Saturday, March 31, 2007

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

I will be exhibiting original artwork, selling and signing books and getting drunk at the Annual Speakeasy Comic Show in Toronto this coming Thursday. The line up is great, so if you're in the area stop by and check it out!

Also I will be at the upcoming Toronto Comicon April 13-15. Kieth Giffen, one of my all time favorites will be there too! As well as legendary penciller Carmine Infantino, Kevin Nowlan, Chris Sprouse and more!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

SOFT INSTRUMENTS BEGINS!


SYNOPSIS.... THE STORY SO FAR...

Welcome to 1997, in a world much different from our own. The rise of the steam age prevented the industrial revolution as we know it from ever having occurred at all. As the world's only steam powered juggernaut, Great Britain spread out and assimilated the rest of Europe into the Anglo-centric super power The Union of European Allies. The cultures and languages of these occupied countries were eventually forgotten or pushed far underground, as the Victorian way was cultivated and held onto as the dominant and accepted culture.

As the Union of European Allies celebrates it's 100th anniversary the classes have never been further apart. The "Gentlemen Class" ...royalty, government officials and people of influence and affluence are the privileged few who have been "socketed". Steam powered identification sockets have been implanted into there arms giving them an unforgeable passport to cross international borders and travel freely within all union territories. The majority of the population however, the unsocketed masses, either vie for Gentlemanship by serving the state, or work in huge prison-like factory camps producing goods and services to sustain the self- sufficient Union.


Genocide in Central Asia, and civil war spreading throughout the Americas are only a few of the UEA's concerns. Their own workers have begun to organize, and the UEA Government (or "Central Gov") has begun to fear domestic terrorist attacks and possibly even a mass worker revolution. Security has never been more stringent as they tighten their grip on the populace.

*****
As our tale begins, fabled explorer, scientist, adventurer and Gentleman Dr. Elezear Zednik is sent to Union Territory #617-03 to investigate a rash of mysterious disappearances among the city's factory workers.

As he arrives he is met with hostility and mistrust by the local constabulary...click here to read the first chapters of Soft Instruments!




Sunday, March 18, 2007

ABOUT SOFT INSTRUMENTS


Soft Instruments will be an ongoing comic strip serialized regularly and exclusively right here.
I started working on SI in fall of 2005. At that time I serialized about 25 chapters on my old website. For whatever reason, the project wasn't quite where I wanted it to be and I abandoned it soon after. But, the story stuck with me, as the good one's do. I kept going back to it in my sketchbooks. I've also been looking for a side project to my more for my personal longer format work (in this case my Essex County graphic novels which have dominated my creative life for the last two years). As much as my other work satisfies me, I still feel like I have another side to my storytelling self, the side that loves science fiction, superheroes, horror and fantasy. In other words my inner geek/fanboy has been screaming for an outlet too.

So here it is. Soft Instruments has been percolating in various forms for the better part of ten years. It will be my big sci-fi/steam punk project, told in an old fashioned serialized comic strip format. If my Essex County books are my love letter to my childhood home, my family and my love of hockey, than SI is my secret lust letter to Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, William Gibson, and Alan Moore.

I can't promise daily chapters, but at least a couple strips a week is a realistic expectation. I've posted the first 8 chapters to start. Just enough for you to get a sense of the story and the world. You can also access "bonus features" like character dossiers, maps and an overall synopsis.

I hope you enjoy, and come back for more. I have the entire saga plotted out, and it should be enough to keep me and you busy and entertained for a few years at least...see you at the end.

I'm trying to figure out how to do an RSS feed to the comic, but I'm webtarded so until I figure it out, keep checking back!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

About Jeff Lemire's Blog


This blog will serve as an online work journal for me, as well as a place to post interesting bits and pieces from my sketchbooks. I also intend to serialize my new "side project", a sci-fi comic called SOFT INSTRUMENTS here regularly.

If you havn't already, check out my new graphic novel TALES FROM THE FARM here!

You can check out my main site, my portfolios and my comics here!