Today I bought Jeff Lemire's Collected Essex County and let me tell you, he has managed to do something remarkable. Lemire has written and drawn a story that makes it's readers nostalgic for a place they have never been. It's easy to see why comics are being taken seriously these days with creators like Jeff Lemire. Essex county is a trilogy, each story sharing characters and weaving seamlessly together. The dialogue and relationships between every character is perfectly realistic. The stories center around a young child named Les who is obsessed with super heroes, an old man named Lou who is loosing his grip on reality and reliving his life and a middle aged nurse named Anne who is dealing with being a widower and trying to always do the best for her patients . Each character is dealing with the past and their own failures and hardships and trying to make a life for themselves in the wake of their own personal shortcomings and tragedies.
On the art front, the book is done in black and white and leaves the reader with the perfect sense of a small community. Sometimes starkly realistic and isolated and other times leaving you with a feeling of wonder and amazement. Lemire has truly captured the feeling of a small rural town.
I rate this book a......
10 out of 10, A perfectly told story showing the frailty of life and love and the hardships people go through.
P.S. Make sure to come down to Friendly Neighborhood Comics 191 mechanic street in Bellingham MA and pick up Jeff Lemire's The Nobody hardcover released by Vertigo and his new ongoing series Sweet tooth! Issue #1 is only one dollar!
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