Interviews 

Artist August: Jeff Lemire (Interview)

By | August 25th, 2011
Posted in Interviews | % Comments

In today’s Artist August interview, we’ve got a chat with one of the absolutely best newcomers to comics over the past decade. That creator? Jeff Lemire, of Essex County and Sweet Tooth fame. Lemire is a gifted writer and artist, having honed his craft over the past few years with critically beloved works for Top Shelf and Vertigo, and with the upcoming DCnU launch his star will rise even higher. He will be writing two books – Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE and Animal Man – and we can assure you, the greatness you’ll get from those books are just the tip of the iceberg from Lemire.

Click through the jump as we talk with Lemire about his collaborators on his DCnU books, meeting Grant Morrison for the first time, why he continues to push his art on Sweet Tooth, how he manages such a huge workload, his adventures with coloring his own art, and whole lot more.

It seems like every time we’ve spoken to you, you’re a little further up the comic book totem pole than you were previously. First off, congrats on all of the success. We love all of your work.

Jeff Lemire: Thanks. Thank you very much.

Second off, have you had to cut off sleep entirely?

JL: (laughs) You know, I have a pretty heavy workload, but I’m kind of a workaholic. It seems to be okay right now, but there was a period in…I think it was April or May where I think I wrote six or seven scripts and drew two monthly books in one month or something like that. That was pretty rough. But things are pretty stable now.

(laughs) That’s good. Speaking of that actually, currently you’re writing four books and working on art on two books.

JL: Let me think…am I?

Well you have Sweet Tooth and Underwater Welder…

JL: Yeah, yeah. So I am drawing both of those and writing both of those…yeah, you’re right. (laughs)

How do you split those up in an average day?

JL: It’s really hard. The biggest challenge over the past two years to be totally honest was trying to find time to do Underwater Welder, the graphic novel for Top Shelf.

Dark Knight Returns Meets Sweet Tooth

I kind of have a good routine where I can get my Sweet Tooth issues done in about three weeks out of the month. That gives me a week and weekends for my other two books I’m writing, and I just didn’t have any time at all for the Top Shelf book. It’s a big project and something I really cared about. I was only finding that maybe every three or four months I’d find a week there where I could do five or ten pages. There was no way I could get in any kind of creative flow or rhythm doing it that way.

So finally, the last couple months I talked to Mark Doyle, my editor at Vertigo, and we just brainstormed ways I could get everything done I needed to get done for Sweet Tooth and still find time just to finish this book for Top Shelf and get it off my plate. What we came up with was Matt Kindt…I don’t know if you guys know Matt or his work…

We actually interviewed him for Artist August.

JL: He’s great. He’s a really good friend of mine and a great artist. We decided for the next three issues of Sweet Tooth – that would be issues 26 to 28 – Matt is actually going to draw them himself. I wrote the scripts and he is going to draw those three issues. That gave me a three month window where I can just stop working on Sweet Tooth and just finish this book for Top Shelf. With issue 29, I can go back to Sweet Tooth full-time and not have this other sort of albatross hanging around me (laughs). Where I can just move ahead with Sweet Tooth full steam ahead and not have any other commitments in terms of drawing. That’s sort of how I dealt with this.

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Like I said, in terms of writing the DC stuff, it’s just so fun to do and it almost writes itself sometimes. I’ll find time on weekends. Like I said, it takes me like three weeks for Sweet Tooth, so it gives me about another week out of the month to do the scripts. I can generally balance them all.

You were saying the DC scripts basically write themselves. You’re a big fan of the DC legacy characters, yeah?

JL: Sure, yeah, I grew up reading DC big time. I was never a Marvel kid. I love this stuff. It really is quite a thrill to play around in the DC universe, especially right now with the relaunch and everything. It’s a really exciting time in the company’s history. To be a big part of it is really…you know, the fan in me kind of geeks out at times, but the writer in me really enjoys the challenge of the relaunch and taking on these characters and helping to build this new world.

It’s one of the biggest initiatives either of the Big Two has taken on in forever.

JL: Yeah, for sure.

It’s an incredibly daunting thing. It’s amazing that you can be a part of it.

