Multiversity Comics Presents is more than excited to bring you an interview with a creator that’s made his mark on the indy world and is now staking a foothold in the DCU. I’m talking about Jeff Lemire. Jeff is known for his work on his creator owned titles such as Sweet Tooth and Essex County. Soon though fans will get to see his take on Superboy and The Atom.
We were lucky enough to get Jeff to sit down and do an interview with us that covers everything from Essex County to future works we can expect from Jeff. Jeff was a pleasure to talk with and hopefully we can do it again some time. For now though everyone should peep the interview after the jump.
MC: You’re upcoming work on the Atom — I wanted to ask how that came about, because I know when David and I were at Emerald City Comic Con, we overheard something between Geoff Johns and another DC employee discussing the possibility of you working on the Brightest Day stuff. In reference to that, how long after that or before that… where exactly did that come about, the work on the Atom?
JL: I think it had come about two or three weeks before that convention, and it was literally just Geoff Johns sorta called me one day out of the blue and just asked me if I would be interested in doing a little more writing in the DCU, and he knew that — we had corresponded a few times, just because he’s a fan of Sweet Tooth and what not — and he knew I was a big DC fan from way back. So anyways, I jumped at the chance and he asked about the Atom, and I love Ray Palmer and I love that character, so yeah. It just sort of happened. And I guess at that convention I had already started working on some stuff, but it just hadn’t been announced yet.
MC: You really like the character of Ray Palmer. When it was brought up to you to do more DC writing, was it that you were offered the Atom project or did you have a collection of characters you had a choice from and you went with the Atom?
JL: No, it was specifically the Atom that was offered to me first, and I guess Geoff had kind of had some big plans for Brightest Day all laid out and he knew which characters they wanted to focus in on and the Atom was one of them. So yes, it was specifically for the Atom, that original call.
MC: So that’s going to start out as a one-shot and then it goes into the co-feature for Action Comics. How long is the co-feature going to run for?
JL: It’s ten issues. Ten parts.
MC: And what will be the focus on that? Will it be reestablishing Ray Palmer back into the DC Universe, especially now that the other Atom is out of the picture? Is this more or less putting him back in place as the main Atom?
JL: Exactly, that’s sort of the idea. It’s just to take Ray Palmer, just sort of forget about all that baggage he’s sort of had over the last five to ten years or whatever, with all the stuff with Jean Loring. He’s finally past all of that, so we’re just going to let that go and just sort of reestablish as one of the premiere heroes in the DCU. He came around the same time as Barry Allen and Hal Jordan and all those guys, so we’re just trying to make him kind of… do the same thing for him that Geoff kind of did when he did Rebirth with Green Lantern and the Flash. Sort of show readers why he’s great again and set up a new supporting cast and new storylines and things like that.
Continued belowMC: It was announced that you would be working on Superboy, which I want to go out and say — first and foremost, that’s a perfect fit. That’s going to be really nice! So, people who know your work, as in Essex County and your own personal history of growing up in Essex County and being kind of a small town guy, what will the focus be in Superboy? Will you really focus on the Smallville/small town element of it, or will we be seeing big adventure, or a mix?
JL: Probably a little of both. The core of the book for me will really be his adventures in Smallville. So he’s going to be in the Teen Titans, and probably showing up in other places, so all the other writers show his adventures outside of Smallville. But for me, I really want to focus in on that and focus on him trying to build sort of a community and a home for himself there. So the small town element will really be sort of the core for the whole thing, and then the big adventure stuff is all going to be connected to that.
MC: You mentioned he’ll be in Teen Titans and things like that. Will we be seeing some of those characters come over into your title?
JL: Yeah, totally. I’m going to have Smallville a cool place for other heroes to come visit as well, so different Teen Titans will show up in different issues and some other sort of surprise guest stars that I don’t want to ruin yet. Just because it’s in Smallville doesn’t mean we won’t be seeing the rest of the DCU. They’ll definitely be around and come dropping by.
MC: Something that’s different for you, in working with the Atom and Superboy, is that, I think a lot of your more well known stuff has been something where you’ve done both the writing and the art. Now you’re going into a couple mainstream projects where you’re working with an artist as opposed to drawing them yourself. What is that transition like?
JL: I’m still kind of figuring it out to be honest. At first, it’s kind of daunting because I’m so used to being able to control everything. The storytelling, the pacing, everything with the artwork… it’s just a matter of me sort of adapting to each artist and seeing what their strengths are, how they like to tell stories, and then trying to communicate as clearly as I can my vision for each page and each panel, and what you end up with is somewhere where the two things meet and that’s part of the fun that I’m having. You kind of get surprised, because they might make decisions or choices differently then I would have, but it is just as strong as something you didn’t think of. It’s really fun actually to have the whole responsibility of the book be you. You just collaborate. As far as maintaining my story telling style and whatnot, I’m not having much of a problem with that so far. It really just comes down to communicating your ideas clearly in the script.
