I spend a lot of time talking with poets and writers about what makes stories work for them.  Why they can read crime novels, romance novels, fantasy stories, again and again without getting bored.  Recently we started talking about particular modern writers (post-modern is a stupid term) and why we do or do not enjoy their work.  The most common reason for disliking a writer was that they often indulge in style over story.

I love a good stylized story.  Toss me a well-written story written in second person, and I’ll read it voraciously.  Recommend a work of fiction that’s footnoted as if it were a research paper, and if it’s compelling, I’ll read it several times, several different ways.  Jonathan Safran Foer?  Sure.  Tom Robbins?  More please.  Mark Leyner?  In very small doses, every five years or so.  Dave Eggers?  No thank you.

When stylized work is done right, I adore it.  Jonathan Hickman’s “The Nightly News” has its flaws, but it’s my favorite series because it managed to tell an interesting story in a stylized fashion.  “Sweets”, sadly, seems to fall into the category of comics that try so hard to be stylized that they fail to connect with me.

The dialog was stilted.  I had to go back over a few pages and sort out what Kody Chamberlain was trying to say.  I could always follow it the first time, but it was like hearing someone speak in a language they aren’t fluent in.  You’re pretty sure understand the intent, but you want to ask a follow up question to be sure.

But, while the stylized writing didn’t work for me, I thought his art was superb.  Great panel layouts.  And when he changed characters, he adopted different color palettes and pencil styles.  Each one was breathtaking.  Were I to judge this purely on Chamberlain’s skill as an artist, it would be a six star book (out of five), it kept me going well past when the writing made me want to put it down.