Whether he's creating comics in a shared superhero universe or in his creator-owned stories, Eisner Award-winning comic writer and artist Jeff Lemire always weaves emotional catharsis and nuanced protagonists into his tales. This remains especially true for his upcoming comic book miniseries, Mazebook. Written and illustrated by Lemire, the five-issue miniseries launches in September from Dark Horse Comics. Mazebook's story begins with a grieving building inspector named Will who receives a call from his deceased daughter. She claims to be trapped inside of labyrinth, and so, the mind-bending father-daughter adventure starts.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Lemire shared his inspirations behind the story, teased how the narrative premise sets up interesting visual storytelling possibilities as it progresses and reflected on how Mazebook compares to some of his previous work. Also included in this interview is the standard cover for the first issue, illustrated by Lemire, and the first issue's variant cover illustrated by Lemire's longtime collaborative partner, Andrea Sorrentino.
Jeff, how did the inspiration for Mazebook and its protagonist Will Warren come about?
Jeff Lemire: I had this vague idea about a father who had lost a child and who descended into the underworld to find her. The idea was pretty dark and sort of a typical revenge thing and didn't really click. But sometime later I locked into this idea about maxes and how graphically beautiful they can be and also how symbolic they can be and I sort of fused that with my previous idea of this father looking for his list child and things really began to click.
The new direction freed me from the darkness and genre tropes of the first idea and set me on a new path to create a story about a man who had shut himself off from the world going on this metaphysical journey and slowly reconnecting with humanity.
Given the book's overarching premise, Will has a very unique perspective on the environment. How is it bringing that to life visually?
The idea of the maze opened up all sorts of graphic and storytelling possibilities. It was really exciting experimenting with that and playing with my layouts and page design to incorporate the idea of mazes right into the storytelling. Sometimes I do this in subtle ways, sometimes in very overt ways.
For instance, there are whole pages that, if removed from the book and laid out, would all connect together and the panels would form a big maze shape. Doing things like that to augment the emotional journey of the character was really rewarding and fun to do.
I also particularly enjoy this book's use of color. How did you want to implement that with the story?
I wanted a very restricted color palette. Instead of just going full color as I had in previous books like Royal City, I wanted to use a limited color palette to create the feeling of another, more surreal world that is just a little removed from reality.
Of your previous work, this book reminds me the most of Underwater Welder, with these solitary professions taken up by the protagonist. Why make Will a building inspector?
I'm glad you mentioned Underwater Welder. While it wasn't intentional, as soon as I got into it, it really reminded me of when I was making Welder as well. This solitary man and his journey through his past and a surreal landscape. In many ways, Mazebook is the flip side of Welder. Welder was about a young man feeling the pressure of parenthood while Mazebook is about a man in middle age having lost a child. They act well as bookends to one another.
As someone that writes and illustrates, how soon do you know which titles you want to take on yourself as the artist or when you are prepping the story for another collaborator?
I tend to develop stories with specific artists in mind, myself included. So, right from the outset, I am looking for ideas and stories that fit the strengths of each artist I work with. In terms of myself, that also implies. I have a very specific style in my art. I have things I am good at drawing and other things that wouldn't suit my art. So I develop stories to draw myself that play to those strengths and weaknesses.
In general, my own stuff tends to be more grounded and character-driven, Not always, but in general.
What final tease can you offer for readers with Mazebook?
The maze leads to a place no one will see coming!
Written and illustrated by Jeff Lemire, Mazebook #1 goes on sale on Sept. 8 from Dark Horse Comics.