Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Thursday Morning Superhero: Essex County Edition

Essex County by Jeff Lemire

The amount of comic book adaptations that have flocked to the small screen has been welcome, if not surprising in what titles have been selected.  The most recent news that has me incredibly excited is the upcoming adaptation of Essex County by Jeff Lemire. Lemire is a masterful storyteller and Essex County had a profound impact on how I view the comic book medium.

Essex County is set in Canada and features interconnected storylines associated with a farming family with an underlying hockey theme as it explores themes of grief, isolation, family, and was very close to making it on the required reading list for the sport and culture course I used to teach.

While the story centers around Jimmy LeBeuf, a former professional hockey player whose career was cut short, but we meet his brother Lou, an imaginative child named Lester, and his Uncle Kenny who he resides with after the death of his mother.

The series is an emotional ride, but Lemire’s ability to evoke emotions from his art draw you in and connect you with the characters who often say very little.  Hockey as a metaphor for theses characters life in Canada is front and center and demonstrates how we structure sport as a reflection of the society for which it resides.  As a sports and comic book fan, this book is the perfect marriage of why I elected to study sport academically.  It is beyond the wins and losses, but how it impacts people on the human level, provides an escape from the pains of daily life, and is a universal language with the ability to connect us all.

The six-episode miniseries was announced by CBS and it is estimated to debut in the Winter of 2023. It will be a long wait, but at least I have Paper Girls and the final season of Locke and Key to help tide me over.

POSTED BY MIKE N. aka Victor Domashev -- comic guy, proudly raising nerdy kids, and Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2012.