Comic Info
Comic Name: Trillium
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Jeff Lemire
# of Issues: 8
Release Date: 2014
Trillium #4
Reprints Trillium #1-8 (October 2013-June 2014). William Pike explores Incan temples in 1921 while Nika Temsmith is part of a research group in space in 3797. Researching a strange flower, Nika and William find their paths crossing with exposure to the trillium. Love quickly grows, but Nika and Williams’ time spanning love could threaten the entire make-up of the universe if it is allowed to continue.
Written and illustrated by Jeff Lemire, Trillium was an eight issue limited series published by DC Comics under their Vertigo imprint. The series was released to critical acclaim and was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.
Jeff Lemire really tries to do different things with his titles, and Trillium is a great example of how the comic format is pushed and played with. With that in mind, Trillium is a comic book and meant to be read as a comic…something that is hindered by trade paperback formats.
The story for the comic has a really epic feel. Lemire has stated that the ideas of Mobieus and works by Arthur C. Clarke help shape the comic. Clarke’s contributions to the story are pretty obvious in that the story has a lot of similarities to the set-up for 2001. The characters are reaching through time and space and the trillium flowers and the temple remind me a lot of the ominous and unexplained Monolith of 2001. The ending of the story also reminds me a bit of the arrival of the star child at the end of 2001. It is original and quite different than many other comics of recent years.
Trillium #8
What makes the story work is that Lemire plays with the duality of this story. The format of the comic changes for each issue. Sometimes the stories Pike and Temsmith run parallel on the same page and other issues the stories work up to the center of the page. If you read the comic off the rack, it was fun to see with each issue how the story was going to unfold.
This is where collections hurt the storytelling of comic books. The collection has to give the readers slightly more guidance in discovering how to read it since Lemire changed the format almost every issue. Sometimes, the reader must skip pages into the book to start reading in reverse and this could create “spoilers” if the reader goes too far into the book.
Trillium is a great series that should be read as a comic. Jeff Lemire’s writing and art are strong and it lends itself to a different and fun concept for a comic. The other nice thing about Trillium is that the story is finite and you don’t feel that you are going to get endless sequels. Lemire tells his story and is out…there is something refreshing about that in a world of sequels and continuing stories.
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