My first encounter with Jeff Lemire happened last Christmas, at a friend’s party. When I first caught sight of The Underwater Welder (Top Shelf Productions, 2012), sitting quietly on a shelf, I was immediately drawn to the character staring forlornly out at me from the cover. I spent the next hour curled up in a corner of the couch, sipping cocoa and being a giant party pooper as I ignored everyone else and got completely sucked in by the story of Jack Joseph and his bleak, beautiful, water colored world. How good is The Underwater Welder? It was reviewed by NPR Books. This isn’t your average graphic novel. This is serious bidness. This is atmospheric, literary awesomeness. This is Jeff Lemire. Which is why I was so excited to read about his latest endeavor for Vertigo, Trillium. No reference to the Marion Zimmer Bradley series of the same name from the early 90s.
Trillium #1 tells two stories, each happening at different ends of the timeline. On one hand you have Dr. Nika Temsmith, Xeniologist, stationed with a science colony on the planet Atabithi in the year 3797. Nika is trying to discover a way to break through the troubled communications barrier between the humans and the aliens native to Atabithi. Those aliens hold the key to the trillium blossoms growing all around the base of their temple, which happens to look an awful lot like ancient Mayan Temples on Earth. Trillium is thought to be the only known cure for the Caul, a terrible, sentient virus which is encroaching on known human territory and the mere four thousand human beings left scattered across the universe in various colonies.
And at the other end of the tale we find William Pike, WWI veteran, and intrepid explorer of the Amazon, circa 1920. Pike has discovered that his obsession tracking down ancient Incan artifacts helps him exercise his PTSD demons. While leading his team to the fabled lost Incan Temple, he stumbles into a scene straight out of Cannibal Holocaust. Not much later, Nika and Pike come face to face at the base of an awfully familiar looking temple.
Wait, what? That’s right, time travel and paradoxes.
Much like the story, Lemire’s art stands on its quality. The colors are muted, punctuated by bright slashes of red and uncompromising fields of black. Flashbacks are depicted in shades of blue or washed out tones of brown and green that smear and run into one another like smoke on a battlefield. Welcome to the world of Jeff Lemire, my friends. Lemire loves a paradox, and anyone who enjoyed The Underwater Welder will definitely enjoy the complex plot and emotional depth of the characters in Trillium.
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