JL: It’s really great…I can’t say too much about it, but I was at a DC writers summit last fall after New York Comic Con. This relaunch wasn’t really on the table yet, but even there I remember conversations we were having…the writers and editors…and the seeds for it were being planted even though we didn’t really know what we were talking about at the time.

It’s pretty cool to see it all happening. No matter what happens afterwards, I have to give DC credit for having the balls to try and shake things up, because right now the way things are going, the industry is just shrinking and shrinking. Unless someone starts taking bolds risks like this, it’s kind of obvious where things are headed. I give them full credit.

I agree entirely. Someone had to do something.

I know I said I wasn’t going to ask about those, but do you mind if we talk about those books really quick?

JL: We can talk about all that stuff. I don’t care.

Travel Foreman’s Animal Man #1 Cover

You’re working on Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE and Animal Man.

JL: Yeah.

You’re dealing with two characters whose history has been prominently guided by Grant Morrison.

JL: (laughs) Yeah.

Have you talked to him at all about the direction you’re taking them?

JL: I met Grant for the first time really briefly at San Diego about a month ago. It was really a chance encounter where Scott Snyder and I were at the Eisner’s. And the Eisner’s are about 130 hours long (laughs), and we took a little break about a quarter of the way through the evening…basically we went to pee (laughs)…on the way back we ran into Grant, and Scott had met him a couple times through Batman stuff and he introduced me. He’s such a cool guy. It was so intimidating to meet him, but he was so kind and warm and he knew I was doing Animal Man.

He wished me luck on it. His only advice was to not fuck with Buddy’s family. (laughs) I promised I wouldn’t do that. It was kind of cool to meet him.

I am a Grant Morrison fan, but it’s not like I purposefully set out to write stuff that he had…

Touched on previously.

JL: Yeah. It really just happened. Kind of happenstance. It’s a pretty long shadow to be in. All I can do is not get too intimidated by what he did or try not to copy what he did. That’s the worst thing you can do because you get opened up for comparison right away. Just kind of do my own thing and be respectful of what he did and what Jamie Delano did and other writers, but it’s my book now and I have to do my own thing with it and move forward. I try to do something that old fans of the series will still like and still have the feel and flavor they enjoyed from when Grant was writing it, but new people can jump on and get excited about it too.

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Everything we’ve read about it so far makes it sound absolutely fantastic. I have to say, I really love both Travel Foreman and Alberto Ponticelli. I think they are incredible.

JL: Yeah, it’s great. I am so lucky to have those two guys, I fought for Alberto and I got him, and I’m super happy about that. Travel is going to be a superstar after this book. I really think if Animal Man is successful at all, it’s pretty much due to him because it looks so incredible. I’m lucky to have both of those guys. I can honestly say that both of those books, I’m on the sixth script for both of those, and they are by far the best things I’ve done in the DC universe. I’m really proud of them so far.

That’s fantastic.

When we talked to you previously, right around when you started working on The Atom and Superboy, you mentioned how it was very much a work-in-progress figuring out scripting for other artists.

JL: Yeah.

How is that coming along?

JL: I think I kind of reached a point somewhere right after Superboy. After I was kind of finishing up Superboy and starting on the new books. It was sort of like a fresh start for me as a writer again.

I just sort of approached Animal Man and Frankenstein a little bit differently than I had the other two books. I think somewhere in there I found my voice as a writer as opposed to a cartoonist, which is sort of what I am for Sweet Tooth. There really are two different ways of working. I had to learn to separate the way I work on Sweet Tooth from the way I do when I write for other guys. I think I finally figured that out.

Getting two really good artists, and this is no crack on the artists who I had on Superboy or The Atom, they were really great too…two really good artists like Travel and Alberto allowed me to realize that I don’t have to control the visual aspects of the book like I do on Sweet Tooth. I can just focus my energy on character and plot and dialogue and let those guys take the reins on the visual aspect. As soon as I did that, I just kind of relaxed and it just started to become easier for me and made me feel like I found my voice again on these two projects.

