If you had told me one week ago that I would cry upon reading a comic book classified by Top Shelf as "Farm Life/Hockey" I would have probably punched you. But. This comic is one of the most emotionally charged books I've ever read. From the back matter:
"Now the tale continues with Ghost Stories, the second volume in a trilogy of graphic novels set in a fictionalized version of Lemire's hometown of Essex County, Ontario.
Ghost Stories follows the lives and relationships of brothers Lou and Vince Lebeuf over the course of nearly seven decades.
Eldest brother Lou, now a deaf and lonely man, lives out his final days on his farm, full of guilt and regret for the decisions he made that tore his family apart. From their childhood on the farm to Toronto in the 1950s (where he and Vince played professional hockey), Lou revisits his life, a silent observer haunting his own memories."
Lou, now a demented deaf man, spends his last days recollecting his glory days as a hockey star and the regrets of his relationships with his brother and mother. The story cuts back and forth between Lou's current state of losing his autonomy to his lamentations of his failed relationships in his life. Jeff Lemire, both writer and artist, won a Xeric grant for this trilogy, and this volume really seals his place as a master of the juxtaposition of words and images into an emotionally affecting work. The images of Lou reminiscing of his life with his family becomes intertwined into his narrative of his loss of autonomy in a nursing home. Jeff Lemire is a giant who you should watch in the future.
Excerpt from New York Magazine: Link
Page at Top Shelf Comix Link
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