Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Top Shelf Productions (2012), Paperback, 224 pages
Description
Pressure. As an underwater welder on an oilrig off the coast of Nova Scotia, Jack Joseph is used to the immense pressures of deep-sea work. Nothing, however, could prepare him for the pressures of impending fatherhood. As Jack dives deeper and deeper, he seems to pull further and further away from his young wife, and their unborn son. But then, something happens deep on the ocean floor. Jack has a strange and mind-bending encounter that will change the course of his life forever. ... Equal parts blue-collar character study and mind-bending science fiction epic, The Underwater Welder explores fathers and sons, birth and death, memory and truth, and treasures we all bury deep down inside.
User reviews
LibraryThing member zzshupinga
Jeff Lemire has been one of my favorite writers and artists since I first stumbled across Essex County a few years ago. His ability to create such captivating stories that keep the reader on the edge of their seat wondering what will happen next and his sketchy art that captures the essence of the
Let’s take a seemingly average 33 year old male named Jack Joseph. He has a steady job as an underwater welder on an oilrig, he has a seemingly happy marriage, and their first child is on the way. All in all a rather happy tale. But the thoughts of his father who disappeared twenty years ago on Halloween began to invade his dreams, both waking and sleeping. Jack begins to see and hear visions from the past, and the real world becomes less and less real. And then on Halloween, the dreams become real and reality becomes a dream. And Jack must find the way out of his dreams before everything he cherishes vanishes forever.
As I mentioned above, I love Jeff’s writing style and this book is no exception. The story is like nothing I’ve read before, as Jeff weaves a tale of family, hope, mystery, and the stuff of nightmares all together to create a powerful tale. The story is part science fiction, reminding readers of the best of the mind bending series the Twilight Zone, and it’s also part classic family tale like Little House on the Prairie. Jeff just creates these compelling characters that play off of each other really well. We have the main character of Jack, the father to be who slowly seems to be losing his mind, but really wants to do what is best for his family. And then we have Jack’s father who vanished all of those years ago, who slowly succumbed to alcohol, but really did want what was best for his son. And their two world collide in such a powerful fashion years latter that it makes you stop and think on what you cherish and treasure the most in the world.
The artwork in this story is absolutely beautiful. Lemire shows a deft hand at capturing the emotions and expressions of his characters and the world that surrounds them with pen and ink. Each line on the craggy faces of the characters shows their age, experience, wisdom, and regrets at life gone by. And in the landscapes you see the beauty and the harshness of the world that they live in. Jeff’s style works particularly well for this story, as the sketchy line work and the ink washes create the perfect moody atmosphere and the roiling sea. It’s just pitch perfect and adds those little extras while reading the story that keep readers on the edge of their seats as they wait to see what happens next to Jack.
I have to admit I haven’t read much of Sweet Tooth or Jeff’s other comic works, but I’m hunting them down now. And I can’t wait to see what he does next. If you like the Twilight Zone and stories of mystery, family, and hope then this one is for you. 5 out of 5 stars.
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human characters so well, keeps me coming back for more. When I saw that Jeff had Underwater Welder coming out this year I eagerly preordered it without even reading the description. All I needed to see was that stunning cover image, the eyes of a diver peering out of his welding suit just watching us so intently. I cracked open the book as soon as it arrived and dived into the tale and was swept away.Let’s take a seemingly average 33 year old male named Jack Joseph. He has a steady job as an underwater welder on an oilrig, he has a seemingly happy marriage, and their first child is on the way. All in all a rather happy tale. But the thoughts of his father who disappeared twenty years ago on Halloween began to invade his dreams, both waking and sleeping. Jack begins to see and hear visions from the past, and the real world becomes less and less real. And then on Halloween, the dreams become real and reality becomes a dream. And Jack must find the way out of his dreams before everything he cherishes vanishes forever.
As I mentioned above, I love Jeff’s writing style and this book is no exception. The story is like nothing I’ve read before, as Jeff weaves a tale of family, hope, mystery, and the stuff of nightmares all together to create a powerful tale. The story is part science fiction, reminding readers of the best of the mind bending series the Twilight Zone, and it’s also part classic family tale like Little House on the Prairie. Jeff just creates these compelling characters that play off of each other really well. We have the main character of Jack, the father to be who slowly seems to be losing his mind, but really wants to do what is best for his family. And then we have Jack’s father who vanished all of those years ago, who slowly succumbed to alcohol, but really did want what was best for his son. And their two world collide in such a powerful fashion years latter that it makes you stop and think on what you cherish and treasure the most in the world.
