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Essex County
Essex County, Vol. 1: Tales from the Farm
Xeric Award-winning cartoonist Jeff Lemire (Lost Dogs) illustrates the tale of Lester, an orphaned 10-year-old who goes to live on his Uncle's farm. Their relationship grows increasingly strained and Lester befriends the town's gas station owner, and damaged former hockey star Jimmy Lebeuf. The two escape into a private fantasy world of super-heroes, alien invaders and good old-fashioned pond Hockey. Tales from the Farm is the first volume in a trilogy of graphic novels set in a fictionalized version of Lemire's hometown of Essex County, Ontario.
112 pages, Library Binding
First published March 1, 2007
7 people are currently reading
5186 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Lemire
1,407 books3,877 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 293 reviews
December 23, 2018
Sad, humane, moving. Lemire is one of the very best, for sure.
September 19, 2011
Lester, a young boy, is sent to live with his Uncle Ken, a farmer, when his mother dies of cancer. Both are struggling with grief and are awkward around each other, not knowing what their relationship is yet. Lester strikes up a friendship with a lonely gas station clerk called Jimmy who once played hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs before an accident brought his hockey career to an end. Lester sometimes dresses up as a superhero and draws comics, while he and Jimmy play hockey and prepare for an alien invasion.
I can't get over Lemire's artwork - it's so beautiful. The comic is drawn in black and white and is so subtle with its use of shading and it's use of no dialogue and stasis. For example, one page has stuck in my mind since reading it a couple of years ago and re-reading it today: Lester and Uncle Ken are sitting down, eating dinner. Nothing is said for 2 panels, we see the awkwardness and sadness of their situation, the cross on the wall, starkly white against black. Then Ken asks Lester how his day was, and Lester says fine. The last panel has Lester asking to be excused. We see two people thrust together into a situation neither wanted and both trying to come to terms with it. It's sad not in a manipulative, sentimental way, but in a real way, depicted so memorably.
The book is filled with moments like this and the ending is so well done, so out of the blue, you'll be thinking about this comic for days after.
This is Lemire's best work, from an artist whose talents seem boundless. "Essex County" is such a great series but "Tales from the Farm" is truly breathtaking, it really is an amazing comic book. Hugely recommended, and if you've got the dough I urge you to buy the "Complete Essex County" for the whole series.
I can't get over Lemire's artwork - it's so beautiful. The comic is drawn in black and white and is so subtle with its use of shading and it's use of no dialogue and stasis. For example, one page has stuck in my mind since reading it a couple of years ago and re-reading it today: Lester and Uncle Ken are sitting down, eating dinner. Nothing is said for 2 panels, we see the awkwardness and sadness of their situation, the cross on the wall, starkly white against black. Then Ken asks Lester how his day was, and Lester says fine. The last panel has Lester asking to be excused. We see two people thrust together into a situation neither wanted and both trying to come to terms with it. It's sad not in a manipulative, sentimental way, but in a real way, depicted so memorably.
The book is filled with moments like this and the ending is so well done, so out of the blue, you'll be thinking about this comic for days after.
This is Lemire's best work, from an artist whose talents seem boundless. "Essex County" is such a great series but "Tales from the Farm" is truly breathtaking, it really is an amazing comic book. Hugely recommended, and if you've got the dough I urge you to buy the "Complete Essex County" for the whole series.
July 23, 2020
Bilindik temalar üzerine kısa ve keyifli bir öykü. En komiğime (ve hoşuma) giden şey Lester'ın çizgi romanı oldu. Herhalde Jeff Lemire olduktan sonra çocuk gibi çizmek ve yazmak epey zor olmuştur. Baskısını ve harflemeyi beğendim. Yalnız ikinci kitapta tamamen farklı bir öykü var sanırım. Fazla bekletmeden devam edeceğim.
Herkese keyifli okumalar.
Herkese keyifli okumalar.
February 17, 2017
I finished this graphic novel a week or more ago and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since. It had so much heart and each element, be it characters or story, had such depth that it’s stayed with me.
The story is about Lester, a young boy who loves superheroes and comics. He always wears a mask and cape even though he gets bullied for it. I really liked the fact he always wore this as I could really sympathised with the idea he had that clothing shielded him and gave him strength.
When we meet Lester he’s living with his uncle and during a series of flash backs we find out this is because his mother recently died. Lester’s having a hard time adjusting to living with his uncle and escapes into comics in an effort to create some distance from it. When his uncle takes him out to the gas station he meets Jim, a guy who once played hockey briefly for a well-known team and someone the locals think is a bit strange, including Lester’s uncle. He befriends Lester and the two of them get to know each other while Lester scouts the area for an alien invasion.
