What's Next For Jeff Lemire? *UPDATED*

The writer and illustrator of Vertigo's ongoing comic "Sweet Tooth" is known for his moody, character-driven, and emotionally resonant stories. Not only in "Sweet Tooth," but his previous work with Vertigo, "The Nobody," and the work that launched him into comic book industry acclaim, "Essex County." Published by Top Shelf Productions, "Essex County" is a trilogy dealing with the emotional and mental goings on within small town folks. Lemire's next work is also set to be released by Top Shelf Productions, and has similar themes as "Essex County." Here is the official release about Jeff Lemire's next project, "The Underwater Welder."

THE UNDERWATER WELDER BY JEFF LEMIRE

Pressure. As an underwater welder on an oilrig off the coast of Nova Scotia, Jack Joseph is used to the immense pressures of deep-sea work. Nothing, however, could prepare him for the pressures of impending fatherhood. As Jack dives deeper and deeper, he seems to pull further and further away from his young wife, and their unborn son. But then, something happens deep on the ocean floor. Jack has a strange and mind-bending encounter that will change the course of his life forever. ... Equal parts blue-collar character study and mind-bending science fiction epic, The Underwater Welder is a 250-page graphic novel that explores fathers and sons, birth and death, memory and truth, and treasures we all bury deep down inside.

So not only is Lemire writing/drawing an ongoing title for Vertigo right now, with issues coming out regularly and on time, but he managed to write AND draw a 250-page original graphic novel? I have no idea how this guy does anything but sit at a drawing table.

Here is the first preview image of "The Underwater Welder," due out in 2011. *UPDATE* The Top Shelf page has this listed as coming out in 2012. Not sure which is the real date as of now, but if one is set in stone I'll find out.