Meanwhile... Back at the Comic Book Blog

Hey! It's a new comic that's actually supposed to cost a dollar! Awesome. I've bought and read all the $1 first issues Vertigo has put out this year (The Unwritten, Greek Street, and this one) and haven't really been that impressed by any of them. I thought Greek Street was pretty terrible to be honest.

Sweet Tooth was the one I was looking forward to the most. Post apocalyptic! I love that! Fantastic. However, the series doesn't really give me any reason to keep reading after this issue. Even if every issue was a dollar.

The art is good, and its got Jose Villarrubia colouring it, so that's good too. I do take issue with the way the first three pages are laid out though. I don't really understand why you would spent the first three pages carefully drawing each panel so that you can't see that Gus has antlers until the page four splash, when the fucking cover shows you. It doesn't make any sense to me, it's not dramatic or shocking because you already know.

But yeah, the story just does nothing for me. The main character is Gus, who's a weird mutant kid with antlers living in the woods with his dad. He's never met anyone other than his dad in his entire life, as weird mutant kids were killed by people for...whatever reason. Fear. Money. Something.

Anyway, Gus' dad dies, and seemingly almost immediately afterwards some hunters come after him. Some other dude shows up, end of issue one. Um, what? How is this an ongoing series? What's the plot? Oh wait, look in the text pieces included in the issue it tells us what the series is actually about. Gus is going to try to get to "the preserve," a place where mutant kids like him can live in peace. But why don't you include that in the actual issue? The pacing of this just way too slow.

The other major problem I have with this series is nothing against the book itself, but rather just an indication that Jeff Lemire is not someone who produces comics I'd be that interested in. In the text piece he says "My books tend to focus on small-town life, and small-town folks." Now, while that isn't necessarily a deal breaker for me, it does make me less interested. Lemire's portayal of Gus really hammers this home. He talks like a "hick" and was apparently raised by his god fearing father to be a boring god fearing mutant kid. That is like the thing I least want to read about.

So yeah, ultimately Lemire doesn't seem to be a creator I'm that interested in. And at least I found out by spending a dollar, instead of $20.

However, one neat thing is that if you go to Lemire's blog he gives details on how you can get a free sketch from him! Just send him a copy of the issue, plus shipping costs, and he'll send you the comic back signed, and he'll include an original sketch. Nice!

After the end of the comic there's a preview of the Fables novel. Fables is a series that I don't find to ever be super amazing (maybe one volume somewhere along the line, I remember liking some of the older stuff more than the last few I've read), but is at least generally enjoyable. I'd say this preview is pretty much the same. It doesn't blow me away, but if I saw a copy in the library I'd probably pick it up and read it.

Labels: comics, One dollar theatre, Vertigo