The artwork was black and white which really suited the style of story. The lack of colour lent the novel gravity. The artwork itself was a bit strange and hard to get used to at first, but the simplicity made it feel more raw and somehow more real. Some pages were just artwork and no dialogue.
What I really loved was the relationships between Lester and these two men. Themes such as loneliness and grief were explored in this context and the characters grew as a subsequence of their relationship with Lester.
A satisfying read that I’ll always remember. I’m starting volume two now.
The story is about Lester, a young boy who loves superheroes and comics. He always wears a mask and cape even though he gets bullied for it. I really liked the fact he always wore this as I could really sympathised with the idea he had that clothing shielded him and gave him strength.
When we meet Lester he’s living with his uncle and during a series of flash backs we find out this is because his mother recently died. Lester’s having a hard time adjusting to living with his uncle and escapes into comics in an effort to create some distance from it. When his uncle takes him out to the gas station he meets Jim, a guy who once played hockey briefly for a well-known team and someone the locals think is a bit strange, including Lester’s uncle. He befriends Lester and the two of them get to know each other while Lester scouts the area for an alien invasion.
The artwork was black and white which really suited the style of story. The lack of colour lent the novel gravity. The artwork itself was a bit strange and hard to get used to at first, but the simplicity made it feel more raw and somehow more real. Some pages were just artwork and no dialogue.
What I really loved was the relationships between Lester and these two men. Themes such as loneliness and grief were explored in this context and the characters grew as a subsequence of their relationship with Lester.
A satisfying read that I’ll always remember. I’m starting volume two now.
September 5, 2020
I didn't ask for this
November 9, 2015
I'm going to review this series as a whole and not separately, because you cannot take one book away from the trilogy. I have never been a huge fan of graphic novels, or sports related stories in general. This trilogy is both, a graphic novel that centers around hockey, specifically the Toronto Maple Leafs, so I didn't know how engrossing it would be or if I made the right choice buying it. It was lying around my house for a while before I finally picked it up and started reading...when suddenly I was on to the second volume, then the third, then I was online looking up more of Jeff Lemire's work...
Wow. What a fantastic series this turned out to be. I was fully immersed in the lives of those characters that I was surprised to get to the last page. The illustrations and artwork were so profoundly beautiful, I could feel my heart clench at a simple expression drawn on a character's face, a simple sigh, a simple bow of the head.
The first book portrays the lives of Lester, a young boy who has just lost his mother to cancer, and his Uncle Ken. Lester moved in with his uncle after his mother's death, but can't seem to get along or find any common ground between them, leaving their relationship awfully strained and awkward. All of which is beautifully portrayed through the illustrations, making you breath the awkwardness and tension between them. Lester then befriends Jimmy, an older, childlike man, who runs the local gas station after suffering an injury, which ended his professional hockey career. Lester and Jimmy love to play pretend, in which Lester is a superhero out to save the world from aliens. Lester finds he can be himself around Jimmy, even sharing with him the comics he's drawn.
The second book talks about two brothers Lou and Vince, primarily through a series of flashbacks that Lou is having, in which so much regret is depicted. This, for me, was the all time favourite of all three volumes. The artwork was so powerful and expressive that it almost brought me to tears. So many emotions, so many provocative moments. Jeff Lemire has outdone himself with this one. The artwork is very simple, black and white drawings, with very little dialogue. You could go pages without a single word written or spoken by any of the characters, but the illustrations alone would tell the story. The one page that really stuck in my mind is a series of panels, in which Lou and Vince and his son Jimmy are watching hockey on TV and you can tell the years passing, by the way they were aging from one panel to another and the way Jimmy was getting bigger and bigger, until you reach the last panel where it's just Lou and Vince watching Jimmy playing on TV. Absolutely brilliant portrayal of time passing, without having to spell it out to the reader that the years are, in fact, going by.
Another example of the brilliance of Lemire's artwork was in the beautiful depiction of Lou meeting Vince's girlfriend for the first time. You immediately know what will happen just from their facial expressions upon meeting. You can tell. You can see it from the very beginning just by that one moment they share. And yet, when it happens, it doesn't make it any less disappointing and does not take away the shame and regret that accompanies that incident.