MC: Now, I looked you up on Wikipedia, and it mentioned that you had gone into film school?
JL: Yup!
MC: When you’re writing a comic, do you use some of your film school education to do the pacing? How different is it working on film projects versus graphic novels, comics, and things of that nature?
JL: I don’t really think consciously about film when I’m writing comics. I haven’t really had much interest in film for well over ten years, since I left school really. I’m sure that when I was there, a lot of the things I learned about visual storytelling is still with me. I just don’t know if it’s a conscious thing… I don’t think of comics as movies or as storyboards, if that’s kind of what you mean. I really see them as their own thing, and go at the page as a comic page and not a scene from a film.
Continued belowMC: Going back to the question of working with artists as opposed to writing and drawing for yourself: when you write and draw the project, do you still write out a script? If so, how does that change from writing out a script for yourself and then also, in turn, writing a script for another artist?
JL: Yeah, I do. I write full scripts for myself. I find it really helps me to break down the page and sort of make sure what I do in each issue will fit or what not. The big difference is, when I’m writing a script for myself, I don’t have to go into any kind of visual description of anything that you’re seeing I already see in my head or whatever, so it just takes a bit longer to write a script for the artist because I have to actually make sure I’m describing everything that’s important when I don’t have to do that for myself. It’s a very similar process, it just takes a bit longer to write scripts for someone else.
MC: I want to touch on Essex County real briefly. With it being something that’s obviously really personal to you, and something that was embraced by the comic book community in general, how does it feel to be embraced when you produce something so personal? It was even nominated for a Harvey and an Eisner, so how does that feel?
JL: Oh, it’s very gratifying when you spend so much of yourself and so much time on a project like that, and you put so much of yourself into it and then to have people respond and to validate all of that effort, it’s really… it feels really good. If you do good work, people notice, so it’s an incredible sense of validation and it kind of gives you confidence in moving forward with other projects, like the stuff I’ve done since.
MC: I noticed this on your blog, and I may have just missed this entirely, but it lists what you’ve worked on and then it says “Soon: Marvel Comics.” Can you touch on that all? Any Marvel comics you’re going to be working on?
JL: I can’t say. It’s a short project I did… I finished it up last year, and I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about because I don’t think they’ve announced the project.
MC: Any time frame on when we might see that?
JL: I actually don’t know, I haven’t heard much on that, so…
MC: There was one thing I noticed about your writing. It’s not in every work that you do, but is kind of a continuing theme, and that’s of the younger impressionable character paired up with an older, bulkier character like Gus and Jeppard, and Lester and Jimmy. Is this something you’re consciously doing, or something based on personal experience?
JL: I don’t know. I’m not sure where that comes from. It’s obviously there. I can’t really look back on my personal life and see somewhere where I’m getting that from. I just kind of like that idea, visually and in terms of writing dialogue. I like putting opposites together, so I think that’s where that comes from. I think you’ll see that again in Superboy, but the twist being that Superboy is actually going to be the mentor to someone else, a new character.
MC: You are from Canada, and you do have an affinity for hockey as shown in your writing. I’m an Alaskan and hockey’s pretty big here too. In the broad spectrum, in America itself, hockey is kind of a struggling sport when you look at the variety of sports here. Do you have any suggestion on how to fix that here in America?
JL: (Laughs) No, I’m too busy worrying about comics to worry about how hockey does. I dunno, it seems to be a sport of … never really taking off except for in a few really select markets in the states, so… I don’t know! I guess they’re missing out.
Continued belowMC: To wrap it all up, I know you’ve got a bunch of stuff that’s been announced recently — Atom and Superboy, and you’re still working on Sweet Tooth. Is there anything else coming up on your plate?
JL: Yeah, I have another graphic novel for Top Shelf as well. It’ll sort of be a follow up to Essex County, thematically and in it’s size. That’ll probably be coming out early late 2011, early 2012. So it’s still a little ways off.
MC: And you said connected. Is it in the same Essex County universe?
JL: No, not really. I just think thematically and aesthetically it’s probably closer to that work then anything else I’ve done since.
MC: And this is you writing and drawing again?
JL: Yeah.
MC: Well I guess that wraps it up then. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do this.
JL: No worries, man!
Again, we’d like to thank Jeff for taking time out of his schedule to do this interview. We also implore those of you hat haven’t read Sweet Tooth or Essex County to do so. Great stuff from a brilliant creator.
