In his most ambitious and most personalproject to date, JEFF LEMIRE spins the captivating and engaging story of afamily from the small factory town of ROYAL CITY and the ghosts that haunt them.
In a return to the literary andthematic territory of Lemire’s breakthrough graphic novel ESSEX COUNTY,ROYAL CITY follows Patrick Pike, a fading literary star who reluctantly returnsto the once-thriving factory town where he grew up. Patrick is quickly drawnback into the dramas of his two adult siblings, his overbearing Mother and hisbrow beaten Father, all of whom are still haunted by different versions of hisyoungest brother, Tommy, who drowned decadesago.
As each member of the familystruggles to keep themselves above water, it quickly becomes clear thatTommy’s death isn’t the only dark secret tearing the town, and thisfamily, apart at the seams. Can each member of the Pike family come to termswith their own guilt over Tommy’s death, and make peace with the manyversions of Tommy that still haunt them, or will they all be dragged down belowthe river along with his lingeringghost?
ROYAL CITY promises to be asprawling, serialized graphic novel that will chart the lives, loves and lossesof a troubled family and a vanishing town, across three decades.
Jeff Lemire is the creator ofDESCENDER (with DUSTIN NGUYEN), AD: AFTER DEATH (with SCOTT SNYDER), ROUGHNECK,SECRET PATH (with Gord Downie), PLUTONA (with EMI LENNOX), ESSEX COUNTY, SWEETTOOTH, TRILLIUM, and THE UNDERWATER WELDER. He had also written celebratedstories featuring Green Arrow, Animal Man, Bloodshot, Wolverine, Hawkeye, TeenTitans, the Valiant, the X-Men and Inhumans for the major comic bookpublishers.
I really enjoyed this graphic novel, which is volume 1 of 3 volumes. It's a haunting story of a dysfunctional family, with strong characters and a storyline that gets quite intriguing as you read on. The story is set in a dying factory town and shows a family haunted by the past, having the inability to move on and deal with a family tragedy from over 25 years ago.
Jeff Lemire is one of my favourite writers and artists and this one did not disappoint. The art is very similar to some of his other works. I look forward to picking up the next two volumes, because this one ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.
