Taming fear – review of the comic book “Underwater Welder”

Jeff Lemire tells about the fear associated with fatherhood in an original comic book on the border of horror and moral history.

Disruption of the natural order

The main character of the comic book is Jack – the type of an ordinary “guy next door” who welds underwater installations on an oil rig. A major change is about to take place in his quiet, normal life – Jack is expecting a baby. The growing stress of entering a new role brings back memories of his own deceased father. Meanwhile, in the depths there is a mysterious force that summons him …

Good horror stories should offer more than cheap scares. The best horror films resonate with the audience because they organically link the growing sense of anxiety with familiar situations and characters we can identify with. Set in a story close to us and everyman as the protagonist, the threat that destroys the status quo of everyday life seems more real to us and has a stronger impact on our emotions. This is the case with the Underwater Welder .

Liquid border

In Underwater Welder , as in Rosemary’s Baby , the fantastic events take place on the verge of reality and dream in such a way that neither the title character nor the reader can be 100% sure what is real, and what is only hallucinations caused by Jack’s emotional state . Initially, the border between the real and the fantastic world is clearly marked by the water surface, which the author perfectly reflected in the graphic layer of the comic. He portrayed the space of weirdness – the depths of the ocean – in blurred shades of gray, while what is happening on the surface was depicted in sharp black and white. With time, however, these orders begin to intertwine and eventually merge into a homogeneous whole.

Ultimately, however, it is more important how the protagonist changes under the influence of these (real or imagined) experiences: how he works through the relationship with his father and how he attaches to his new role as a parent. Especially the last issue seems to be presented authentically, as the author himself was expecting a child while working on the comic and used his own experiences and reflections when writing the script.

A solid job

The KBOOM publishing house provided Jeff Lemire’s comic book with a setting adequate to the quality of the story. The Polish edition of the album has a hard cover, thick, matte paper and interesting additional materials illustrating the process of shaping the concept, designing the place of action and characters, and creating individual illustrations. Underwater Welder is a well-rounded comic book on the verge of horror and “crumbs of life”, which is worth getting acquainted with.