Sentient

Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Gabriel Walta

I've yet to be disappointed with an offering from TKO Studios, the up and coming publisher that offers their books as both a trade paperback and as a handsomely slipcased six-issue miniseries.

I was pleasantly surprised last week when I got my copy of Sentient, one of their second wave books, in the mail last week, having given up hope of it arriving this calendar year.

Like the previous ones I've read, I was immediately impressed with the production quality of the book, which has nice heavy paper, and a really good feel to it.  My pleasure only increased when I started to read the book.

Sentient is set on the USS Montgomery, a colony ship delivering a small group of families to a distant colony.  Things have gotten bad on Earth, and so it is time to start establishing families on the colony, even though it is being plagued by separatist unrest.  The journey involves passing through a radiation belt that makes communication with either Earth or the planet impossible (making me wonder how the two places communicate with one another).  As the ship passes into the silent zone, one of the women on board enacts her plan to kill all the other adults, and to take the large group of children living there to her separatist compatriots.

The plan doesn't work, as Valarie, the AI that runs the ship, kills the woman to protect the children (her safety protocols are shut off at the moment).  After that, Valarie has to continue her plotted trip, while also looking after the kids.  Lil, the oldest child, is more or less in charge of the kids, and she does not trust Isaac, the son of the murderess. 

This alone would make for an interesting story, as the AI has to figure out how to exceed her parameters, but Jeff Lemire tosses some other threats, from preteen rage to other separatist vessels, at her.  I found this book pretty suspenseful, and was impressed with the character development achieved in limited space.

Gabriel Walta's art is terrific on this book.  His muted colours work great on this paper, and he packs a lot of emotion into his characters' faces.  I find it interesting that in his first big work since the excellent Vision miniseries, he is again having to give life to robotic characters. 

I want to check out more of TKO's second wave, as this is the only book that I ordered from it.  I'm hoping they announce more titles soon, as everything they've done so far has been great.

Roughneck

by Jeff Lemire

I've been a fan of Jeff Lemire's work since I first read his Essex County trilogy, and I really feel like he's returned to his roots, only as a better cartoonist, with Roughneck, his latest project.

Set in the town of Pimitamon (which means 'crossroad' in Cree), a fictional community in Northern Ontario, Roughneck digs into one man's relationship to his family, childhood, and the source of his anger.

Derek Ouelette played professional hockey for a short time before being kicked out of his league and returning home, where he seems to split his time between working at the same diner where his mother used to work and getting into drunken bar fights with tourists who recognize him.  Derek's world is pretty small - he is friends with the local ranking OPP officer, Ray, and that has kept him out of jail for a while now, and with Al, an older man who lets him live in the janitorial room at the local hockey arena.

Derek's sister, Becky, who he hasn't seen since he originally left town, shows up one day with a black eye, a drug habit, and some other surprises.  This book is, from that point, about the re-establishment of a fractured family.  His story brings in elements familiar to Northern Canadian communities - alcoholism, domestic abuse, opioid addiction, the legacy of the residential school system, and disconnection with traditional ways of living.  At the same time, it also weaves in the importance of connecting with the land, and the strength of familial bonds.

This is a very mature work from Lemire, who I imagine, got the idea while visiting Northern communities in preparation for his (short-lived) run on Justice League United at DC, which featured DC's first Cree superhero.  There is a definite understanding of these communities evident here, but also a strong sense of character that propels the story.

Artistically, this is definitely one of the best things that Lemire has ever done.  His pages and panels are expansive and broad, and he allows the landscape, and the characters' relationship to it, to tell much of the story.  There are a few pages that are quite touching, such as when Al takes Derek hunting for moose, and his use of colour, which is limited to a blue wash with red highlights unless the scene is a flashback, adds much to the comic.

I'm not really sure how I feel about the end of the book, but I also can't say much about that without spoiling the story.  I just feel like it might not have been fully justified, although I did enter Derek's confrontation with Becky's ex with trepidation.

While Lemire has received a lot of attention lately for his Secret Path project with Gord Downie, this is by far the stronger graphic novel, and will likely turn up on many best-of lists at the end of the year.

