Graphic Books Best Sellers: Talking About \'The Underwater Welder\'

By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES

“The Underwater Welder,” by Jeff Lemire, enters our graphic books paperback best-seller list at No. 6 this week. It's about Jack Joseph, a man feeling pressure because of his deep sea welding gig and the fact that he's going to become a father. The introduction to the book, by Damon Lindelof, one of the creators of “Lost,” compares it to “The Twilight Zone.” The book starts out innocently enough, seemingly a story about Jack, his pregnant wife, their life struggles and Jack's relationship with his own father. Things get a bit eerie after Jack emerges from one of his dives to a changed world. Mr. Lemire's characters, even when they're happy, have a melancholy look to them. They create an almost instant rapport with the reader.

In 2009, I included the cartoonist's “The Complete Essex County” as part of my holiday roundup of graphic novels. These days, Mr. Lemire also writes “Animal Man,” “Justice L eague Dark” and “Sweet Tooth,” about a post-apocalyptic world populated by human/animal hybrids, and he has not lost his ability to pack an emotional wallop. The cartoonist answered some questions about his work by e-mail. (As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.)

Where did the idea for “The Underwater Welder” come from?

I started working on it over four years ago. At the time I wasn't a father myself yet, but my wife and I were discussing becoming parents, and I was feeling a lot of impending pressure about the way my life might change. I was also feeling an immense amount of pressure to follow up the success of “Essex County.” I think this all combined to make “The Underwater Welder” what it was.

A friend whom I was working with at the time mentioned that his brother was training to become an underwater welder in eastern Canada. The idea of the job seemed so fantastic and absurd at the same time. I researched it a bit and was really struck by the visual potential of this isolated figure down deep on the ocean floor. It really started to meld with the themes I wanted to explore, and before long the general idea for the book was born.

How do you balance your independent, creator-owned material with your writing for mainstream, corporate-owned comics? What are the pluses and minuses to each?

Luckily I can draw fairly fast, so I'm able to juggle both, but the truth is I genuinely love working in both mainstream/superhero comics and creator-owned stuff, and feel lucky to be able to do both. I would make a really nice living just doing my creator-owned work, so I am by no means doing the DC stuff for the paycheck. I'm doing it because I love the DC characters and have stories I want to tell in that universe.

Doing creator-owned stuff is obviously very rewarding because you are the god of you r own little universe. You can do pretty much whatever you want and have total creative freedom. But on the flip side, working in the shared DC universe brings the joy of collaboration, which I don't get on my own stuff. So I get to work with other amazing writers and artists to be a part of something that was around long before me and will be around long after me.

Did you accomplish what you set out to with “Sweet Tooth”? Were you hoping it would last longer? You seem to have a preference for black and white, so how did you feel about “Sweet Tooth” being in color?

I accomplished more with “Sweet Tooth” than I ever thought I'd get a chance to. I never expected it to last past issue 9, let alone be able to end it on my own terms at my own pace with issue 40. It was really my chance to experiment with a long-form serialized story and try to explore the strengths and weaknesses of that format.

I am a purist in that I do prefer most comic art in bla ck and white, not just my own. But recently I've been more and more interested in painting my work, so I wouldn't be surprised if my next graphic novel was fully water colored in the style of the cover of “The Underwater Welder.”

You've primarily worked as a cartoonist, meaning a one-man show who provides the words and pictures. What was it like working as the writer with a separate artist on “Animal Man” and “Justice League Dark”?

It definitely took some adjustment. It took me a while to let go of trying to control every aspect of the book, and have faith in my artists. But once I did, the results were stronger. I'm still drawing my own comics everyday though, if I didn't have that I don't think I would be satisfied purely writing for others.

What's next for you?

I'm currently finishing up drawing the final two issues of “Sweet Tooth.” The last issue, issue 40 will ship to comic shops in December. Then I will start on a brand new crea tor-owned Vertigo series for next year. It's something really different from anything I've done before. I expect details of the book to be announced later this year or early next year.

I'm also planning my next big storyline for “Animal Man” to follow the current Rotworld crossover that I'm doing with Scott Snyder in conjunction with “Swamp Thing.”

Somewhere in the new year I'll probably start getting ideas together for my next original graphic novel.