Canada Reads is an annual „battle of the books“ competition organized and broadcast by the CBC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXS7MFG4Pt0
The CBC about Essex County:
Jeff Lemire’s Essex County (Top Shelf Productions) is composed of three interconnected graphic novels: Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories and The Country Nurse. Winner of several major awards in the world of comics, including a Joe Shuster Award, it was hailed by reviewers as „the comics medium at its best“ (Booklist) and „a quiet, somber, haunting masterpiece“ (The Oregonian). The minimalistic though intensely emotional trilogy gives form to the author’s inspired vision of what it means to live, work, dream and even die in a Southwestern Ontario rural community.
The population of Lemire’s fictional landscape is represented from childhood to old age through the characters of Lester, Lou and Anne. Their external world is rendered in stark black-and-white lines. The vividness of their interior lives, however, is what gives the graphic novel its colour and vitality.
Defended by Sara Quin
She’s a musician who has been in the limelight for more than a decade, though she’s only 30. Calgary native Sara Quin, one half of the indie music sensation known as Tegan & Sara, has been singing and writing songs with her twin sister, Tegan, since she was 15.
The population of Lemire’s fictional landscape is represented from childhood to old age through the characters of Lester, Lou and Anne. Their external world is rendered in stark black-and-white lines. The vividness of their interior lives, however, is what gives the graphic novel its colour and vitality.
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/
Ok, Strips & Stories not just thinks that „Essex County“ is a great graphic novel, we also love Tegan & Sara.