“Took you long enough” indeed.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Jeff Lemire
Letterer: Steve Wands
What They Say:
Will’s a melancholy building inspector who’s been grieving the loss of his puzzle-loving daughter for years. After getting a mysterious phone call from a girl claiming it’s her and that she’s trapped in a labyrinth Will sets off on a journey fighting through the corridors, tunnels, and monsters of his city on a mission to bring her back home.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With two books from Jeff Lemire out from Dark Horse today, it’s just silly how much good material we’re getting that’s engaging and different from each other. This series has definitely caught my attention and has rolled around in my brain for days and days after each issue, leaving me excited to see more and where it’ll lead to. The story is one that feels like others of this nature from him with something darkly personal and delivered with the kind of stylized artwork that’s appropriate for it, very rough, kind of angular, sparse in color design but still distinctive. And at the same time, it delivers something that is really intense and captivating in a way that you can’t get from a lot of other series.
Watching as Will works trying to understand the challenge that’s either really there or the one that his mind is placing in front of him to work through is fascinating to be sure. The maze itself is what’s driving him forward and we see the way that he’s managing to place it against reality, using his home as the entrance point and finding a building for sick kids as the goal. Of course, the actual location itself is just a dead-end alley with a brick wall and no amount of punching it is going to get him through it. But there is a cathartic element to him just banging on the wall, bloodying up his hand, even as it does as much damage as it does. There’s a sense that he’s just wandering again after all of this, which is understandable, and seeing him return back home has its own kind of defeat but a sense of catharsis as well. It didn’t work but now he has to approach the problem in a new way.
Where we get an interesting change is that a neighbor, Lisa, returns home to see him in the hall and she basically insists he come in to get his hand treated and eventually share some food. He even ends up sleeping on the couch for the night after passing out. The two talk for a while and Will does manage to really talk about what he’s experiencing and that he believes it’s real but he doesn’t want to see crazy or anything. But the talking with someone who is treating him seriously, understanding that he believes it but doesn’t come across as disconnected from reality, helps him to try and figure things out himself. Sometimes just talking things out helps and while he doesn’t get any resolution from it, it does encourage him to not give up. And the final few pages bears out some fruit for that, making me hopeful to see something really pivot in the next issue.
In Summary:
Mazebook is moving along well and while it may be following what feels like a traditional path, it’s the characters and trappings that are making it engaging. In addition to the great artwork. Lemire always puts himself into some interesting projects that feel like a different kind of passion project when he does the artwork for it and this one really clicks well with the cast and age of the characters here. I love the slower pace and lengthier page count in order to give it room to breathe so that an issue doesn’t feel like it ends too quickly or is too rushed with what it has to do. I’m eager to see what’s next but am still wary of what’s really happening here.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 10th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
