I’ve been enjoying this title, but not loving it. Every month I saw that I’ll jump on trades after the next issue, forget, and end up buying the next one anyway. That’s no longer the case; I’ll be back next month.

While the first four issues felt like they were written and drawn by a man who’s never written a monthly comic or had his art colored, this issue signifies that the training wheels are off. Lemire’s storytelling has picked up the pace. While still not the densest comic in my stack, the story has seemed to found a comfortable speed and settled in. Lemire even pulls a fast one at the end that I did not see coming (though looking back, I feel like I should have) The idea of adding a teaser of the next arc at the end is something I’ve never seen before, and I’m all for it. Those four panels have me more jazzed than when first I heard about this book.

But the real star is the art. Lemire seems to have finally figured out how to draw art that’ll get colored, and the colorist (whose name escapes me) has figured out how to color Lemire’s pencils. Lemire also seems to have tightened up his pencils. I love the sketchy/at times abstract style he used in Essex County, but it didn’t feel right in this book. His pencils have tightened up gradually over the first arc, and I think it’s finally safe to say they’re where they need to be.

The only flaw I can find is that it still felt a -little- light, but not nearly as much as the previous four.