Interview: Jeff Lemire Helps Us Navigate 'Mazebook'
Jul 20, 2021
Interview by Troy-Jeffrey Allen
If you're starting to wonder if Jeff Lemire is cloning himself then you're not alone. The prolific scribe behind critically acclaimed, award-winning comics such as Essex County, Sweet Tooth, Animal Man, and a plethora of Black Hammer books, has built an impressive bibliography for himself over the years. Sometimes even making award-winning, critically-acclaimed titles more than a few times a year.
Outside of the accolades, the thing that really distinguishes Lemire's work is how personal they are. Often times soul-wrenchingly so. His other specialty: giving readers a total mind-#@c&! And you're likely to get both of those things with his new series MAZEBOOK (JUL210285). We talked with Lemire about this upcoming Dark Horse title and what readers can expect (besides a case of the feels).
PREVIEWSworld: What is MAZEBOOK?
Lemire: Mazebook is my next self-drawn graphic novel that will be serialized in five oversized parts with Dark Horse. It follows the strange odyssey of a man named Will Warren who lost his puzzle-loving daughter a decade earlier and is now convinced he can find her by overlaying the last maze she was working on before her death onto a map of the city and following the path through the streets and alleyways to the center.
He ends up discovering another metaphysical world just below the surface of everyday life and embarks on a quest to find her.
PREVIEWSworld: Is this more mystery or psychological thriller or something else entirely?
Lemire: My favorite stories always combine all sorts of genres in interesting ways and are often very hard to define as just one type of story and I think Mazebook follows this path. It has elements of thriller, mystery, horror, and supernatural but these are never overt or easily categorized they all melt together into what I hope is a deeply human story about memory and human connection.
PREVIEWSworld: Tell us about the building inspector. Why do we follow him through this story, specifically?
Lemire: Will Warren knows the city. He literally knows how it was built and what anchors it. And in giving into this strange quest, he lets go of all of this and finds something unexplainable. Will’s memories are his only guide as he looks for the daughter whom he lost to illness years before.
PREVIEWSworld: What made you want to also draw this project?
Lemire: I was really interested in the graphic and visual potential a story about mazes could provide me as an artist. It inspired all sorts of unique layout opportunities and ways of playing with the language of comics to tell a unique story. Once I started drawing the book I fell in love with the world and characters and sort of felt like I was on the journey with them.
PREVIEWSworld: Looking forward, what can readers expect from MAZEBOOK?
Lemire: A lot of unexpected twists and turns. This is really a story that goes in places I don’t think the readers will ever anticipate.
PREVIEWSworld: In terms of audience, who is MAZEBOOK?
Lemire: I think it will appeal to readers of all of my more personal graphic novels like Essex County and Underwater Welder, but Mazebook also brings in some of the weirdness of projects like Sweet Tooth and Gideon Falls too.
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Mazebook (JUL210285) hits comic shops this September 8th from Dark Horse Comics. Discover more from Lemire and Dark Horse below.
A lonely building inspector still grieving the loss of his puzzle-loving daughter receives a mysterious phone call one night from a girl claiming it's her and that she's trapped in the middle of a labyrinth. Convinced that this child is contacting him from beyond this world, he uses an unfinished maze from one of her journals and a map of the city to trace an intricate path through a different plane of reality on an intense and melancholy adventure to bring his daughter back home.
The only way out is in . . .
A lonely building inspector still grieving the loss of his puzzle-loving daughter receives a mysterious phone call one night from a girl claiming it's her and that she's trapped in the middle of a labyrinth. Convinced that this child is contacting him from beyond this world, he uses an unfinished maze from one of her journals and a map of the city to trace an intricate path through a different plane of reality on an intense and melancholy adventure to bring his daughter back home.
The only way out is in . . .
Mysteriously banished from existence by a multiversal event, the old superheroes of Spiral City now lead simple lives on a bizarre farm from which there is no escape! But as they employ all of their super abilities to free themselves from this strange purgatory, a mysterious stranger works to bring them back into action for one last adventure!
Collects the first and second volumes of Black Hammer, and Black Hammer: Giant Sized Annual in a deluxe, hardcover, and oversized format with a new cover, sketchbook extras, and more!
From the Eisner Award-winning team of Jeff Lemire, Mike Deodato Jr., and Frank Martin, comes this urban warrior fantasy series!
Collecting issues #1-#4 of Berserker Unbound and featuring a sketchbook section and pinups by Mike Mignola, Andrea Sorrentino, Dustin Nguyen, and more!
A strange man arrives simultaneously on Black Hammer Farm and in Metropolis and both worlds are warped as Starro attacks! Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, and more crossover with Golden Gail, Colonel Weird and the rest of the Black Hammer gang!
Collects Black Hammer/Justice League: Hammer of Justice #1-5 and featuring pinup art by Yanick Paquette, Yuko Shimizu, Matteo Scalera, Andrea Sorrentino, Doc Shaner, Jill Thompson, and more!
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Troy-Jeffrey Allen is the producer and co-host of PREVIEWSworld Weekly. His comics work includes MF DOOM: All Caps, Public Enemy's Apocalpyse '91, Fight of the Century, the Harvey Award-nominated District Comics, and the Ringo Awards-nominated Magic Bullet.
