TOP SHELF ANNOUNCES THE COMPLETE ESSEX COUNTY

"A quiet, somber, haunting masterpiece... Lemire is writing about loneliness and regret, and I'm at a loss to explain how he manages to illustrate the devastating toll they take on his characters even as he inspires his readers." -- Steve Duin, The Oregonian "This is the comics medium at its best." -- Booklist (from one of three starred reviews)

Where does a young boy turn when his whole world suddenly disappears? What turns two brothers from an unstoppable team into a pair of bitterly estranged loners? How does the simple-hearted care of one middle-aged nurse reveal the scars of an entire community, and can anything heal the wounds caused by a century of deception? Award-winning cartoonist Jeff Lemire pays tribute to his roots with ESSEX COUNTY, an award-winning trilogy of graphic novels set in an imaginary version of his hometown, the eccentric farming community of Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In ESSEX COUNTY, Lemire crafts an intimate study of one community through the years, and a tender meditation on family, memory, grief, secrets, and reconciliation. With the lush, expressive inking of a young artist at the height of his powers, Lemire draws us in and sets us free.

This new edition collects the complete critically-acclaimed trilogy (TALES FROM THE FARM, GHOST STORIES, and THE COUNTRY NURSE) in one deluxe softcover volume! Also included are over 40 pages of previously unpublished material, including two new stories.


SOFTCOVER French Flaps, 512 pages, 6 1/2" x 9"
$29.95 (US)
ISBN 978-1-60309-038-4

Also available, a limited edition HARDCOVER.
$49.95 (US)
ISBN 978-1-60309-046-9

The Strange Sounds of Otis Henry-Lyons

Here's the third installment of the "Bio-graphical" strip I'm doing in DRIVEN Magazine which comes as an insert in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. The previous two strips are included below...

4 Comics I'm Excited About...

1) Jeff Parker and Tom Fowler's "Mysterius The Unfathomable": I've never read anything by Parker, but Tom Fowler is an amazing cartoonist, and totally underrated.

2) Sulk 2: My good friend Jeffrey Brown's take on the Ultimate Fighting craze.

3) Hellblazer 250: It's no secret I'm a huge John Constantine fan, and some amazing talent has been gathered by my Vertigo editors Bob Schreck and Brandon Montclare for this anniversary issue. Among them, originally (and personal favorite) HB writer Jamie Delano, Dave Gibbons. Eddie Campbell and one of my favorite non-comics writers China Mieville. If you haven't read China's "Perdito Street Station" you really should. He is without a doubt the best genre fiction writer working today.

4) Lilli Carre is one of the most talented and visionary cartoonists working today. Her "Woodsman Pete" GN from Top Shelf was sad, hilarious and beautiful, and this new book from Fanragraphics looks to be a poetic masterpiece.

My Wife Is A Wonder!

My wife, Lesley-Anne Green is seven months pregnant, and she's been exhibiting her work at the One Of A Kind Christmas Show for the past ten days. She's a real trooper indeed. Good job sweets!

VISIONS OF AN ICON: SUPERMAN-AUCTION

The following painting is currently being auctioned on ebay along with a bunch of others as part of a fundraising effort for the Joe Shuster Awards. Details below from the Joe Shuster Commitee.


Visions of an Icon Superman art auctions begin tonight on eBay - Sim, McFarlane
Back in June we had a number of different artists submit their version of the Man of Steel in honour of his 70th birthday and to honour his co-creator, Joe Shuster, for whom the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards have been named.

42 pieces were submitted, and were displayed twice as an art exhibit - once on June 14th on the date of the presentation of the 4th Annual Joe Shuster Awards, and again in early November as part of the Speakeasy Comic Art show in Toronto.

Starting tonight, we will begin auctioning off the pieces on eBay as part of our fundraising efforts for the 2009 Awards.

The 42 pieces can be viewed here: http://comicartfans.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=66580

11 auctions start tonight (Monday Nov. 24)- artists included are:
Francis Manapul
Scott Chantler
Jeff Lemire
Alexander Perkins
Sam Agro
Eric Kim
Ryan Snook
Colin Upton
Agnes Garbowska
Ed Northcott
Dave Sim

11 auctions start tomorrow night (Tuesday Nov. 25) - artists included are:
Marcus To
Gabriel Morrissette
Fiona Smyth
Dave Ross
Ty Templeton
Michael Cho
Kent Burles
Tom Grummett
Noel Tuazon
Greg Hyland
Todd McFarlane

Except for three pieces, all of the initial offerings are no reserve auctions, with a starting price of $49.99. We'll be doing some more next week as well.

Please note: We have set reserves for the Sim, McFarlane and Grummett contributions that we feel are fair for pieces of this quality.

Please take a look, and hopefully something there will catch your eye.

All monies raised from the sale of these pieces, after fees are paid, goes towards next year's awards.

I will be selling these under my own eBay userid "kevthemev" instead of the low feedback "joe_shuster_awards" id.

Auctions start at 8PM EST (both nights) and finish before 9PM EST.

Here's a link to my store. JSA art will be listed under a new store category "Joe Shuster Awards Art Auctions":

http://Support-the-Collectors-Society.com/Kevthemevs-Comics-and-Comic-Art_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

Mad Max

The Real Essex County

Last week was Top Shelf week at Portland bookstore "Powell's "website. They periodically have guest authors posting on their blog. Nate Powell, Alex Robinson, James Kolchaka, Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger and myself all contributed posts. This was my entry which went up last Thursday...

All of my stories start with the setting, and even more than that, location totally informs how my characters and plots grow and take shape. The Essex County books (Tales From The Farm, Ghost Stories, The Country Nurse), all started when I decided to do a book set in the tiny Canadian farming town where I grew up.
I’ll admit, the rusted old farm equipment, teetering windmills and concrete grain elevators that littered the wide open fields of Essex County meant little to me growing up there. I couldn’t wait to move to the big city. But, ten years after leaving EC, and living in said Big City, the sparse lonely landscaped of my childhood started to evoke a strong, almost guttural pull inside of me. Moreover, they seemed like a natural fit with the jagged, expressive inking style that had become the earmark of my cartooning. And, as soon as I sat down and started scratching out drawings, all of those lonely roadside power-lines, and rickety old farmhouses quickly became equally lonely and rickety old characters. The “rural decay” of southwestern Ontario became the rural decay at the heart of inhabitants of my fictional Essex County. And from there plot and narrative structure sprung up.


To my surprise, location, or more specifically places where I spent significant parts of my childhood, has continued to inform the work I do, well after the completion of the Essex County Trilogy. My next two projects, while quite different in tone, are both set in the Northern Canadian fishing community where my family has vacationed almost every August of my life. The old bait and tackle shops, lakeside diners, aluminum fishing boats, earthworms and walleye, and the smell of gasoline coming of an outboard motor are my new drug. They have provided an equal amount of inspiration for me as I work on The Nobody, an original, two-color graphic novel for DC’s Vertigo imprint. That tale takes The Bandaged Stranger from H.G. Wells’ classic “The Invisible Man”, and recasts him as an oddball drifter taking up residence in a tiny northern lakeside Motel in 1994. And, my next Top Shelf GN (sorry too early to spill the beans on that one) will be equally entrenched in a tiny Canadian fishing village.


For me, as a storyteller, it all starts with the place, once I have that, the characters and story all come easily. Which poses the question: I wonder what I’ll do when I run out of places that I lived as a kid? Probably go back home to Essex County again for another round I suppose.