Essex County

    (Top Shelf, 2007)
™ and © Top Shelf

Jeff Lemire, creator of Lost Dogs, presents a fictionalized tale of his home, Essex County, Ontario. Lester is a young orphan who has developed the habit of wearing a home-made super-hero costume at all times. Transplanted to his uncle’s farm and seen as a freak by the local kids, Lester is lonely and sullen, and rejects his uncle’s very real but awkward attempts to be kind and fatherly. When he meets Jimmy, the slightly mentally-damaged former-hockey player, Lester finds a kindred spirit, and the two are soon fast friends, discussing comic books, alien invasions, and hockey. Jimmy’s influence on Lester doesn’t go unnoticed, and as the tale wears on, Lester will have to make a choice between the real, hard life of the farm and the fantasy that he and Jimmy create. This is a serious story about three very lonely people which, at the same time, examines one of the tiny steps between childhood and maturity that almost everyone takes.

— Jennifer McGinnis
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