerous titles from the 70s by Jack Kirby in any list of this sort I created. For a while his 70s output was right up there at the very top of my favourite comics. Over the last few years that absolute adoration has lessened. In part I think because Kirby is at his best as you are first exposed to the brilliance of his unbridled imagination and creative power. For me his work doesn't hold up as well as others to repeated reading. It's that visceral reaction to his raw creativity that blows you away on first exposure. That experience just can't be replicated on subsequent reads.

It's for that reason I think there are only a couple of his series on this list and this one is the highest. I still really admire and enjoy his other 70s and some of his 80s work. I just can't quite capture that initial magic again. That said, in these 10 issues I still see his unrivalled imagination that even his other more lauded works can't quite manage. 

[#84 - Part 1]

#84 - Part 1



Number 84 - 2001, A Space Odyssey

Keywords: Jack Kirby, Imagination, Summation of a genius, nothing like the movie

Creators:
Writer - Jack Kirby
Art - Jack Kirby and Mike Royer
Colours - George Roussos

Publisher: Marvel Comics

No. issues: 10
Date of Publication: 1976 - 1977

Last read: 2024

Jack Kirby is widely regarded as the King. That is the King of mainstream comics. If you want a nice simple (well simple might not be the word) summation of why that is and why his genius and imagination is so admired then look no further than the 10 issues of


Copyright - Marvel Comics (I assume I imagine the movie tie in bit makes this a little complicated and I couldn't be bothered to dig into that!

Across these 10 issues you get so much. The series span out of a treasury edition adaptation of Stanley Kubrick's seminal 1968 adaption of Arthur C Clark's novel. I've never owned that, as much as I've looked for it at a decent price and so I'm not considering it here. I do however add a link to an article about it below as it's meant to be excellent so wanted to add some mention. It would appear that the simple reason that the adaptation came out 8 years after the film is simply Marvel didn't think to purchase the rights. In much the same way their original Planet of the Apes comics came out much later than the first film. By the mid 70s adapting and then expanding upon suitable films just seemed to be something they were interested in.

At the point Marvel purchased those rights Kirby was just returning to the company after a 6 year creatively brilliant, commercially unsuccessful period with DC. When the talk around the Bullpen turned to who would be best placed to take up 2001 the almost universal choice was Jack Kirby. Everyone knew that he could take such an imaginative story and expand upon it. The only person who was unsure seemed to be Kirby himself, who was reluctant to take on someone else's ideas, he had so many of his own after all. But ever the trooper, he took the assignment when asked. Ever the creative genius he quickly threw off the shackles of any limitations he might have seen.


Copyright - complicated!

The movie adaptation was immediately followed by an ongoing series, the trajectory of which is absolutely fascinating and explains why this is my favourite comic series by 'The King'. It also exposes how he quickly got over any doubts he had about being limited with anyone else's story ideas.

The first two issues take the key surface elements of the movie and spin them through a Kirby lens to get them reimagined into a concept that is simply fantastic. We establish a character in a specific circumstance and point in human development. They encounter the Monolith, take a leap forward in human development. Project forward to the future and a space age environment and introduce a character who seems firmly rooted in the second half of the film. Place them in danger, have them escape to a calm realm of mystery and intrigue where they age and be reborn as the starchild. Rince, wash repeat. Well others might have, Kirby did for just two stand alone issues.

For issues 3 and 4 he did actually stick to the same template, however you can already feel him getting restless. He expands the idea from done in ones to two issues. The links to the movie remain the same so the difference is he adds more to the elements he creates.

By issues 5 and 6 he pushes further away from that initial premise as he introduces 'Norton of New York 2040AD' a time when Kirby imagines rather than read comics you live them in theme parks designed to allow you to live your four coloured fantasies. He continues to tie the ideas exploding onto the page back to those two core ideas from 2001, the monolith and the Star Child, but the bonds are weakening and these issues feel more and more like the magnificence of Kirby's creative power running loose.


Copyright - complicated!

Issue 7 feels like a swansung to the ideas tied to the movie. But what a swansung it is. Kirby takes the idea of the Star child, the New Seed and just runs with it. He almost gives us a lifecycle for these cosmic beings. From its creation to its interstellar journey through the stars. That journey realised as only Kirby could with broad pop art sweeps that in the hands of anyone else would feel loose and clumsy. Might become difficult to assimilate and untangle. With Kirby seemingly innate ability to communicate even the most esoteric concepts - how is Kirby crackle so intuitively understood??? - it all reads perfectly and makes as much sense as an intergalactic baby, seemingly without any restrictions on its scale - travelling the stars to seed new life possibly could.

He routes these mindbending ideas with a human story as the Star Child witnesses a terrible human conflict. He takes the essence of victims of that concept to a barren world to use that to seed new life there. I would apologise for spoilers for this comic but really in this instance its not destination its witnessing the journey that is everything here. When you describe the events of the comic it sounds like it should be absolute nonsense. Especially when you consider all this is told with Kirby's traditional hyperbolic dialogue. Yet somehow all that is presented just feels like the perfect vehicle for Kirby's art and his staggering ability to use that to explode high concept ideas onto the comic page.

It's very possible this single comic is my favourite of the many I have read by Kirby. It encapsulates his ability to take the ideas of others and elevate them to something entirely new, and inconceivable to a lesser mind. To then translate that to a tale that is easy to understand and that invites you to marvel at his dynamic, creative genius.

I'm quite looking forward to having a couple of days off... I mean recovery time...