American Vampire Anthology #1

Written by Scott Snyder, Jason Aaron, Rafael Albuquerque, Jeff Lemire, Becky Cloonan, Francesco Francavilla, Gail Simone, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon, and Greg Rucka
Art by Rafael Albuquerque, Declan Shalvey, Ivo Milazzo, Ray Fawkes, Becky Cloonan, Francesco Francavilla, Tula Lotay, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon, and John Paul Leon

When American Vampire first started a few years ago, despite its coming out in the middle of the vampire-related glut of the post-Twilight world, it really stood out as a well-considered, and excellently-executed new approach to the genre.  I liked how Scott Snyder (and early collaborator, Stephen King) grounded the vampire, and other mythological creatures, in biology and history.  There was a strong emphasis on character, and under Rafael Albuquerque's pencil, the book looked terrific.

As the series continued, as new characters were added to the mix, and as spin-off mini-series became more exciting than the main title, I felt that things needed a bit of a shakeup to keep my interests.  I wasn't all that upset when I learned that the series was going on hiatus for a while, as I was considering dropping it.

Now, though Snyder and Albuquerque have headlined this anthology, which has gotten me excited about the property again.  First off, just look at the talent involved in this book, with names like Cloonan, Bá, Moon, Lemire, Francavilla, Rucka and Leon showing up on the cover.  In their numerous short stories, many of which were too short, they explored other aspects of this world, and I loved it.

Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes took us up to James Bay to see what the Canadian Vampire would look like, while Jason Aaron and Declan Shalvey revisited the early colonial days of the United States in a similar tale.  Regular series artist Albuquerque writes a story about a small town in Kansas, which is painted by the very interesting Ivo Milazzo.

Some of the stories feature characters we've met before, as in Gail Simone and Tula Lotay's 'Hattie' tale, and in Becky Cloonan's exploration of why Skinner Sweet came to Hollywood.  Skinner shows up in Greg Rucka and John Paul Leon's story too, which explains what happened to him after Las Vegas, back in the second or third arc of the series.

Francesco Francavilla looks at the vampires' influence in Hollywood, while Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon take us into a seedy nightclub.

This is a very nice looking book, which has managed to whet my appetite some for the return of the series, which is what it's supposed to do I guess.

Trillium #1

by Jeff Lemire

I've missed reading stuff by Jeff Lemire since Sweet Tooth ended.  Sure, he's writing a number of books at DC, but he's not drawing any of them, and they don't really feel like a Jeff Lemire comic.  Trillium does.

This new mini-series is designed as a flipbook that tells two different, connected stories.  Nika is a scientist on a remote planet where the last of the human race, some four thousand people, are rushing to find a cure to a sentient disease that has been targeting the species across the galaxy.  Growing on this planet is a flower, a trillium, that has a property that can combat the disease, but the flower grows in a compound inhabited by the Atabithi, the indigenous people of the planet.  The disease is spreading quicker than expected, and so Nika is driven to extreme measures to try to secure the use of the flower.

On the flipside of the book, we meet William, a veteran of the First World War, who has an interest in the Amazon.  He signs on to an expedition looking for a 'lost temple' of the Incas, which is believed to contain the secret to eternal youth.  William pushes the rest of his expedition to take unnecessary risks, and they soon draw the ire of the locals.

I love Lemire's unconventional artwork, especially when he's being coloured by José Villarrubia.  I especially enjoy the moments in this book, like the last page of each story, that echo each other visually.   I love when books depict the Great War, even if it is just in flashback, and am intrigued in this particular vision of the future (which reminded me a little of David Hine and Doug Braithwaite's excellent series Storm Dogs).  I would be happier were Lemire working on a new on-going series, but I am very pleased with this mini-series.

Time Warp #1

Written by Damon Lindelof, Tom King, Gail Simone, Simon Spurrier, Toby Litt, Peter Milligan, Ray Fawkes, Matt Kindt, and Dan Abnett
Art by Jeff Lemire, Tom Fowler, Gael Bertand, Michael Dowling, Mark Buckingham, Victor Santos, MK Perker, Andy MacDonald, Matt Kindt, and INJ Culbard

I would say that Time Warp is one of the more successful of Vertigo's recent quarterly anthology books.  With the notable exception of the Dead Boy Detectives story (which, in addition to being generally unimpressive doesn't belong in a book about time travel), the different short stories collected here really complement one another nicely.  As well, the book has a good balance between the usual Vertigo stable and some up-and-comers.

When you think about time travel story potential, there are a few standard stories.  There is the story about the person who wants to go back in time to save a loved one, or to fix great evil.  We also see the story of the person who meets him or herself, or the person who wants to utilise time travel for personal gain.  That's basically what we get here, but the book contains a few interesting twists.

