Comics for ‘Nobodies’

You won’t read ‘Bang!’ or ‘Pow!’ in any of Jeff Lemire’s work

 

A scene from “Nobody,” like “Invisible Man” after the credits roll.

 

 

“I think I always try to put character before plot. My books are about people, not high concepts.”    Lemire

 

The misconception that comic books are all about flying steroidal morons in tights has long been out of fashion. But reading through contemporary comics, you’d still expect plenty of action, right? A crime noir perhaps? Intrigue? Spies at the very least. Not if you are reading the work of Toronto-based artist and writer Jeff Lemire, whose new book “The Nobody” is yet another in DC imprint Vertigo’s long line of genre-defying, literary titles.

Lemire — whose body of work has largely focused on the sleepy, rural towns of his native Canada in standouts like the “Essex County” series — brings a quiet intensity to the page, with panels more about stillness and slow epiphany than explosions and gunshots. You might call it minimalist, or even “emo” as some have done, and you wouldn’t be far off. But don’t expect overwrought handwringing and crying about girlfriends.

“I think subtlety is a lost art in all aspects of popular culture, and comics are not exempt from that,” says Lemire. “The easiest and loudest and most obvious ways of communicating ideas, visually or otherwise, seem to be the default. But in comics, film, literature, etc., there are always challenging and thought-provoking artists worth sifting through the mud for.”

Lemire, for example. Loosely based on an H.G. Wells classic, “The Nobody” brings Lemire closer to standard comics. The storytelling approach, however, is unmistakably his own.

“I think I always try to put character before plot,” he says. “My books are about people, not high concepts. In a way I was having some fun with this, too, in ‘The Nobody.’ Take a high-concept idea like ‘The Invisible Man,’ and see what those characters would do after the end credits roll.”