Sweet Tooth #30 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (writer and artist), Jose Villarrubia (colors), Carlos M. Mangual (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Will Jepperd go back to save his friends in the dam?

Five Things [Light spoilers]: 

1. $hit is starting to hit the fan back at the dam. – This is issue 2 of 3 in this story arc, so you know the issue will be relatively climax-free.  Thus, most of the issue consists of showing us “how real the danger IS” instead of resolving anything.  But, sheesh… Is that dude in the dam creepy!?!  He may look like a paunchy middle-aged man, but he’s truly an evil man.  Of course, in the real world, evil probably does look like this sometimes, but in comics we are so used to seeing post-apocalyptic evil being personified by someone with a shaved head or mohawk, tattoos, a huge group of followers, etc.  This is a nice change of pace and the situation in the dam looks pretty dire.  Wonder what that dude did with the wife and kid who were left in there with him years ago?

2. Art is good, but… – I DO still love the art in Sweet Tooth.  Lemire’s characters have this haunting quality that is perfect for a tale like Sweet Tooth.  They should look sad because this world is sad!  When I think of how perfect someone’s art is for a story, I often try to imagine the story as drawn by other artists: Ed McGuinness?  Jim Lee?  Jim Ballant?  When you think of it that way, I really can imagine few artists who can get this emotional reaction from the reader.  Others might be able to tell this story differently, but THIS is Lemire’s unique story.  Still…. there were  a few panels and sequences in this issue that were less than what I’m used to from Lemire (odd transition when the car flips over, the fight in the dam, the way Dr. Singh looked, etc.).  I know that Lemire is taking on more and more writing duties in the main DC universe and you have to wonder how he still has time to write and draw Sweet Tooth unless he is working ahead.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that I worry that DC is “stealing” one of my favorite creators to do books that I don’t want as much as Sweet Tooth.  Sigh….

WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: The Unwritten #33.5 – It’s nice to give a call out to this series that has been consistently “very good”, but hasn’t had a singularly excellent issue in awhile.  This was it.  Yay!  For the last couple of months, the series has double-shipped with the “regular” issues following the normal story and the .5 issues showing this fascinating set of flashbacks into some of the deep historical background of The Unwritten’s universe.  This issue showed us the nasty nun/puppeteer Ms. Toller/Rausch as a little girl in one of the Germanic kingdoms in the late 1700’s.  Given this girl’s childhood, it’s no wonder she turned out BAD.  The other thing setting this issue apart was the inking work done by Vince Locke.  I think if you looked back at this site (and other sites), you’d notice a direct correlation between Locke being present for inking duties and the reception to the issue.  He’s one of those artists who isn’t content to put down a smear of black ink or to do an ink wash…..it’s just him and his fine brush making a rat’s next of crazy lines when he wants a shadow.  It looks GREAT.

Most Anticipated: Rachel Rising #5 – This new(er) series from Terry Moore has been just splendid since he launched it a few months back.  It follows a girl named Rachel who has climbed out of a grave after being murdered (?) and the truly bizarre things going on in her hometown.  Weirdness is afoot as some kind of mind control is causing people to kill their loved ones.  Issue #4 really started to pull some disparate elements of the story together and while it isn’t clear where the story is going yet, the basic flavor and tone is becoming obvious.  And….of course….the art is glorious.  Not a lot of artists could pull off the type of art that Terry Moore is laying down here.  The wizardry of his work is in the subtle little expressions that allow him to say a LOT in a single panel without cluttering it with a word balloon.  Not only is he good…..he’s also confident that he can nail these scenes from an artistic standpoint.  It’s special….hop on now!  Plus, I think you can get it digitally via Comixology and that’s important because very few comic shops will order shelf-copies of this series.

Other Picks: I Zombie #22, Sweet Tooth #30, Alpha Girl #1, Fatale #2, Amazing Spider-Man #679, Uncanny X-Force #21

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Fantastic Four #602 – Epic space battles!  But the real beauty here is how the pieces are all coming together together beautifully and in massive scale.  This issue also passed the “chill test”:  if a book gives me chills, it’ll probably be pick of the week.  This book did it twice.

Most Anticipated: Winter Soldier #2 – As stoked as I am about Ed Brubaker’s other book this week, Fatale #2, I’m giving it to Winter Soldier.  This is simply one of those books where all the stars align perfectly.  It’s a team-up of two of my favourite characters (Bucky and Black Widw), written by one of my favourite writers (Ed Brubaker), drawn by the perfect artist for a book like this (Butch Guice), and colored by one of my favourite colorists (Bettie Breitweisers).  And to make it even more perfect, it’s $2.99!

Other Picks: Fatale #2, The Punisher #8, Animal Man #6, Swamp Thing #6, Uncanny X-Men #6,  Action Comics #6, Sweet Tooth #30, Amazing Spider-Man #679, Defenders #3