This weekend I found the huge, paperback collection of Essex County Trilogy. Once I was done the massive collection I found myself brushing away a tear. It was such an emotional journey and one of the more heartfelt books I have read in a long time. I’m sharing you with this because, this is what I want from Jeff Lemire on Sweet Tooth. Okay, maybe not such an emotional read every month, but I want the Lemire who rocked my reading world last weekend. Is the third issue the charm for Lemire? Or is this going right into the ‘trade only’ bin?

I’m going to put this right up front: Lemire has made me excited about this series again. This wasn’t a perfect issue mind you, but it definitely was the best step in the right direction. Maybe its just because I love apocolyptic stories in general, or maybe that the ideas Lemire is giving us here are pretty original. The whole dream sequence was really interesting and maybe Gus has some sort of sixth sense when it comes to the future. The whole time they were in the city was also pretty damn shocking and it’s just as gruesome as what you see in Walking Dead. There are still some hitches with this title though; mainly with Mr. Jepperd. I just don’t having any emotional impact with the guy. He’s just a foul mouth badass and he just seems out of place for this series. I don’t think Gus should be alone in his journey, but I think Lemire is just a bit off base when it comes to writing ‘cool’ characters. The pacing is still a bit too slow, but it has certainly picked up once the end kicks in.

Maybe this title would be better if there was no color. That idea keeps floating around in my head because I think coloring Lemire’s pencils is a bit of an issue with me. Jose Villarrubia is one of the best colorists in comics right now, but with such a dark tone with the book his bright colors just seem a bit out of place. I still think some of the more interesting moments of this issue would work well in black and white; like the pile of bodies in the street or the dream Gus has. Actually scratch that, I think the coloring would work for the dreams. Maybe have the real world in black and white and have Gus’s dream in colors. That would make that whole sequence even more of a jaw dropping to look at. But I’m forgetting about Lemire’s pencils in general, which look absolutely great here. Again the dream sequence was beautiful and probably the best moment I read in my books this week. I think he’s also doing a much better job with showing emotions and only a few times did the character model looked a bit off. So even if I have a problem with the coloring, the artwork has improved one-hundred fold for me.

Overall I found this issue to be the best of the three released so far. Lemire’s writing has improved for a monthly format and the artwork has improved as well. Shame that the coloring has sorta hampered the issue for me; cause if it wasn’t so off putting I would’ve made this my pick this week. In the end, it gives me more reason to keep trying this series in issues then in trade format. Hopefully the trend keeps continuing next month; cause I want this series to succeed in the worst way.