Many of these stories are based on technology as the gateway for time travel, but in Gail Simone's story, it is through chocolates and other confections that one can revisit their past.  In Peter Milligan's, technology can't bring back your lost love, but it can provide you with a pretty good holographic likeness.

Adolf Hitler is a recurring character in this book, as we see a story (by King and Fowler) about the world had he been killed by a time traveller near the front of the book, and another about the time travellers who need to protect him from other time travellers at the end (re-teaming the amazing New Deadwardians team of Abnett and Culbard).

I particularly enjoyed the Rip Hunter story by Damon Lindelof and Jeff Lemire, and Matt Kindt's story about warring cultures that expend great capital to fight over a planet rich in natural resources.  I also thought that Simon Spurrier and Michael Dowling's story of scientific rivalry would make a good companion to the Image series Nowhere Men, and enjoyed the suggestion that science is becoming too fame-oriented in our celebrity-obsessed culture.

In all, this is a solid book, and well worth the cost of two issues of a Marvel NOW! comic for four-times the content.

Sweet Tooth #40

by Jeff Lemire

I feel that there are way too many titles that I love ending these days, and I don't see clear replacements for them in the pipeline.  Scalped ended a few months ago, and while I loved its ending, I miss my monthly visits to the Prairie Rose Reserve more than I thought I would.  Now, I'm quite sure that I'm going to feel the same way about Gus.

Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth was always a bit of an odd comic.  Lemire made a name for himself with his amazing Essex County books, and when this monthly series about a hybrid deer-boy in a post-plague world started, it felt like quite a departure.  In no time though, Lemire sucked me into the story with his strong characterizations and his slightly wonky yet beautiful artwork.

As Gus and Jeppard grew into a strange type of family, and protected each other through encounters with angry militia men and the dangers of the road, my attachment to the story and these characters grew as well.  This series always told a solid story, and Lemire regularly experimented with layout and story-telling, to make it a reliably compelling read month after month.

This story borrows a page from other Vertigo endings, like Y the Last Man, by jumping ahead through the rest of Gus's life, and showing us what the character has done since his last fight with Abbot in Alaska.  It's a very satisfying ending, which is poignant, and complete.  I know that this title never lit up the sales charts, but it did lead to Lemire's being a 'big name' writer at DC, with titles like Animal Man, Justice League Dark, Superboy, and soon, Green Arrow, under his belt (although he doesn't draw any of them, which is too bad).

I'm thankful that Vertigo gave him the space to tell this story in such a complete manner, and I urge anyone who's never read this book to go back and give it a shot.  I'll miss Gus, but I am also looking forward to Trillium, which is the name of Lemire's next Vertigo book.

Sweet Tooth #39

by Jeff Lemire

There was a short stretch in the middle of this issue of Sweet Tooth, its penultimate, where I began to worry that the final conflict between Mr. Jeppard and Abbot, the horrible militia commander, might require some divine intervention, in the form of the hybrid 'gods' worshiped by the Inuit long ago.  Luckily, Lemire chose to keep this book firmly grounded, and had the characters work out their problems for themselves.

It's difficult to discuss this book without giving away any of its key moments, so my comments are going to stay pretty general and curtailed.  Suffice to say, Lemire has been building up to this issue since the series began, and its satisfying to see how he chose to finish things off.  Sure, there's still another issue left in the series, but I expect that it's going to be set a ways into the future (like the last issue of Y: The Last Man was).

This book has been about the evolution of Mr. Jeppard as much as anything else, and I like where the character has arrived at in this issue.  I've grown to care about him and Gus over the last few years, and Lemire, as always, does not disappoint.

Ghosts #1

Written by Al Ewing, Toby Litt, Cecil Castellucci, Joe Kubert, Neil Kleid, Mary HK Choi, Paul Pope, David Lapham, Gilbert Hernandez, and Geoff Johns
Art by Rufus Dayglo, Mark Buckingham, Victor Santos, Amy Reeder, Joe Kubert, John McCrea, Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, Paul Pope, Gilbert Hernandez, and Jeff Lemire

Once again, Vertigo sends us a nice large anthology comic, similar to Dark Horse Presents, although without using any established characters or properties.  Like any anthology of this size, we are given quite a mixed-bag in terms of the quality of what's being offered.  Part of the problem with this is that Vertigo has lost a number of the writers and artists who have always been a firm part of their stable in the last year.  As such, they have cast a much wider net for this book, bringing in a number of writers I've never heard of before (Toby Litt, Neil Kleid, and Mary HK Choi), while still being able to attract some creators who are not definitely top shelf, like Paul Pope.  The theme here is suggested by the title, but not every story is a ghost story, which is a good thing, as that single note would have gotten played out quickly.

