Now we all know the master of tension in comics right now is Scott Snyder. The last couple issues of Detective Comics and American Vampire have proven that. However, there is a man who is right behind him when it comes to making comics a tense experience. Jeff Lemire has made every issue of Sweet Tooth a real page turner and a lot of it does have to do with the unpredictability of the art. Now though, with a new story arc beginning, we are starting to see more tension in the story itself.

There are several times where Lemire writes the book in a way where you get kind of scared turning the page. I mean the first page has a grisly moment where someone is bleeding and when you turn the page you see a shocking twist. That keeps happening throughout the issue and it runs rampant in the pages where the girls meet this new character on crutches. I would say his name but he doesn’t give one yet and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a big reveal later on. But what I loved about these moments was that Lemire writes this new guy in a way where you think he’s giving you bullshit but turning every page he surprises you by telling the truth. Every time he was about to reveal something I thought, ‘Right well this is where the mass skeleton grave is’, but it never happened! I’m sure there’s more to him then meets the eye and that’s what Lemire is best at doing by giving us more to read on. You also get some pretty good moments with Jepperd and Gus and I like the sort of Dad/Teenager relationship they have now.

Lemire’s art also continues to impress because I never expect the scope of pages sometimes. The moment he reveals what ‘Project Evergreen’ is hiding in the damn I thought I was looking at a different artist for a second. The amount of detail in it is so staggering you can really feel like your looking at a long corridor filled with stuff. But looking closely at the spread you can still see the sketchy, pencil lines you’d normally see in a Lemire drawing. It does really forgive some of the weirder drawings he does like just making a dark circle to replace eyeballs on some characters. But you do get a lot of great panel layouts and I especially loved the one where Bobby digs himself underground. We need to have more artists to do this type of detailed work but also provide some sort of experimental ideas in their work.

Twenty issues on and I am still loving this series. Jeff Lemire brings so much creativity in his artwork and you know it will never let you down. But Lemire also shows his slightly darker side by putting so much tension in every page. When you get to the last page he makes you earn that shock because of how he paces this. Yes it can be a quicker read then I like sometimes, but how can I complain with such great comic booking in this issue and all previous issues?