Welcome to Lemire County, our new monthly look at the creator-owned work of one of our favorite comic makers, Jeff Lemire. Not only will this be a place for us to talk about his books but it will be a place for Lemire, himself, to be a part of the discussion as well.

Today, Jeff sits down with Brian Salvatore to discuss “Gideon Falls,” specifically the developments from the fourth issue, which hit stores last week. Then, we share an exclusive preview of “Quantum Age: From the World of Black Hammer” #1, which drop July 4. Finally, Rowan Grover shares the first half of a deep dive into Doctor Jin Quon of “Descender.”

Join us next month, when we continue our look at “Descender,” discuss the end of “Royal City,” and more.

Welcome to Lemire County; we hope you enjoy your stay.

A big thanks to Jeff Lemire, Will Dennis, Image Comics, and Dark Horse Comics for their support and help in putting together this edition.

“Gideon Falls” is a collaboration between the “Green Arrow” and “Old Man Logan” team of Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. The series, which launched earlier this year, is a mystery set across multiple locations and various characters, but centered around a mysterious Black Barn. Last week, the fourth issue was released, and I got a chance to talk with Lemire about some of the developments in that issue.

Interview by Brian Salvatore

The fourth issue introduces another aspect to the mythology that I find fascinating: people like Dr. Sutton, who believe in the Black Barn, but have never seen it. This is juxtaposed with Dr. Xu, who sees but doesn’t believe. There is, as Sutton says, a connection to faith here, with even the most fervent believers having to do so from the veil of distance. When building this mythology, how important is the fact that people have such different reactions to the Black Barn?

Jeff Lemire: It was imperative. There was no point in doing a book with an ensemble cast unless they all bring something different to the book and they all unique points of view from one another that create tension and bring new things out of the other characters. If everyone reacted to the Barn the same way, it would make the Barn less of a mysterious and complicated “antagonist” in the series.

The entire story of “Gideon Falls” came about from putting two separate ideas I had, that were not working fully on their own. The tension that it created was what made everything start working for me. So the cast and their perspectives are also a reflection of building out of this.

One of my favorite parts of Andrea’s work is how surprising it can be. When Dr. Xu sees the Black Barn, she has this vision of herself, her ‘assailant,’ and various tools, all split into cubes in a pattern. It is a page unlike anything found in the previous three issues. What did your script look like for that? How different is what Andrea delivered than what you initially intended?

JL: My favorite thing about working with Andrea is that he surprises me as well. More than any collaborator I have ever had, Andrea takes the script as a jumping off point and then goes off into uncharted territory and then I feed off that when I see what he has done and it pushes me in new things that I never would have gotten to on my own.

That was one of my favorite scenes that I had written, but he took it to a whole other level. The script was fairly straight-forward in that Angie’s bathroom mirror literally becomes a window into the other story line. And you see what he did with that idea.

The town of Gideon Falls seems to share a lot with your hometown, Jeff, at least in the broad strokes. There’s a really familiar feeling to the Black Barn that feels like it is the type of story whispered about in small towns across the world, even if it isn’t, well, real like it is here. Was their a myth or legend you heard growing up that inspired this story? (Side note: my small town in New Jersey had no less than 2 rumored ‘haunted’ structures in 2 square miles growing up)

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JL: No, there was no urban myth like this where I grew up. But I did spend a lot of time playing in old barns as a kid. And they can be creepy as hell, especially at night. So I guess that must have imprinted on my young brain. But I loved the idea of this “haunted house” that wasn’t a house at all. And I also love the idea of a secret history in small towns like this.

Twin Peaks is the biggest influence on Gideon Falls. But I wanted to create a mythology all our own, not just ape Twin Peaks.

Father Fred is such an interesting character, even though we know so little about him. He know a bit about his past and his reluctance to leave the seminary, and each month we sort of dig into the image we have of him: listens more than he talks, is willing to entertain supernatural ideas only so far, isn’t easily offended. Will Fred continue to be a mystery to us, or will we know more about his past as we move forward?

