The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

[Chris]

Sweet Tooth #1 by Jeff Lemire

Story & Art

I was late to the Jeff Lemire party, having just gotten into his Essex County stuff and The Nobody OGN for Vertigo this summer.. but if there's one thing I've learned in my short time as a fan, it's that Lemire knows how to craft a truly touching story like no one else in the business. Sweet Tooth looks to follow in the steps of the Essex County trilogy in that department.

Although the first issue was mostly setup, it still managed to make you care for it's characters. In 22 all-too brief pages, Lemire introduced us to his world.. post-apocalyptic in nature, and inhabited by mysterious human/animal hybrids, the most important of which is Gus, a little boy with antlers living in the woods.

I've been looking forward to this book all summer, and it's paid off.

Fantastic debut issue, filled with just enough mystery and character moments to keep me coming back.

Some pretty good questions were raised, which hopefully get some answers early on.. mainly, how did the world get to be like it is?

Anyway.. great first issue, and from everything I've read about the book, the setup is there for it to become something very special if given a chance.

Story: 9
Art: 9

Total: 9/10

[******]

http://www.theouthousers.com/content/view/4291/176/

[thefourthman]

I plan on typing up my review this evening.
FYI new books are Thursday this week.

[Punchy]

I plan on typing up my review this evening.
FYI new books are Thursday this week.

Oh no, however will I cope.

Oh yeah, it's Thursday every week in the UK!

[Victorian Squid]

Oh no, however will I cope.

Oh yeah, it's Thursday every week in the UK!

We have a Thursday every week here too, it just doesn't contain a high tea or tiffin.

[thefourthman]

Sweet Tooth #1

So Jeff Lemire is a rising star. Essex County is nothing short of Brilliant while the Nobody is solid and entertaining, but hardly worth calling home for.

Of course, when a comic talent is making waves, the big two come a knocking. I assume Jeff turned down a gig on Strange Tales and went for DC's house of the weird and unusual, where he is a natural fit.

There are two things that impress me about this book. First, with all of his previous work being graphic novels, I was impressed with Lemire's ability to write a serial work here. He has a firm grasp of how to pack enough into 28-32 pages to make it worthwhile for reading and leaves us wanting more with a fairly impressive cliffhanger. This was my biggest concern going into this. I was afraid I was going to read a needlessly chopped up graphic novel, but it is clear that Lemire understands the strengths of the format and is fearlessly going to use them.

Secondly, Lemire's other works have been filled with a sense of Isolation. Picking first his home of Essex County for the eponymous trilogy and then the midwest of the US for his reimagining of Wells' Invisible man, he has made his job easy. Here, we again have a secluded local for the tale and I was fearful of the color. The previous books with their lack of color or monochromatic coloring added to the sense that these stories were happening somewhere removed from Suburbia or the hectic world of a Metropolis. This was the world of Fargo and 30 Days of Night. It added to the specialness of the story, would color detract from this? No, the color does not detract, because Lemire is a skillfull story teller who does not merely rely on art gimmicks to get his point across. Here he sets up what seems to be an apocalyptic scenario, or it might all be a lie. Who knows? Well, the reader does by the end.

Solid, brilliant story telling, with quirky art. Seems like this book was written just for me. Glad most of the rest of you liked it as well.

Story 10
Art 8
Overall 9