Then there's the third volume that illustrates the life of nurse Annie Quenneville, who is going around working her shifts. The one shift the comic focuses on is Lou's, where we find out that the nurse looks after Lou, who has gone deaf, has a drinking problem and barely speaks. She also looks after her own grandmother, who has a story of her own that we end up reading about through flashbacks and memories.
Beautiful novels, all connected and interconnected in the most incredibly subtle ways making it look effortless. All the stories come together, until it climaxes right where we started - with Lester and uncle Ken.
Wonderful, wonderful series. I am so glad I bought it, and I feel privileged to have experienced this sort of brilliant work.
Wow. What a fantastic series this turned out to be. I was fully immersed in the lives of those characters that I was surprised to get to the last page. The illustrations and artwork were so profoundly beautiful, I could feel my heart clench at a simple expression drawn on a character's face, a simple sigh, a simple bow of the head.
The first book portrays the lives of Lester, a young boy who has just lost his mother to cancer, and his Uncle Ken. Lester moved in with his uncle after his mother's death, but can't seem to get along or find any common ground between them, leaving their relationship awfully strained and awkward. All of which is beautifully portrayed through the illustrations, making you breath the awkwardness and tension between them. Lester then befriends Jimmy, an older, childlike man, who runs the local gas station after suffering an injury, which ended his professional hockey career. Lester and Jimmy love to play pretend, in which Lester is a superhero out to save the world from aliens. Lester finds he can be himself around Jimmy, even sharing with him the comics he's drawn.
The second book talks about two brothers Lou and Vince, primarily through a series of flashbacks that Lou is having, in which so much regret is depicted. This, for me, was the all time favourite of all three volumes. The artwork was so powerful and expressive that it almost brought me to tears. So many emotions, so many provocative moments. Jeff Lemire has outdone himself with this one. The artwork is very simple, black and white drawings, with very little dialogue. You could go pages without a single word written or spoken by any of the characters, but the illustrations alone would tell the story. The one page that really stuck in my mind is a series of panels, in which Lou and Vince and his son Jimmy are watching hockey on TV and you can tell the years passing, by the way they were aging from one panel to another and the way Jimmy was getting bigger and bigger, until you reach the last panel where it's just Lou and Vince watching Jimmy playing on TV. Absolutely brilliant portrayal of time passing, without having to spell it out to the reader that the years are, in fact, going by.
Another example of the brilliance of Lemire's artwork was in the beautiful depiction of Lou meeting Vince's girlfriend for the first time. You immediately know what will happen just from their facial expressions upon meeting. You can tell. You can see it from the very beginning just by that one moment they share. And yet, when it happens, it doesn't make it any less disappointing and does not take away the shame and regret that accompanies that incident.
Then there's the third volume that illustrates the life of nurse Annie Quenneville, who is going around working her shifts. The one shift the comic focuses on is Lou's, where we find out that the nurse looks after Lou, who has gone deaf, has a drinking problem and barely speaks. She also looks after her own grandmother, who has a story of her own that we end up reading about through flashbacks and memories.
Beautiful novels, all connected and interconnected in the most incredibly subtle ways making it look effortless. All the stories come together, until it climaxes right where we started - with Lester and uncle Ken.
Wonderful, wonderful series. I am so glad I bought it, and I feel privileged to have experienced this sort of brilliant work.
July 16, 2019
Biraz bilindik temalar, vefat etmiş anne, baba figürü kayıp, bakıcı akraba, akran zorbalığı. İlk cildin-belki de ilerleyen ciltlerin- heyecanı, Lester'ın gerçek mi hayal mi olduğu anlaşılmayan dünyasından kaynaklanıyor. Gerçek mi yanılsama mı olduğunu ilerleyen ciltlerde göreceğiz sanırım.
October 6, 2020
When I was reading it, I was so amazed by Jeff Lemire's elegant experssive style and his power of story telling that makes the story of a dedicate 10 years old kid who has lost her mom recently and lives in a farm with his uncle, so readable that you can't get rid of!
December 7, 2018
Minimalist, bleak, laconic…
These are just a few of the words you could very well use to describe this first offering in the Essex Trilogy: Tales From the Farm. Just as the title would well suggest, it does indeed take place on a farm. However, this simplistic title cannot prepare you for the emotional tour de force within.
Depicting a harsh admixture of sorrow and escapism, the final product can be a little difficult to quaff let alone stomach. Contrasting the idealism of youth with the inevitable pain of adulthood, less juxtaposition and more life on exposition is the result. With a perfectly matching lo-fi art-style, this tale is wholly coherent in it’s chilly desolation.