JL: Fred’s past will be revealed. He is a complicated man. In most films and pop culture, priests are two-dimensional character types. I wanted to create a Priest that was a complicated and conflicted as any other man would be.

Fred’s past really starts to spill out in Issue 6. If you think what Andrea did in Issue 4 is wild, wait until you see 6!

I love the juxtaposition between Norton’s urban life, which is mostly free of people, and Fred’s rural one, where he can’t seem to get away from people. There are obviously stereotypes about city folks being less friendly than their country counterparts, but that’s not what this feels like. It’s also too simplistic to blame Norton’s isolation on his mental illness. What is it about isolation, both physical and emotional, that is important in this story?

JL: It is essential to the story. Fred and Norton are very very different men, as are Clara and Angie different women. But they also have these elements that link them and aspect of their lives that mirror each other. I came up with the core ideas of this story two decades ago when I was in a very dark spot. I was alone and this is a story about characters who are isolated and are slowly pulled together and slowly learn to let others into their lives. And in many ways, depsite all its horrors, The Black Barn is the catalyst for this.

“Black Hammer” is sort of like Lemire’s version of the Mignolaverse, where stories spin out from all corners, taking on shape and tone that seem totally unexpected and, therefore, are incredibly exciting. “Quantum Age: From the World of Black Hammer” is set one thousand years in the future, focusing on new heroes who were inspired by the legends of the folks we’ve already met. This continues Lemire’s journey through superhero tropes, this time, creating his own Legion of Super-Heroes. We posted the entirety of the Free Comic Book Day issue featuring the Quantum Age characters, and now we are thrilled to share an exclusive first look at three pages from next week’s debut issue.

Also, check out this incredible timeline our own Mark Tweedale put together for the series.

Written by Jeff Lemire

Illustrated by Wilfredo Torres

Colored by Dave Stewart

Lettered by Nate Piekos Set in the world of the Eisner Award-winning Black Hammer series–but a thousand years in the future–a collection of superheroes, inspired by the legendary heroes of Black Hammer Farm, must band together to save the planet from an authoritarian regime. A young Martian must find a way to reform The Quantum League to save the world while solving the riddle of what happened to the great heroes of the twentieth century. Black Hammer creator Jeff Lemire (The Terrifics) is joined by Wilfredo Torres (Legion) in illustrating while Dave Stewart (Hellboy) adds his colorist skills to the mix. * Based on Jeff Lemire’s Eisner Award-winning series! ”Masterfully plays with all the many tropes and genres of superhero fiction over the past few decades.”–Entertainment Weekly

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Essay by Rowan Grover

For the last three years, Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s “Descender” has been one of the more explorative and rock-solid sci-fi stories on the mainstream stands. With the story coming to a close in July, we’ve decided to look back at what made the comic so unique by checking out some of its key characters. The first I’ve wanted to look at may not be one of the central cast but stands out as the one who kick-started the inciting incident of the whole series: Doctor Jin Quon.

In the beginning, Lemire has us believe that Quon was a good-natured, intelligent character. After all, he created the innocent Tim-21, a robot that functions as a companion for humans. Plus we get some information in his conversation with General Nagoki, saying “You practically invented modern robotics in the UGC.” So sure, he seems pathetic at times and lacks confidence, but we understand that he’s a man of great intelligence and respect in the scientific community of Niyrata. It’s Lemire cleverly playing on stereotypes to set up expectations, to create the illusion of a bookish and sympathetic character. But then, the Harvester event occurs.

We skip ahead ten years, and find Quon once again, only this time, he’s something of a mess. Of course, this is still understandable within the set-up. In the ten-year gap, robots, Quon’s main field of study, were outlawed and hunted down to be scrapped. This occurs in the first book, ‘Tin Stars,’ where Quon agrees to help find Tim-21 to help the UGC. In terms of character development here, there are a few moments of him acting rashly and independently but nothing over the top that would defy the still prevalent scorned computer/nerd visage granted from the prologue. It’s not until later in the volume, when Quon is captured by the Gnishian King S’Nok III, that he undergoes his first major character development and origin unveiling.

