Review – Mazebook #1

Review – Mazebook #1

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Jeff Lemire

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Release Date: September 8, 2021

Variant Cover: Andrea Sorrentino

Book 1

A lonely building inspector still grieving the loss of his puzzle-loving daughter receives a mysterious phone call one night from a girl claiming it’s her and that she’s trapped in the middle of a labyrinth. Convinced that this child is contacting him from beyond this world, he uses an unfinished maze from one of her journals and a map of the city to trace an intricate path through a different plane of reality on an intense and melancholy adventure to bring his daughter back home.

Writer/Artist: Jeff Lemire

The Sweet Tooth author and artist brings his next vision to comics with a confusing puzzle(?!?) thriller Mazebook. William Warren is a father stuck in his own maze after the disappearance of his daughter Wendy ten years ago. Struggling to engage with anybody and focus on anything but memories of his daughter he slips further into a daily routine.

Willaim has a locked door in his mind where he keeps memories of her but they are fading and he can’t remember her face. Where ever he goes he sees puzzles and mazes. The depiction of emotional grief and the slow disintegration of character is painful to read.

William refuses help from work, neighbours and doesn’t make eye contact with people as he walks. He uses rules and regulations as a barrier to help a construction contractor and is slowly fading away one day at a time. One night a call comes through he answers with a call for help from his missing daughter. Will this bring him back to life, allowing him to grow and develop as well as interact with those around him?

Lemire’s scratchy artwork suits the script as the world starts to look like puzzles and clues. His use of monochrome with limited colour when he remembers his daughter allows the reader to experience the world from William’s point of view a cold black and white world with nothing in it to care about.

Overall Thoughts

We have all experienced some form of grief so great we exclude ourselves, from a failed relationship where we hide indoors for days to the death of a pet or family member this allegorical tale might help some struggling with grief to recognise themselves within it and find a way out of their own maze.

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