Yet for all the strengths, for me it was boring and unenthralling overall. With a majority of wordless panels that seem to revel in their repetition, its own swiftness (due to minimal verbiage) actually works against it. Anything but an upper, this downer left me with a bitter taste.
Sip, swish, then spit.
These are just a few of the words you could very well use to describe this first offering in the Essex Trilogy: Tales From the Farm. Just as the title would well suggest, it does indeed take place on a farm. However, this simplistic title cannot prepare you for the emotional tour de force within.
Depicting a harsh admixture of sorrow and escapism, the final product can be a little difficult to quaff let alone stomach. Contrasting the idealism of youth with the inevitable pain of adulthood, less juxtaposition and more life on exposition is the result. With a perfectly matching lo-fi art-style, this tale is wholly coherent in it’s chilly desolation.
Yet for all the strengths, for me it was boring and unenthralling overall. With a majority of wordless panels that seem to revel in their repetition, its own swiftness (due to minimal verbiage) actually works against it. Anything but an upper, this downer left me with a bitter taste.
Sip, swish, then spit.
February 6, 2019
Minimalistické, velmi příjemné. Na pět hvězdiček to bylo příliš krátké, aby mě to vzala za srdíčko, ale věřím, že až budu číst komplet, tak to bude slušná nálož.
March 6, 2014
Divided into the four seasons, this tells a simple story of the first year of a ten year-old boy's life living with his bachelor Uncle Ken in rural Ontario after his mum dies of cancer. I wasn't too impressed with the first "chapter" but by the second had become engrossed in the simple, yet taught and tragic story. Life is often a melancholy affair with a series of events that may bring a slight spark to the daily hum-drum and that love is present but not always shown with feeling but rather with actions, these are themes. Because the main character is ten, the book may be mistaken for a children's book, but it is not. As I've said it is a melancholy subject, rather dark with only a spark of brightness. It also contains heavy language. I liked the story and I liked the characters. The drawing of Jimmy reminded me very much of the huge farmer in "Lost Dogs" and it is with him whom my emotions most lay. I'm not quite sure I understood the meaning of his departure? at the end though. Was that play or real? Hmmm
June 12, 2013
A touching story about Les, a 9 year old who had to go live with his uncle after his mother dies. Fun story as Les evolves into a "superhero" with some help of a sidekick to help him cope with his new reality. Lemire does his classic, almost sketch-like drawing with only black and white coloring.
February 27, 2014
The language is so sparse, yet conveys so much. The panel work does wonders as well. This was a very moving volume - emotionally and visually. Can't wait to pick up the next few.
June 30, 2017
I am not a huge fan of messy brush strokes but the technique works so well for this book.
You can really sense the emotions from the many silent panels.
Looking forward to the next volume.
You can really sense the emotions from the many silent panels.
Looking forward to the next volume.
September 22, 2020
Gorgeous art and lovely story ❤❤❤❤
July 16, 2015
The rough sketching and horrid handwriting-like font for the dialogue were dysfunctional at best though the sketching I see as relevant to the story whereas the font it just plain bad.
The story is sentimental and powerful, especially for a powerless boy who feels the sadness and weight of not having a father, losing his mother to cancer, and who is being raised by an uncle who feels obligated to care for him and does his best, but makes mistakes. His tough love is evident, but so is the fact that he puts dinner on the table for them to sit down to. He's a rough and tumble farmer who doesn't have a tolerance for the weak, but he senses it in the boy who walks around with his cape and mask as if he's a superhero, though he tolerates it with sighs and mumbles. He tries to protect him from a neighbor man, retired hockey player who was physically harmed and forced to retire, because he was worried about how he could affect the boy with his language, smoking, and "slow"-ness.
The themes sleep just beneath the surface and surprise you.
The story is sentimental and powerful, especially for a powerless boy who feels the sadness and weight of not having a father, losing his mother to cancer, and who is being raised by an uncle who feels obligated to care for him and does his best, but makes mistakes. His tough love is evident, but so is the fact that he puts dinner on the table for them to sit down to. He's a rough and tumble farmer who doesn't have a tolerance for the weak, but he senses it in the boy who walks around with his cape and mask as if he's a superhero, though he tolerates it with sighs and mumbles. He tries to protect him from a neighbor man, retired hockey player who was physically harmed and forced to retire, because he was worried about how he could affect the boy with his language, smoking, and "slow"-ness.
The themes sleep just beneath the surface and surprise you.
