Sweets #5

by Kody Chamberlain

Kody Chamberlain's debut series turned out to be a lot more ambitious than I gave it credit for in the beginning.  At first, this comic seemed to be a serial killer mystery, set in New Orleans a day or two before Katrina is expected to hit.  There were a number of standard elements for a story like this - a grieving detective, a weird serial killer calling card (pralines - the cause of the series' title), and so on.

Slowly though, Chamberlain took his story into some more original territory.  The cartoonish flashbacks to the killer's childhood suggested that there was more happening, but it wasn't until this issue's exploration of the concept of synchronicity that I realized how creative Chamberlain really was in plotting this tale.  I'm sure if I were to go back and read the book from the beginning (or read it in trade), I would pick up on a lot of details that I missed.  It's nice to see creators try out some new ideas like this, even if I'm not convinced of how successful this book was at achieving all of its goals.  I do appreciate the plotting here though, and would definitely buy another series by Chamberlain.