Minor Arcana #1 is out today from BOOM! Studios, and Monkeys Fighting Robots had the chance to speak with cartoonist Jeff Lemire about the new series!
About the series:
Theresa, the prodigal daughter of a small-town “psychic” tarot reading fraud, begrudgingly returns home to care for her ailing mother after having left home for good–or so she thought.
Arriving back in her childhood hometown seemingly untouched by time, Theresa learns that there may be more to the magic than she originally believed. And with that, she finds herself caught up in a town that desperately needs her help…
Read on for our interview with Lemire, where we discuss his move to BOOM!, his artistic process, and how ongoing series can survive in the current comics landscape.
Monkeys Fighting Robots: You’ve published a number of creator-owned works, but Minor Arcana is your first series with BOOM! Studios. What’s your thought process like when deciding where to publish a series, and why was BOOM! the right fit for Arcana?
Jeff Lemire: Minor Arcana was an idea that slowly developed as I was working on the Essex County TV show here in Canada in 2021-2022. Originally, I thought it would be a project that I wrote and someone else illustrated, but the deeper I got into researching and writing it, the more I fell in love with the characters and the world, and the more connected to it I felt. Ultimately, I decided I wanted to draw the book myself too.
As all this was happening, I also happened to reconnect with some friends over at BOOM! I’ve known Matt and Eric at BOOM! for a long time and always wanted to do something with them. So, the timing just felt right as Minor Arcana was really starting to take shape.
MFR: What has been your experience with tarot cards that led you to use them as inspiration for this series?
Lemire: The importance of tarot in Minor Arcana really came out of doing research for the book. The original spark of an idea I had was exploring the world of a small town storefront psychic. As I began to dive into that, I immediately saw how the incredible imagery, symbolism and archetypes of the tarot just fed into the kinds of stories I wanted to tell. Once I hooked into the idea that everyone in the small town represented a different story, and a different tarot archetype, the series really unlocked for me.
So, I am new to tarot and very much learning as I go, and as I work on the book, but in this case, it works for the story, because it’s all new to Theresa, our main character, as well. So she and I are learning together.
MFR: The color palette jumped out to me immediately while reading Minor Arcana. Theresa in particular is very muted compared to the other town residents (especially her mother), until she puts on her grandfather’s jacket. Typically, you might expect the main character of a series to stand out more; what were you trying to say by having Theresa almost blend in with the background?
Lemire: I wasn’t sure at first if I would color the book myself, so the color palette and painting style developed as I got deeper into the story. I knew there would be multiple “worlds” depicted in the book, and I wanted a different style and palette for each.
In terms of Theresa’s small town, day-to-day life, I wanted Theresa to be very different from her Mom, who is obviously a really flamboyant and colorful personality. So her more grounded and earthy colors are a stark contracts to Vickie’s more colorful world and the world of the psychic shop.
MFR: Theresa isn’t the friendliest character when we first meet her, and understandably so. She feels like she’s been forced back to the hometown she promised to leave behind forever. Was it a hurdle for you to introduce a protagonist who’s prickly and rude to the locals, but who you also want readers to connect and empathize with, and how did you come to marry those two things?
Lemire: My original draft had Theresa being even more abrasive and misanthropic, but I worked with Eric Harburn, my editor, to tone her down a bit. I liked the idea that our main protagonist wasn’t immediately “likeable.” I think it’s truer to life. People are complicated and often put on an outward attitude to protect themselves. And Theresa is no different. Obviously, this series is all about Theresa’s journey. And this is just the starting point for her.
MFR: The concept of returning home (sometimes reluctantly) and facing your past is a common thread connecting your works. What is it about this theme that speaks to you as a storyteller?
Lemire: Well, I am from a small town myself, so there’s always a lot of that in my work. It’s baked into who I am and my own life, I guess. And, in this case, it seemed like the perfect starting point for Theresa and the story I wanted to tell with her.
MFR: When announcing your new series, you said that you’ve felt like ongoing series are a “dying breed.” Why do you think that is, and what is the trick to keeping an ongoing series going without it getting stale?
Lemire: This book, is many ways, is a real love letter to the classic “first wave” of Vertigo comics I loved as a teenager. And they were all true ongoing titles that I could go to the comic shop and read every month. We certainly don’t see that as much anymore. It almost feels rare for a series to run for 12 or 15 issues in the current marketplace.
I think one of the keys is creating smaller, more contained stories within the larger world and story. And the tarot is a great device for that. It’s the key to let me, and Theresa, explore shorter, more contained stories within the series, while still building a larger world and mystery as well.
MFR: Minor Arcana is set to be your longest self-drawn series since Sweet Tooth. How did you approach this series after doing mostly limited series and graphic novels for the last decade? What changes did you make to your process?
Lemire: Well, I definitely knew that I wanted to do something longer form. But I also know that I’m at a very different point in my life and career than I was when I did Sweet Tooth every month. So, my intention is to draw the bulk of the series myself, but I also know that I’ll be bringing in friends and other talented artists to help along the way. The great thing about the way I’ve structured this book is that the storylines are shorter and more self-contained, so it will feel much more natural to have guest artists come in and do key issues and stories to help me juggle the workload.
MFR: Finally, what do you hope readers take away from Minor Arcana that’s different from your previous works?
Lemire: I really wanted to do a book that was about connection and community. That is the heart of this story and something I personally feel a need to explore right now. I can’t control how the book or story is received or what people take from it. All I can do is try and create something that’s important to me, and hope that it connects to the readers. I think that this book has a real chance to do that. I’m definitely going to take readers on a journey here, where we start is far from where we end, and I have twists and turns planned that, I think, will be genuinely shocking and thrilling. I’m very excited about the book and can’t wait to start putting it out there into the world.
Thanks to Jeff Lemire for taking the time to answer our questions. Pick up MINOR ARCANA #1, out today from BOOM! Studios!
