Publisher's Weekly Review
Lemire (The Essex Trilogy) returns with another Twilight Zone-style story of horror, love, and redemption. Jack Joseph lost his father, a diver and treasure hunter, on Halloween night as a child. As an adult, Jack, an underwater welder, is still looking for answers; about to become a father himself, Jack has a dive accident that begins a series of otherworldly, or alternate reality, experiences. As his past forces itself into the present, Jack's world is stripped of the living, leaving him to confront the memories binding him to his childhood. Flawed but utterly sympathetic, Jack is a lost soul whose life beneath the waves is beautifully depicted in several glorious two-page spreads. Lemire's stylized art and inventive panel structure is the perfect vehicle for his well-told story, and the tale's poignant moments make the moments of desolation even more heart-wrenching. Lemire seeds details throughout the early pages that resonate across the book, giving the story the feel of a carefully threaded whole. A beautiful, moving, wholly satisfying story about fatherhood and growing up. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Guardian Review
Given the dangers of drowning, the bends and electric shock, underwater welding seems an improbable comfort zone. But for 33-year-old Jack Joseph, it represents an escape: down in the murky waters of the rigs of the North Atlantic, he thinks he can "zero in on weld itself, let everything else fade into the background". The "everything else" in this beautifully drawn graphic novel is a past tragedy that is poisoning Jack's future. Some 20 years ago, his treasure-hunting, alcoholic father disappeared; now, haunted by strange voices that pull him back into the sea, Jack struggles to focus on his heavily pregnant wife. Lemire's work often has a dark, meditative quality, and his line drawings in this nimble mix of ghost story and psychological study are wonderfully atmospheric. Panels follow great flocks of gulls through vast skies, portray Jack as a curious, tool-wielding alien, hunched in the still of the sea, and home in on the dead-end Nova Scotian town of Tigg's Bay, where dilapidated buildings and narrow piers reach into strange, deep water. - James Smart Given the dangers of drowning, the bends and electric shock, underwater welding seems an improbable comfort zone. But for 33-year-old Jack Joseph, it represents an escape: down in the murky waters of the rigs of the North Atlantic, he thinks he can "zero in on weld itself, let everything else fade into the background". - James Smart.
Booklist Review
Though his and Susan's first baby is due within the month, Jack Joseph opts for another two weeks away at his welding job on the oil rig offshore from his Nova Scotia hometown. He feels compelled to be down there his salvager father's term for being in deep water especially now, on Halloween, the day his dad disappeared more than 20 years earlier. On the first dive of his shift, however, Jack sees something and loses consciousness. After being hauled out and dry-docked, he insists on going back, surreptitiously. This time, he gets unstuck in time before, during, and, most portentously, after the dive. In an introductory note, TV producer Damon Lindelof (LOST) enthuses that The Underwater Welder is like a terrific Twilight Zone episode, but that's just the half of it. Lemire combines his characteristic sketchy line work, deftly deployed small areas of pure black, plenty of moody watercolor shading (particularly when underwater), and a predominance of wider-than-high panels to realize a visually stunning analogue of the subtle, old-fashioned, black-and-white-movie creep show.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2010 Booklist
