SWEET TOOTH #1

Review by: akamuu

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Size: pages
Price: 1.00

Everyone has artists and authors that they love, hate, or don’t really care about.  For me, Jeff Lemire was in the latter category.  I really enjoyed Essex County.  I didn’t care for The Nobody.  So, seeing his name on a book doesn’t inspire me to buy or not buy a book. 

The previews of this book, which were peppered through most of the Vertigo titles for the last couple of months were intereseting, but not fantastic.  In that respect, the preview was a miserable failure.

This is a beautiful book.  Both visually and plot-wise.  On the one hand, it seems as basic a concept as The Nobody, but there already seems to be much more richly textured layers beneath that familiar idea: a post-apocalyptic society where a child is kept from the rest of the world because he is different.  Seems like the kind of thing M. Knight Shyamalan would make a movie about.  But where he would focus the series on one thing, and then, at the last minute, pull up a tarp to reveal a Twilight Zone inspired turn at the end (seriously, I can’t even see or hear his name without hearing that Robot Chicken satire “what a tweeeest!”), Lemire appears intent on developing the narrator as a character who would be interesting in any situation.  And, unfortunately for him, he’s currently in a situation which sucks.

While I’m not sure I’m a fan of the way Lemire does faces in this book (with the exception of the protagonist), I love his backgrounds and set pieces.  And I have never been so drawn to the way an artist draws flannel.  I got pulled into that pattern every time it was in panel (which was frequently)..  There was also a tree in the two page spread in the niddle of the book: a lush, vibrant giant in the midst of a dead landscape that was such a gorgeous metaphor that I kept flipping back to look at it.

I’m not done reading all my books yet, but it’s going to take something phenomenal for me not to make this my pick of the week.  I’m impressed to the point that, if the next few issues are on par or even close to this one, I would definitely throw down the cash for a hardcover of this collection.  Bra to the fucken vo Lemire.  One more book like this, and his name will definitely rise up to the “authors I love” list.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent

Comments

  1. Good stuff.  I can’t wait to dig into this after work!

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