The other thing I like about both of these books is that they are complete opposites of each other. Animal Man is a very dark, very personal, very emotional story…a lot like Sweet Tooth. Frankestein is the complete opposite. It’s complete over-the-top action-adventure-science fiction, huge, big fun ideas, black humor. It’s kind of fun…one day, you’ll work on one script, and the next day you’ll work on something completely different. That really helps me stay fresh I think.

A Page from Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE from Alberto Ponticelli

Definitely. I can say personally, I’m really glad you fought for Alberto (Ponticelli).

JL: Yeah!

I was a huge fan of Unknown Soldier.

JL: Me too.

I’m glad to see him on a prominent book again. He’s incredible.

JL: You should see some of these pages. He was born to draw monsters. He hasn’t had the chance yet – I mean, Unknown Soldier was a fantastic book but it as so serious and so heavy and drawn from real life and what not. He did great, but to see him on something like this now where there are double splashes of one hundred thousand spider monsters fighting Frankenstein, it’s like “yes!” (laughs). He’s clearly having fun and it shows.

I’m pretty sure that should be a tagline on that. One hundred thousand spider monsters fighting Frankenstein. I would totally buy that.

JL: That was literally one of my panel descriptions. (laughs)

I am buying the spider monster book.

As far as working with Travel and Alberto, as an artist, do you feel like you learn anything in the process of writing for them?

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JL: That’s tough. Like I said, I think…somewhere around the time I started working on this project, I kind of separated that aspect – the artist aspect – from the project, so as a result, I never really think of it that way. I learn from them in the same way I learn from any other comics that I pick up here or there. They are both really different from me in the way I work. Especially Travel, he’s got a crazy imagination that is really different from the way my mind works. For some reason my scripts and his visual voice really blend well together. I’m not specifically learning from them or taking stuff from those guys.

I think I learned a lot more…the funny thing was when I did the Jonah Hex issue with Jimmy (Palmiotti) and Justin (Gray), that was really challenging to draw something I didn’t write. I think I learned a lot more about myself doing that as an artist than the other way around.

Well, it was a great issue.

JL: That was super fun. I’m really proud to be a part of that book. I think it was one of the greatest runs in recent comics, the last ten years or so, on any book. The seventy issues those two guys pulled off. They had some really amazing artists…guys who are huge influences on me like Darwyn Cooke and JH Williams III. Just to be a part of that list is pretty flattering and quite the thrill.

Do you mind if we jump into Sweet Tooth?

JL: Nope.

Sweet Tooth Volume 3

I just got caught up. I was originally waiting on trade and then I got the third trade, and after that I had to get caught up.

JL: Good. (laughs)

I had to buy the rest of the issues. It’s an incredible book.

JL: Thanks. Yeah, I think that third volume, the Animal Armies part is where I really…I really found my voice in that arc, and the new stuff I am doing is the best stuff. I’m pretty happy with how its coming along.

One of the things I like so much about is how you mix up the art style – like in issue 18 with the children’s book style or issue 24 when Gus is on the verge of death and is venturing into a dream world that is like a washed out, watercolor limbo. I love those parts. As far as the decision to go in that direction is concerned, is it you trying to push yourself as an artist or because the story demanded it…or some mix of both?

JL: I think what it is, is that when you are doing a monthly book, this is the first time I’ve drawn a monthly book…it can be…as much as I love the story and the characters and as much as I am driven to work on the characters every day, there are still days where you are going to lose energy and need something to get you excited again. So for me, playing around with format and storytelling styles and visual styles is just a way to keep me active and interested in it. The more excited I am, I know the better the story is going to be.

So there’s that, but at the same time you can’t just be wildly experimenting and trying crazy things if it doesn’t reflect what’s going on with the characters and the plot. Then it just becomes about itself and artificial and pretentious or something. But I think if you can anchor it all to the emotional arc of Gus and Jeppard, all of the experimentation, and have whatever I do reflect whatever is going on with them, I think I can get away with doing some pretty crazy things. So I guess it’s a mix of both.

Well it worked really well in both issues, from a storytelling standpoint. So I can trust that pushing yourself visually thing is something you’ll be doing throughout.

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JL: Absolutely. I’ll do my best to not repeat any…like the storybook issue…I’ll try not to repeat those things more than once, but I want to keep finding new ways to experiment and tell the stories. So I’ll keep pushing myself for sure.

