Jeff Lemire (Industry Spotlight)

Jeff Lemire was born March 21, 1976, in Essex County Ontario. Lemire attended film school but he would soon learn that film wasn’t his calling. Instead, he would turn to comics and his life would forever be changed.

In 2005, Jeff Lemire would get an opportunity to self-publish his book called Lost Dogs. This book would garner him quite a bit of attention and in a short period, he would find himself taken seriously as a novelist and illustrator. With the spotlight shining down on him, Lemire was given the chance to work with Top Shelf Productions. While at Top Shelf, he would publish the award-winning trilogy, Essex County.

From there and in 2009, the DC Comics imprint, Vertigo published the graphic novel The Nobody. The Nobody was a comic-book retelling of the H.G Wells Invisible Man.

The Big Two Come Calling

In 2010 he joined DC and began work on the titles Atom, Superboy, Animal Man, Green Arrow, and Teen Titans: Earth One. With DC under his belt, he switched teams and began work at Marvel. While there, he worked on All New Hawkeye, Extraordinary X-Men, Old Man Logan, and Moon Knight.

Black Hammer, Roughneck and Royal City

In July of 2014, Dark Horse Comics proclaimed that a superhero book was in the works. As it turns out, the book would be called Black Hammer, the artwork done by Dean Ornston, and the writing done by Lemire. If I may say, this book is a phenomenal addition to any collection.

With Black Hammer completed, he turned his attention to creating the graphic novel, Roughneck. This book was released as a novel as opposed to a comic series because he felt it important to deviate from the comic book direct market.

Finally, in March of 2017, he released a new comic book series called Royal City. This book provided him the opportunity to both write and illustrate his own work.

And that’s only the beginning

He’s also responsible for some fan-favorite works:

• Descender
• Plutona
• Sweet Tooth
• Trillium
• The Underwater Welder

This is the only beginning of this talented writer and illustrated

Lemire has won numerous awards along the way. These include the 2005 Xeric Award for his work on Essex County, the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Award awarded for his work as an Outstanding Cartoonist, and the Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent in 2008.

Jeff Lemire is one of the most important comic book creators to come in the last 20 years and he shows no signs of stopping. His work is not only gripping but so very different from everything else on the market. If you’re looking for something a little out of the ordinary, you should check out his work.

Cheers,

Jeff