The artwork in this story is absolutely beautiful. Lemire shows a deft hand at capturing the emotions and expressions of his characters and the world that surrounds them with pen and ink. Each line on the craggy faces of the characters shows their age, experience, wisdom, and regrets at life gone by. And in the landscapes you see the beauty and the harshness of the world that they live in. Jeff’s style works particularly well for this story, as the sketchy line work and the ink washes create the perfect moody atmosphere and the roiling sea. It’s just pitch perfect and adds those little extras while reading the story that keep readers on the edge of their seats as they wait to see what happens next to Jack.
I have to admit I haven’t read much of Sweet Tooth or Jeff’s other comic works, but I’m hunting them down now. And I can’t wait to see what he does next. If you like the Twilight Zone and stories of mystery, family, and hope then this one is for you. 5 out of 5 stars.
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LibraryThing member msf59
Jack Joseph works as a deep-water welder, on oil rigs, off the coast of Nova Scotia. It’s dangerous and demanding work but Jack feeds off the challenge and the isolation. He is happily married but begins to feel the pressure of the impending birth of his first child, stirring up troubling
This is vintage Lemire: spare, reflective and haunting. His illustrations are expressive and evocative. His characters leap from the page. This one fits in perfectly with his brilliant Essex County collection. He is easily one of the master’s of the GN format. Highly recommended.
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memories of his own father.This is vintage Lemire: spare, reflective and haunting. His illustrations are expressive and evocative. His characters leap from the page. This one fits in perfectly with his brilliant Essex County collection. He is easily one of the master’s of the GN format. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: The Underwater Welder is the story of Jack, a man who is about to become a father for the first time, and is still troubled by his relationship with his own father, who disappeared mysteriously when Jack was still a boy. One day, while he is underwater working on repairing an oil rig, he
Review: This was a very interesting piece of fiction. The introduction by Damon Lindelof compares it to a Twilight Zone episode, and I think that's pretty apt: focusing on a normal person, and a normal problem, but with a supernatural and very creepy twist partway through. The core of the story - that of someone having to finally deal with their own relationship with their parents as they are about to become parents themselves - is one that I feel like I've seen done before. It's also not a story I find particularly personally compelling, since I don't have kids, and have what I think is a really good relationship with my parents. Lemire handles his subject matter with grace, however. Jack and his wife and his mother and his absent father feel like real people, and their reactions to each other and to the course on which life has taken them feel organic and sympathetic.
I'm somewhat torn as to how I feel about Lemire's artwork. Taken in isolation, it's not my favorite style. It's greyscale, with a lot of sketchy pencil lines and smudges. It doesn't look unfinished, exactly, but whatever the antonym of "polished" is, this is that. But at the same time, the style perfectly suits and even adds to the stories he's telling. They grey, sketchy lines of the art feel like the grey, worn-down buildings of a dying Nova Scotian fishing town, and the grey, worn-down people that live there. He also makes some really interesting choices regarding the composition and paneling of his story that add some spark to the work as a whole. 4 stars out of 5.
Recommendation: I think this book would be of interest to someone interested in modern author-illustrated graphic novels. The Underwater Welder maybe skews a little more towards fantasy, but it's more of the "odd happenings in small towns" variety, and so should appeal to readers outside of the genre as well.
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sees something impossible on the ocean floor... but not as impossible as what he finds when he surfaces again.Review: This was a very interesting piece of fiction. The introduction by Damon Lindelof compares it to a Twilight Zone episode, and I think that's pretty apt: focusing on a normal person, and a normal problem, but with a supernatural and very creepy twist partway through. The core of the story - that of someone having to finally deal with their own relationship with their parents as they are about to become parents themselves - is one that I feel like I've seen done before. It's also not a story I find particularly personally compelling, since I don't have kids, and have what I think is a really good relationship with my parents. Lemire handles his subject matter with grace, however. Jack and his wife and his mother and his absent father feel like real people, and their reactions to each other and to the course on which life has taken them feel organic and sympathetic.
I'm somewhat torn as to how I feel about Lemire's artwork. Taken in isolation, it's not my favorite style. It's greyscale, with a lot of sketchy pencil lines and smudges. It doesn't look unfinished, exactly, but whatever the antonym of "polished" is, this is that. But at the same time, the style perfectly suits and even adds to the stories he's telling. They grey, sketchy lines of the art feel like the grey, worn-down buildings of a dying Nova Scotian fishing town, and the grey, worn-down people that live there. He also makes some really interesting choices regarding the composition and paneling of his story that add some spark to the work as a whole. 4 stars out of 5.
Recommendation: I think this book would be of interest to someone interested in modern author-illustrated graphic novels. The Underwater Welder maybe skews a little more towards fantasy, but it's more of the "odd happenings in small towns" variety, and so should appeal to readers outside of the genre as well.