When you’re trying to develop these new looks and expand your visual storytelling, do you look to other mediums?

JL: Not so much. Off and on, but mostly I just look to other comic artists. I always try to do things that are pretty specific to the comics medium. I mean, obviously the storybook thing was looking to another medium, you’re looking at children’s books and things like that. But I have a two year old, so I have been reading a ton of kids books the past few years so obviously that sunk in. A lot of times it’s seeing artists who work completely different from me. How can I apply what they are doing to my kind of voice. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a specific example of that. Each time I try something new, it’s because I saw someone else do it, or someone else do a version of something that excited me, so I try to put my own twist on it and make it my own instead of just copying it.

There are guys who draw completely different than me, but at the same time I just love how they draw. Guys like Frank Quitely and JH Williams, guys who really push the storytelling. You’ll see things they try or do. It gets me really excited to try new things.

I think more than anything, I’ll be reading something and I’ll just see something so cool I’ll have to try it myself.

That’s fantastic. It shows in your work and we love that.

One issue we also really liked was issue 19 where you had three different stories from different characters points-of-view with different artists, and you had Emi Lenox, Matt Kindt and Nate Powell working on it. We know Matt Kindt is coming back, but how did that issue come together, and could you see something like that happening again?

JL: I don’t know if I’ll do that again because…

You don’t want to go back to the well…

JL: Yeah. I want to try something new.

I can’t remember how that came together. I think originally…in my original pitch for the series, for the story, I had a whole arc where there would be a guest artist each issue where you learn the back story of all of the supporting cast. That kind of got scaled down to what it became – the single issue thing. I think it maybe worked better.

With Matt coming on for the next storyline, kind of giving me a breather for this graphic novel, that kind of…seeing Matt reinterpret some of the stuff I was doing, seeing Matt drawing it was so fun, Mark Doyle – my editor – and I talked about maybe between every arc having a one-off, standalone issue with a guest artist. Get some new people to come in. I know Nate Powell is going to come back somewhere in the 30’s. Rafael Albuquerque is going to do one.

Sweet Tooth meets American Vampire

The same month he does it, I’m going to draw American Vampire. So it’s kind of an unofficial crossover (laughs).

We’re going to do that some time late next year – I can’t remember what issues they will be.

I remember you guys talking about that on Twitter. I reported it as on news on Multiversity, just because I was so excited about the prospect.

JL: Yeah, we’re totally doing it. I keep teasing Scott that the issue I do has to be titled “Canadian Vampire.” (laughs) I think it’s not really a joke anymore, I think it’s actually called that. (laughs)

That is amazing. I read both of those books and I love them. Can’t wait to see that.

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One things i love of the book is the juxtaposition of the innocence of the hybrids and the dystopic, horrific aspects of the story. is that a tough balance to maintain as a visual storyteller, or do they just fit naturally because of the story?

JL: That’s the whole thrust of the series right from the beginning. It’s like Gus’ character vs. Jeppard’s. Then you see that projected around them. That was always the story…that weird balance of complete innocence and childhood sweetness with this horrible, violent world. It’s putting those things together visually and in terms of character and plots that make the story work. That was always a part of it – right from the beginning that was the story so it isn’t something I even think about anymore. It’s just the world.

Your colorist, the recently anointed Harvey Award winner Jose Villarrubia, has done an incredible job month in and month out. Given that your previous books have been black-and-white, how much of a relief is it to you to have a guy like Jose to provide colors to the book?

JL: It’s tremendous. He’s added a lot to the character of the book, the whole world, and we have a really good…at this point we’re on the same page and we don’t have to even give each other notes. I know what he’s going to do and he’s free to experiment and stuff and it always work.

At the same time, that issue 24, the land of dead issue that was watercolor, I colored that myself, most of it, with watercolors. That was the first time I colored anything comic wise. I had so much fun doing that I think I am going to do a lot more of that. I think I am probably going to be watercoloring most of the covers from now on, and I think more and more sequences within the story themselves. It’s just another thing to keep me excited about working on the book.