July 22, 2017
Beklediğimden çok daha iyi bir giriş oldu ilk cilt. Tahmin ettiğim gibi bir hayat kesiti, bir güzel alternatif çizgi roman şöleni diye düşünüyordum. Fakat yaşattığı duygu ve içinde alıp götürdüğü öykünün yoğunluğu daha fazlasını veriyor. Çok kısa zamanda okunup, çok uzun zamanda etkisini yitirecek bir çizgi roman.
December 2, 2021
Farm life is not for me, and large open spaces, like, say the great plains, give me full-on heebie-jeebies. So, yeah, bleak, full of grief, nearly devoid of women: that all hangs together.
But hockey! And Lester's comic as drawn by Lemire, aged nine! Just a litle warmth and light, to throw the dark into stark relief.I
Library copy
But hockey! And Lester's comic as drawn by Lemire, aged nine! Just a litle warmth and light, to throw the dark into stark relief.I
Library copy
August 21, 2023
Lonely boy living with his uncle on a farm escapes his grief through superhero fantasies.
Many graphic novels are about aspiring graphic novelists and this storyline also mines that same vein of material.
Simple and complex, straightforward yet layered— this is part one and mostly is a setup for the revelations to come.
Many graphic novels are about aspiring graphic novelists and this storyline also mines that same vein of material.
Simple and complex, straightforward yet layered— this is part one and mostly is a setup for the revelations to come.
October 29, 2015
3.5, rounding up.
Definitely empathetic to this story, but the art isn't my preferred style (I like when things are more cleanly drawn).
Definitely empathetic to this story, but the art isn't my preferred style (I like when things are more cleanly drawn).
August 10, 2021
Benim açımdan, "kimi nesir romanlar" ile kıyasladığımda onlardan kat kat üstün bir grafik "roman" Essex Country serisi. Toplam 500 küsur sayfanın her sayfasından çok keyif aldım. Hakiki bir romandan hiçbir farkı olmayan bu eser, grafik özelliği nedeniyle imgelemeyi bize bırakmıyor, yegâne fark olarak, bunun dışında nesir bir romandan farksız ve dahası kusursuz.
Doyumsuz bir okuma oldu kendi adıma.
Doyumsuz bir okuma oldu kendi adıma.
November 12, 2019
This story tackles tough subjects for a young, recently orphaned boy who goes to live with his uncle.
The narrative is comprised mainly of dialogue, so much of the nuances in the story are revealed in the black-and-white pictures.
Mr. Lemire's illustrations are a bit rudimentary for my taste in general, but the engaging plot makes me want to read more.
The narrative is comprised mainly of dialogue, so much of the nuances in the story are revealed in the black-and-white pictures.
Mr. Lemire's illustrations are a bit rudimentary for my taste in general, but the engaging plot makes me want to read more.
August 1, 2022
I tried this some time ago and didn't get into it.
I read it today and thought it was just excellent. The story and the illustrations couldn't match more perfectly.
I can hardly wait to read volume 2 in this series.
I read it today and thought it was just excellent. The story and the illustrations couldn't match more perfectly.
I can hardly wait to read volume 2 in this series.
March 24, 2025
No m’ha acabat de fer el pes. Enganxa però no és juvenil. L’art no m’ha acabar d’agradar i la història està bé, però no prou per aguantar uns personatges un xic superficials i una història una mica confusa i insulsa.
August 17, 2017
Simple bold yet emotional story and Lester a boy who loses family and is learning to adjust to a new life. Being a fan of Lemire I had to go back and discover his older stuff and after reading Roughneck I can see the connection to his style. Unique is a word that i think suits Lemire and his artwork, it is not my favorite style but it is hard to mistake it for someone else. The simplistic black and white panels match the subtle and basic human emotions we can all relate too. Looking forward to the other two volumes.
September 11, 2017
Beautiful& Touching artwork and great chain stories!
Just like watching Fargo , simple, genuine, real, touching stories of rural small town people!
Just like watching Fargo , simple, genuine, real, touching stories of rural small town people!
July 27, 2021
easy 4.5 this is exactly the kind of shit i love!!!!!
May 17, 2025
Las emociones que se pueden captar, como el miedo, el sufrimiento... son plasmados a la perfección en dibujos, muy bonita la historia.
September 2, 2022
Beautifully told, one of Jeff Lemire best work in my opinion, especially loved the pages with the drawings they were amazing reminded me of my own work and being an imaginative kid. Very well done.
November 21, 2020
Required reading for my Literature Now class. Saving all of my thoughts for the schoolwork.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 293 reviews