JEFF LEMIRE CONVERSATIONS SC

Collected interviews with the award-winning Canadian comic writer and artist whose credits include Marvel's Extraordinary X-Men and DC's Justice League Dark Many cartoonists deflect from questions about one's history with comics and the influences of other artists, while others indulge the interviewer briefly before attempting to steer the questions in another direction. But Jeff Lemire, creator of Essex County Trilogy, Sweet Tooth, The Nobody, and Trillium, seems to bask in these discussions. Before he was ever a comics professional, he was a fan. What can be traced in these interviews is the story of the movement from comics fan to comics professional. In the twenty-nine interviews collected in Jeff Lemire: Conversations, readers see Lemire come to understand the process of collaboration, the balancing act involved in working for different kinds of comics publishers like DC and Marvel, the responsibilities involved in representing characters outside his own culture, and the possibilities that exist in the comics medium. We see him embrace a variety of genres, using each of them to explore the issues and themes most important to him. And we see a cartoonist and writer growing in confidence, a working professional coming into his own. (A) Jeff Lemire