Jeff Lemire is great at character studies in the context of a larger plot. A good example is his work on Animal Man, easily one of the best books of the New 52 and one where both Buddy Baker and his family are sharply rendered and become richer as characters as time goes on.
The Underwater Welder shows that off to great effect. It’s a story about letting go, and how hard it is.
Jack Joseph has a baby on the way but in some ways is still a child himself. His father got drunk and drowned one night, at least according to the official story. But Jack can’t help but feel there’s more to it.
In the process, though, he’s withdrawing from his family into his job, diving deeper into the water and towards…something. It’s not exactly clear what Jack faces, whether it’s real or a product of his own psyche, but the story works, either way.
The thrust of the book, though, is really about parenthood. Jack’s insistence that his father’s death was more than an accident are really just his way dodging discussing how he feels about becoming a father. He’s scared out of his mind that he’s going to turn into his father… or possibly leave his child in the same emotional circumstances he was left in, one day.
Lemire’s art is equally top-notch. He didn’t phone this one in: it’s more than two hundred pages and a lot of it is dense, heavily formatted stuff. Splash panels will have dozens of smaller panels arranged in them. Sixteen and twelve panel grids are used to express everything from claustrophobia to a feeling of being jailed.
The Underwater Welder is a great book telling a great story. We rarely see comics like this and when we do, they’re always worth buying.
How about you? What’s the best comic of the week in your opinion?
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I’m sort of a fan of Lemire’s “Sweet Tooth” its not a slam dunk book, in my opinion. I’ll buy a trade to continue if I have absolutely nothing else to read that week. “meh.” this book sounds interesting though, I’ll give you that.
so far “The Massive” has been impressing me hugely. the research and information that Wood has collected for this series has been amazing.
Can we talk about what friggin’ happened in TWD #100 please?!
Sure. Honestly? It mostly made me think the book should have wrapped up a while back, though.
Moar like what didn’t happen! I was really hoping for some kind of epic switcheroo, but really we just got the same stuff as we’ve seen before. This was Tyrese 2.0, without the shock. We know where the stakes are. I thought it was pretty obvious right from the get go that he wasn’t going to survive the issue. It wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t really what I was expecting and not quite the monumental, 7 cover 100th issue I was hoping for. The “M… M.. Maaa..” part did get to me, I have to admit, and I was certainly sad to see him go.
I guess I am left asking, what’s next? That hasn’t happened for a while. Hopefully Kirkman’s got something grand up his sleeve, right now it seems like the book is getting a little too “Crossed,” I don’t think they needed to do that to make issue 100 an engaging read, especially so soon after another major character death. I don’t know.. I was hoping for something a little more special, like the final couple prison issues.
Yeah, I stopped reading the book a while back, picked it up again for this issue and put it right back down.
I’m surprised you thought “it was pretty obvious right from the get go that he wasn’t going to survive the issue.” what exactly led you down that road? I feel like I’m usually on top of things and I didn’t see it coming. Sure he was talking about their ‘future’ at the new outpost and moving, but TWD characters are always musing about this and that. It didn’t feel to me like foreshadowing at all.
I do agree with the whole “M… M… Maaa…” part. God, it was heart-wrenching. TWD is a hard thing to judge because there’s never been anything like it before. The dichotomy of the book is this; you’ll always have the haters who, like Dan (not saying you’re a hater), dropped off of the book for one reason or another… stating their problems with why this character died or that character died, and what they thought ‘should have happened.’ but at the end of the day, he’s still keeping it fresh. if you didn’t expect a character to die this time around – what DID you expect? it’s a comic about people becoming terrible and zombies.
I DO agree with what you were saying about expecting something a bit more special, like the final couple of prison issues. those last prison scenes were fucking intense. the sad fact is that Kirkman is just incredibly busy nowadays, and one way or another it WILL affect the comic. I don’t think it should die off by any means, but he needs to focus just as much on it now as when he was begging Image to publish it.
It could have just been cynicism, but out of those characters lined up I just assumed who it would be and I was right. My main problem was that they already did that scene so brilliantly with Tyrese, it kind of cut out the emotional impact of losing one of the favorites. The randomness of his choosing as well, I don’t know, the more I think about it the more I disliked the issue. I guess it could have been anyone else, but they’re touting this as “the most fucked up” issue of the series (which it wasn’t whatsoever), and you’re just not going to get that from say, Heath meeting Lucille. Chalk it up to a good guess, but either way it was a letdown, and not because of who died but because of the way it was handled when I feel like he could have done a lot more. That being said, it is a turning point, and the first issue of a new “status quo,” so at least that was effective. Definitely will continue to read, but I do feel like I’m starting to fatigue. Can we get Jesus as a regular cast member already? Maybe develop Heath if you’re trying to introduce him to the cast so much?
I also kind of noticed a little slack in Adlards art this issue, did anyone else? Two instances where Michonne and Maggie looked very different and strange. Adlard drew Maggie in one panel almost exactly like the twins mother (forget her name) from back in the RV days.
I love the zombie genre, but I can’t help but feel like maybe the wells dry for this series. It’s hard. You can’t have them happy or in safety for too long because it gets boring, but if you just one up yourself with threats like Negan and Governor it just seems like repetition. Where would you take the series now if you were in Kirkman’s shoes?