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LibraryThing member EricKibler
There are two Jeff Lemires. There's the one who writes the adventures of corporate-owned superhero comics. That one does serviceable, often entertaining work. And there's the one that writes and draws stories about his own original characters. That one does brilliant work, like Sweet Tooth, "The
Lemire's art at first seems crude and minimalist, but as you read, you become sucked into the storytelling. The artwork gives you just what you need to both follow the story, to fire your imagination, and to engage your emotions. His work has a quality that may make you feel as though you've lived or dreamed his stories.
This is a book about a father and a son, both divers, who live in a harbor town in Nova Scotia. The father disappeared under mysterious circumstances one Halloween, and his son Jack has been haunted by his father's disappearance ever since. Twenty years later, he's back in the small town working as an underwater welder on an oil rig, with his pregnant wife in tow. The approach of Halloween draws him into a quest to uncover the past before he can commit to the future of his new family.
Spooky and heart-tugging.
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Complete Essex County", and this graphic novel.Lemire's art at first seems crude and minimalist, but as you read, you become sucked into the storytelling. The artwork gives you just what you need to both follow the story, to fire your imagination, and to engage your emotions. His work has a quality that may make you feel as though you've lived or dreamed his stories.
This is a book about a father and a son, both divers, who live in a harbor town in Nova Scotia. The father disappeared under mysterious circumstances one Halloween, and his son Jack has been haunted by his father's disappearance ever since. Twenty years later, he's back in the small town working as an underwater welder on an oil rig, with his pregnant wife in tow. The approach of Halloween draws him into a quest to uncover the past before he can commit to the future of his new family.
Spooky and heart-tugging.
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LibraryThing member johnplatt
Haunting and truly wonderful.
LibraryThing member eenerd
Interesting and engaging, even got me a little choked up at the end.
LibraryThing member LibraryCin
3.5 stars
Jack is an underwater welder who works on an oil rig off the shore of Nova Scotia. His wife is 9 months pregnant. His father died when he was only 10 years old, doing a dive while drunk. While diving for work one day, something odd happens, and Jack is then distracted from anything and
At first, I was a little confused and it seemed a little odd. Some of the illustrations were a bit tricky to figure out, as well, which didn't help. The illustrations got easier to read as I went, however. And I did end up liking the book. As mentioned in the introduction (by one of the producers of the tv show, Lost), it was Twilight Zone-esque, so that was kind of appealing, as well.
Jack is an underwater welder who works on an oil rig off the shore of Nova Scotia. His wife is 9 months pregnant. His father died when he was only 10 years old, doing a dive while drunk. While diving for work one day, something odd happens, and Jack is then distracted from anything and
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everyone else. At first, I was a little confused and it seemed a little odd. Some of the illustrations were a bit tricky to figure out, as well, which didn't help. The illustrations got easier to read as I went, however. And I did end up liking the book. As mentioned in the introduction (by one of the producers of the tv show, Lost), it was Twilight Zone-esque, so that was kind of appealing, as well.
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LibraryThing member wethewatched
The storytelling, both in Lemire's writing and artwork, are effortlessly engaging. This is a graphic novel that even someone who is not a regular reader of comics would enjoy. I won't say much more. Just read it!
LibraryThing member RalphLagana
Kept me turning the pages. It's a decent story but if you've any kind of sense of a story twist or familiarity with Twilight Zone tales, then you're not going to be all that surprised by how it ends. Still, a fine story.
LibraryThing member Pepperwings
While the art style didn't wow me, I did like some of it, but I felt it made everyone seem older and more grizzled than they were. The story was good, it made me think of the Twilight Zone, and it had an eerie, but familiar quality that was fun.
LibraryThing member melrailey
In the introduction to The Underwater Welder, Damon Lindelof describes the story as an episode of the Twilight Zone and that is probably the best description possible. I must admit, I am enchanted by Jeff Lemire. Essex County was one of the best graphic novels I've read and now this "little"
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graphic novel was extremely powerful. Before I read any of his work, I heard him being talked about as a graphic novel "god" so when I finally read him, I was surprised at what I got. Both of these works have been deep, insightful and moving. They're insights into humanity, not superheroes. I highly recommend picking up The Underwater Welder and Essex County (which is awesome). Show Less
LibraryThing member JeremyBrashaw
A sparse yet affecting ghost story that cuts to the bone. Underwater Welder author, Jeff Lemire, puts together a bare bones portrait of fatherhood and the wounds from childhood that can carry over. Lemire's spare black and white illustration creates a perfect mood that punctuates the darkness of
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the turbulent seas inside the main character. Highly recommended. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
2012-08-07
Physical description
224 p.; 6.5 inches
ISBN
1603090746 / 9781603090742