The Underwater Welder is a beautifully crafted tale of one man's need to make sense of his past and accept himself if he has any hope of being prepared for his future.  Read Full Review

The Underwater Welder is OUT NOW and anyone that loves a graphic novel with real heart should seek it out. Read Full Review

If you are looking for another superhero genre book then look elsewhere but if you want to read about an everyday situation getting twisted up then this is for you. With 5 more months to go until the end of the year Jeff Lemire's Underwater Welder sets the bar high for Graphic Novel of the year. Read Full Review

Lemire weaves a beautiful tale forcing our protagonist to confront his past and learn the truth about that night his father disappeared. Lemire's story never loses composure and never lags as our character is swept through a non-linear tale of self-discovery. If you are a fan of the Twilight Zone or Lost there is no reason for you not to pick up this awesome book! Read Full Review

This is a graphic novel that I will read many times over the coming months and years as it is one of the highest quality works from start to finish that I have seen in a very long time. I tip my cap to you, Mr. Lemire, The Underwater Welder is fantastic. Read Full Review

I loved this book. As soon as I finished reading it, I immediately wanted to read it again. I fear that my review hasnt really done it justice, as Ive just gushed rather than really going into detail, but I think the specifics of the graphic novel are something you need to discover for yourself. Hopefully my recommendation is enough to convince you to give it a try. The Underwater Welder instantly shoots to the top of my best of the year considerations, and once its had a little more time to percolate in my mind, it might end up making a dent in my best of all time rankings as well. A must read. Read Full Review

We have only just barely passed the halfway mark of the year, but “The Underwater Welder” is already a safe bet for the best graphic novel of the year. Nearly everything that Jeff Lemire's work has been praised for in the past is at full display in this new graphic novel, which stands toe-to-toe with the acclaimed creator's critically lauded “Essex County.” Anyone who has ever felt even the slightest desire to disappear into their own, secluded space will be unable to avoid being sucked into this incredible read, and will leave its pages feeling as if they, too, embarked on a strange journey into their own psyche. Three cheers to Jeff Lemire for creating such a beautiful and timeless piece of sequential art. Read Full Review

Greatness has been achieved by Jeff Lemire. He is a role model and inspiration to me and I will read Underwater Welder many times over again. Not because I need to remember what happens, but because it is a legitimate piece of literature and a study of the two things every human in the world shares: life and death. Read Full Review

The Underwater Welder is a roughly 220-page tour de force with enough emotional resonance that you might find yourself wiping away a single tear while closing the book's final page. Thus far, this is my favorite original graphic novel of the year. Hands down. You should not let this one pass you by. So rush out to your local comic shop and snag this bad boy as quick as you can, even if it's at the expense of some of your weekly pull. Stories like this don't come around too often, so get while the gettin' is good. Read Full Review

"The Underwater Welder" is one of the most heartfelt and emotionally gripping stories you will read this year. Lemire created this graphic novel as a means to tell a powerful literary work and it is a shining example of what medium is capable of. Closing the final pages of this book, it is apparent that Lemire has just pulled on reader's heartstrings, and left them with a beautiful and moving story about life, love, and fatherhood. Read Full Review

The end of the book captures a very tangible emotional moment, the one many new fathers have when they realize the severity of the tectonic shift that's occurring beneath the feet of their lives. Their entire foundation is shaking and the structure of your life has to be rebuilt to support that quaking or else it will all crumble beneath you. Through his art it's a defining moment that Lemire shares with (hopefully) millions of other fathers out there, myself included. It's handled beautifully, I just wish the journey that got Jack Joseph there resonated as strongly. Read Full Review

recent read for me. I really love Jeff Lemire's independent works because they feel a lot more personal than any of his main big two stuff, even his Black Hammer works to an extent. Those always feel like they service a larger narrative that has good writing, but feels controlled by editorial and other forces that come from writing within a shared universe. This story feels so personal to Lemire and provides a very human and relatable story of trauma, grief, and getting over said trauma. The story is gripping for the first half. I love the transitions that Lemire puts from past to present to past again using the recurring theme of water and drowning, since it plays such a main role in the story. The first half also has a lot of twists that I didn't expect, which kept it very interesting. However, the second half is when the story gets very predictable and starts to resolve itself rather unevenly and too quickly. It's a rather standard ending to a very unstandard story, which is disappointing because it set itself up as a unique plot. Another small gripe for me was the art, it's black and white. Black and white works in a lot of stories, mainly crime and noir books, but I don't think it works here. It doesn't really service the story in any meaningful way except to portray the dark tone the story has, which was already obvious without the lack of color. Also the art looks very rushed compared to his other books where he's pencilled such as Sweet Tooth or Essex County, a lot of panels feel unfinished. Not sure if it was intentional. I'd recommend this since it was still a lot better than any of the stuff that comes out fromt he big two these days, but compared to Lemire's other work, this is one of the weaker titles. more