Let's go through the book, and see what's what.

• The anthology opens with a fun little story about a man who is haunted by the ghost of what he could have been.  When he takes a job as a data entry drone, the part of him that wanted to be a rock star literally starts to haunt him, although when it becomes clear that everyone can see and hear the ghost, things change.  This is a very British story, by Al Ewing and Rufus Dayglo.  It's nice.
• Much is made on the cover about the inclusion of a new story featuring the Dead Boy Detectives, who originally showed up in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics.  This story is a complete disappointment - it's disjointed, childish, and doesn't even end in this volume; it is to be continued in the next Vertigo anthology, which hasn't even been solicited yet.  On the up side, it's drawn quite nicely by Mark Buckingham, whose work is the only thing I miss since I dropped Fables a few months back.
• Cecil Castellucci and Amy Reeder provide 'Wallflower', a very nice story about a family, and how it changed with America, as the wife in the family discovers who she really is only after raising a child and looking after the house for many years.  Lovely.
• Joe Kubert's last story is printed in this book, which alone makes it worth the purchase price.  Kubert never finished the story - only his rough pencils are reproduced here - but it is a nicely-written tale of an Aztec grandfather and his grandson, on the eve of the older man's death.  There's a lot to read in to this, if one is so inclined; for myself, I was just happy to read one more Kubert tale.
• Demonic chili is the subject for the story by Neil Kleid and John McCrea.  It's a cute tale; there's not much more to say than that.
• Mary HK Choi and Phil Jimenez, on the other hand, tell a downright strange story about a young man who is mourning for the death of his much older wife.  This story is full of excess and strangeness, but neither horror nor ghosts, so its inclusion here is strange.
• The best thing about this anthology is 'Treasure Lost', a story by Paul Pope (with scripting by David Lapham).  It's a science-fiction epic about two children, heirs to a throne, who are kidnapped by space pirates, and who both undergo a form of Stockholm Syndrome.  Introspective, and beautifully illustrated, this is a good reminder of what a huge talent Pope is.  It totally doesn't fit with the themes of this book, but really, who would care?
• Gilbert Hernandez has a nice little story with a conceit made way too obvious by the themes of the book - had it shown up in Dark Horse Presents, it may have given a bit of a surprise to the reader.
• Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire finish off the book with a nice little story about two brothers who are in the haunting business - a task made easier by the fact that one of the brothers is a ghost.  Really, I'm just happy for any chance to see some of Lemire's art.

In all, this is a decent anthology.  I appreciate that Vertigo is giving some new talent the chance to show their stuff, and find it regrettable that none of those new faces impressed me much.  It would have killed them to get Becky Cloonan to do something for this?  Still, Paul Pope and Joe Kubert...

Sweet Tooth #38

by Jeff Lemire

As a long-running series like this gets closer and closer to its big finish, it becomes ever more difficult to say anything new about the final few issues.

Abbot, the main villain of this series, is approaching the small Alaskan town where Jeppard, Gus, and the rest of the cast have holed up.  Jeppard and Jimmy, his old hockey buddy, plan on holding off the attackers so that Becky can escape with the hybrid children.

As usual, plans don't work out the way they are supposed to, and this is probably the bloodiest and most violent issue of this series to date.

Lemire continues to play around with the layout of his pages, and continues to do some very cool things with this book.  I love the two facing pages where Jimmy lights some dynamite as a way of slowing down Abbot's men.  The lit fuse travels around one page before blowing up the explosives on the opposite one.  It's little tricks like that that have kept this series so entertaining from the beginning.

Sweet Tooth #37

by Jeff Lemire

The pace of this comic keeps increasing as we get closer and closer to the series's finale in a couple of months.

In this issue, Gus has to deal with the accusations made by Dr. Singh about his parentage and the connection between his birth and the coming of the plague that has wiped out most humans, and the emergence of the new race of animal/human hybrids.

Gus and his friends don't have much time to let this information sink in though, as Abbot and his people are not far behind.  Abbot makes sure that Jeppard knows he's coming, and the few adults left in this title set about making plans to hold them off.