And Jose is very supportive of me experimenting and trying stuff like that.

To answer your original question, he’s an amazing artist in his own right, it’s just awesome to see the pages come back. He does stuff that I could never think of doing. He’s tremendous.

As far as jumping into coloring your own work, he’s a great person to talk to I’m sure.

JL: Yeah, he’s incredible.

For Underwater Welder, you’re going with black-and-white. Is that just what you do or is it a preference because of the timeliness of it?

JL: As much as I just talked about loving Jose, I still prefer black-and-white comics. I don’t know why, I just do. I just prefer black-and-white, there’s something so pure to me, just ink and paper. Whenever I do my own stuff outside of Vertigo, it will probably be black-and-white because it just seems right to me, it seems more natural and just all my voice on the page and nothing else.

On top of that, it’s an indie book so the budgets aren’t as big with Top Shelf, so printing is cheaper and it keeps the cost of the book down. All of those things are involved.

As far as Underwater Welder is concerned, it seems to be another very human look at the pressures of ordinary life through the prism of the extraordinary. What can you tell us about this future release?

JL: It’s still a year or so until it comes out, so I don’t want to talk too much about it. Part of that is because I am in the middle of…I mean, as we’re talking, I’m sitting here drawing pages from that book. As much as I know where it’s going, I think it still has some surprises left for me. I don’t know how exactly it’s all going to come together. I just hope that it does. It’s hard to talk about something when it’s not even fully formed in my head. You don’t want to talk about something and describe it one way and have it be something else.

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I don’t even know how to describe it. Maybe we’ll talk about it when it’s closer. (laughs)

I didn’t know it was a full year away!

JL: I think it’s going to be at San Diego next summer. That’s when we’ll be looking to debut it.

Can’t wait.

You’re one of the rare creators who actually is prominent in both indie comics and the Big Two. As far as being a creator is concerned, what are the differences working for each of them?

JL: It’s funny…working for Vertigo isn’t all that different than working for Top Shelf. I still feel like in a lot of ways it’s like indie comics, and I think a lot of that has to do with the editors they have at Vertigo. They’re just…they’re really hands off in a lot of ways and let me do what I want on my book and make it my own. At the same time, they’re there to support me when I get to a roadblock or a problem. They’re there to talk it through. That’s pretty similar to how I work at Top Shelf.

Then working at DC is obviously really, really different. There’s a lot more editorial input, they’re not my characters, I don’t own them, so obviously there is going to be a lot more people involved. And it can be at times frustrating, and at times fun, to collaborate with other people.

I think if I was just writing comics for DC, I wouldn’t be completely satisfied.

But the fact I get to do Sweet Tooth and my really indie stuff and my superhero stuff, it’s the best of all worlds. I get total freedom on Sweet Tooth. I get to do whatever I want. When I have to sort of work within certain guidelines, it’s not as hard for me to give up because in other ways I have total freedom.

I don’t even remember what your original question was. (laughs)

I guess it was really just how to do the two experiences differ.

JL: Yeah…on Sweet Tooth and the indie stuff, you’re pretty much all alone until you’re done with the thing and then you get some feedback. Whereas with the DC stuff you’re much more deadline oriented and you’re working with artists and working with editors and making sure everything is fitting with what else is going on in the DC universe, especially right now with the relaunch. But that’s kind of really fun too, because I get to get on the phone with people like Scott Snyder and talk about Swamp Thing and Batman and Animal Man and figure out how they all work together. It’s pretty cool.

That is cool. We’re all excited to see how it plays out.

I just have a couple more general questions, so let’s start with a hard one. Who are your favorite artists working in comics today?

JL: That’s actually an easy one. I think about that all of the time. There are some guys that are working right now that I think are incredible. Like I said, these aren’t just guys that work like I work or draw like I draw, in terms of mainstream comics, the Big Two, they are just some of the best that ever worked. My top five is probably Frank Quitely, Doug Mahnke, Sean Phillips, Frazer Irving, Guy Davis…those are the guys who come to mind. I am probably forgetting another five. Rafael Albuquerque is at the top of his game. He’s just getting better. Sean Murphy is great. Fiona Staples is pretty awesome. There are so many great people working right now.

