Sweet Tooth #23

by Jeff Lemire

It's kind of odd how a book with such a fantastical set-up (animal/human hybrid children, plague, strange new religions) would become such a character-driven comic, but Lemire really has a handle on the people that populate Sweet Tooth.

This issue has Gus, Jeppard and the gang hanging out in new character Walter Fish's bio-sphere like dam, while they get their bearings and try to figure out where they should go next.  Jeppard's new relationship with Lucy is strained by a particularly difficult secret she's keeping, while Dr. Singh tries to poison Gus's feelings for Jeppard.

The most interesting character in this issue is Walter.  It's been made clear to us that he's not who he says he is, but there's not much information to help us figure out what his deal is yet.  The scene where he chats with Becky is pretty creepy, even more so for the fact that I'm not sure why.

As usual, Lemire is playing with how he visually represents information in this comic.  He doesn't go all-out with his experiments, but prefers to keep things under a tight control.  I love the panel where, when Dr. Singh gives Gus his father's book, Gus is able to smell his father on it.  It's a beautiful panel which attempts to use colour to represent smell - a very cool idea.

This great series just keeps moving along at a high level of quality.