Being tortured by the Gnishians, Quon tells all of the UGCs plans with very little hesitation. He also reveals he didn’t create the codex Tim-21 is based on but stole it from his mentor, Doctor Solomon. Not only is Quon a coward and traitor to Tim and the rest of the crew, but he’s also a professional fraud. Even more shocking, the Gnishians dismember his arm, even in Quon’s admittance of information to them. This is the first step in his development to becoming an even more layered character. We now see a hint of things to come with this showing of personality. The Jin Quon of this instance is not the pitiable, sympathetic intellectual but now appears self-centered and ignorant.

After this turn of events, the gang is rescued and brought to a robot safe-haven called the Machine Moon by an enigmatic robotic leader named Psius. For Quon, this is the start of a major plot thread. Taken in by these supposedly supportive beings, Quon has a robotic prosthetic arm attached in place of his old one. It’s a symbolic move, showing that Quon, as a once-creator of robot life, has come to be part robotic himself. We don’t know it yet, but later on, this development proves to be the start of a path of redemption for Quon and is one of the first examples of flesh and robotics working in harmony.

Later, we see everyone taking good advantage of Psius’s group of robot evangelists, Hardwire, while Tim-21 starts getting to know his newly-found counterpart, Tim-22, better. As Quon and Telsa discuss their escape plans, we find ourselves reading a lot of disdain into Quon’s dialogue, especially after the incident. However, Lemire cleverly plays with our emotions, as Quon still retains loyalty to his creation, Tim-21. When Telsa suggests taking Tim-22 in place of the former, Quon is appalled Telsa would leave 21 behind. Likewise, when Psius approaches them about performing “tests” on Tim-21, Quon is skeptical, quick to try to defend 21 from any potentially harmful forces. It’s interesting because we still feel disdain for his character after the Gnishian incident, yet we can still see that he has goodness in him, especially to protect those that he cares about.

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We see another incident at the end of the second volume with Quon and Psius when Hardwire’s true motives are slowly being uncovered. Quon and Telsa discover an old Harvester shell in a forbidden section of the Machine Moon before Psius catches them out. In this instance, we see a mix of old and new Quon. At first, he goes on the defensive, saying that he has more information we can bargain with. It’s a single panel that makes us a roll our eyes at his character slip-up, but then we find out the information, that his mentor Solomon and the ancient robot Tim’s codex originated from are still alive. On the surface, this might still seem like Quon being backed into a corner, but underneath, it almost seems like Quon is accepting that this might be the best hope for robotics and humanity, to go to the source of where their problems began. It’s the start of Quon begetting his ego and starting to try and fix the mess he’s made, consciously or not.

In the third volume, ‘Singularities,’ most of the content is singular, character-focused issues, without much material with Quon. There’s not much narrative progression in the present point, but we do get enough of a moment just after Quon’s reveal of the status of his mentor. Telsa violently reacts to the initial news, hammering into Quon’s face whilst being restrained by Hardwire, giving a hint of sympathy for the character before a complete turnaround. Quon slips back into his despicable side in retaliation, revealing to Psius that Telsa is the daughter of General Nagoki, the head of the UGC, and hence a powerful bargaining chip. Nguyen does some fantastic facial work with the art here. Quon’s glasses glaze over, and he sports a firm, satisfied grin, giving him a more detached, inhuman visage and bringing readers back to the point of despising him.

Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen have created a complex character in Doctor Jin Quon. His nature, at this halfway point, seems to be cyclical, reverting between sympathetic and utterly detestable. But who’s to say the latest development is genuine? Does Quon have an ulterior motive? Is he just playing on both Psius and the reader’s expectations? We’ll be looking at the second half of “Descender” next time to see the next big development of Quon’s background character saga.