At indie comics there are a lot of great cartoonists that are working right now that people don’t know, like Nate Powell and Matt Kindt, there’s just so many good people working right now. It’s an exciting time to be a fan of comics because there is so much good work being done.

I think you’re absolutely right. A lot of people lament that the end is near and all of that, but if you look around at indie comics and Image and Dark Horse and any number of other publishers, there are all kinds of comics that are at the top of the medium. That are just incredible.

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JL: Yeah, there’s just too much talent right now doing too much good work for the end to be truly near. Things might shift and change and the format things are presented in might change, but there’s just too many good people doing good comics out there for it to end.

This wasn’t on my list, but as far as digital comics is concerned, do you have any opinion on the direction you think it will head?

JL: I have no idea. I am with everyone else, just waiting to see how it unfolds over the next two or three years. I think we’re at the crossroads right now where the big publishers like Marvel and DC are starting to take it seriously. I think we have to kind of sit back and wait and see how it happens. I really hope it takes off and becomes a viable avenue for people to make money on because…publishing is dying, unfortunately. Like I said, there are so many talented people doing incredible work, I hope that there is an avenue for them to continue making a living so they can keep making this work.

In theory, the digital world is an infinite possibility, this infinite readership waiting to be found. It’s just a matter of whether it will happen or not.

You mentioned Fiona Staples earlier, and during Artist August, we found out she does her work almost entirely digitally. Do you work with tablets or anything of that sort?

JL: I have a tablet, but I barely use it. I work almost completely by hand. For me, that’s the fun of drawing. Putting ink on paper and the tactile feel of it. I just couldn’t sit in front of my computer screen. I just couldn’t enjoy it. I love drawing on paper like I did when I was a kid.

But at the same time, a tablet is a really useful tool for me after I’ve physically drawn the work. Once I’ve scanned it in, just for tiny touch-ups or fixing little mistakes, it’s a really great tool for that. It saves time on things like that.

I think every artist uses it differently. Some people are 100% digital, some are a 50 50 split where they kind of pencil things and ink online, or vice versa. And for me it is like 99% by hand. But that’s just the way I am.

It fits with everything else you’ve been saying. You go for the more naturalistic feeling.

JL: Yeah. There are guys and girls like Fiona and Frazer Irving who do that digital stuff so well…it’s just incredible. I love looking at it. I think any way you can make something work and any way you can tell a story and it feels good to you, you should do it. I don’t think there should be any limit to how comics can be made.

Last question, you obviously have a lot going on, but is there anything else you have going on?

JL: I think everything I have going has been announced already. Two DC books, the Welder and Sweet Tooth. There are a couple DC books I’d like to take a crack at in the next year or two, to see if they pan out or not. I have a really small project I did for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. They have a yearly annual that they put out, I did a three page story that Mark Waid wrote, I drew it, which was really cool.

That is cool.

JL: Yeah, it was super flattering working with Mark Waid. I think it comes out in October.

In time for New York Comic Con. Other than that, not a lot going on.

I don’t know if you’ve looked at the line-up that’s on that book.

JL: Oh yeah, it’s great. It’s Bob Schreck.

Yeah. It’s incredible. It’s like an all-star team of comic creators.

JL: Bob is a talent magnet. Good people attract good people, and Bob is good people. Bob is the reason Sweet Tooth exists. He’s one of my heroes and one of the reasons I have a career in this business.

Do you mind elaborating on that? How does he factor into the existence of Sweet Tooth?

JL: Bob was the original editor of Sweet Tooth. He brought the project in.

He was the editor of Vertigo in 2008, 2009 when I was pitching The Nobody to him because he was a fan of Essex County. So I pitched a couple things, one of which was The Nobody and that happened. And we had such a good time working on The Nobody, he asked me to pitch an ongoing and I pitched Sweet Tooth to him, and he brought that to Karen (Berger) and pushed for it. He’s the reason the book exists. Unfortunately he was fired by DC soon after Sweet Tooth started, so he only got to work on for the first five or six issues, and then he left. But Bob is the reason I got my foot in the door at DC.


David Harper

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