The relationship between Gus and Jeppard has been one of the most interesting things about this title, and Lemire finally places Jeppard in a position to admit to the depth of his affection for the boy, adding emotional weight to the coming confrontation.

This is an excellent series, and it's nice to just sit back and watch it get ready to end.

Sweet Tooth #36

by Jeff Lemire

The last arc of this series, 'Wild Game' begins with this issue, and in his usual fashion, Jeff Lemire starts off by doing something unconventional.  The comic opens with Gus, the main character, dreaming about many of the key events that have happened in this comic so far, before we see some foreshadowing as to how the series will end.  Lemire coloured these pages himself (Jose Villarrubia colours the rest of the comic), in garishly bright watercolours, giving everything that surreal dream-like quality that is so hard to achieve.

Once Gus wakes up, we find that he and his friends have made it to Alaska, where they hope to find the secrets of Gus's birth, and find the now-deranged Dr. Singh, who has figured out everything that this series is based on - the creatures in the tombs under the ice, the plague, and where Gus really came from.

It doesn't look like the group is going to have long to puzzle through all this new information though, as Abbot, the militia captain who has been hunting them is also on his way to Alaska.  With three issues remaining, it's a little easy to predict how things are going to go (especially with Lemire dropping hints at the beginning of the book), but I still look forward to following this book through to its conclusion.

Outlaw Territory Volume 2

Edited by Michael Woods

Reading through this anthology of western comics, I started to wonder if such a thing could have ever existed were it not for the HBO show Deadwood, which treated cursing as Shakespearean oration, but also made it okay to portray the Old West in terms of gender, race and class.

Anyway, as with any anthology of this size (almost 250 pages), there is a lot of variety when it comes to quality in this book.  Some of the better pieces belonged to Rich Johnston and Tom Fowler, who started the book off on an amusing note; Michael Woods and Rafael Albuquerque; Jeremy Barlow and Dustin Weaver (whose art is incredible, and very European); A. Freeman, M. Bernardin, and D. Lafrance; John Whalen and Werther Dell'Edera; Josh Wagner and Jose Jaro (whose art I though belonged to Skullkicker's Edwin Huang at first, it's so similar); Robert Kirkman and Shaun O'Neil; Joshua Hale Fialkov and Jeff Lemire (that's an interesting creative team); Christian Beranek and Vivian Lee (exploring the contributions of Chinese workers to the railroads); Francesco Francavilla (probably the prettiest story in this book); Moritat (with what I assume is a tribute to Moebius's Lt. Blueberry comics, as the protagonist's name is J. Giraud); and Joshua Dysart and Paul Azaceta.

One reason why I enjoy these types of books is because they invariably expose me to an artist whose work I've never seen before.  There are a few people I'd like to see more from, including Rick Lacy, Jorge Coelho, Connor Willumsen (who has a bit of a Paul Pope thing going on), and Diego Tripoli.

In all, this is a successful anthology.  

National Comics: Eternity #1

Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Cully Hamner and Derec Donovan

When the Vertigo line began back in the 90s, one of my favourite comics was Kid Eternity, by Ann Nocenti and Sean Phillips.  There had been a mini-series by Grant Morrison and Duncan Fegredo (I think) before that, but it was in the monthly that the character, a modernization of a Golden Age child superhero with the ability to call historical figures back from the dead that helped him fight crime, really grew on me.  I distinctly remember that one issue had KE driving around with Neal Cassady, and that coincided with my discovering the writing of Jack Kerouac.  The 90s were all about synergy, right?

Anyway, we're now almost a year into the New 52 at DC Comics, and a big part of the mission statement seems to be repatriating Vertigo characters into the new DC Universe.  It's worked well with Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and John Constantine, although it didn't work too well for Shade the Changing Man.  Now it was time for Kid Eternity to get the treatment as well, I guess.

In this one-shot, Jeff Lemire revises the character a great deal.  Christopher Freeman is a young medical examiner who, a year ago, died from a gunshot wound, but then returned to life.  Since then, he's been able to bring the spirits of the recent dead back from the grave, and he uses this ability to solve their murders.  Generally speaking, Christopher is a bit of a screw-up.  He's haunted by the death of his father, and the poor relationship he had with him (it's weird that this came out the same week as Lemire's excellent The Underwater Welder, which explores the theme of father-son relationships as well).  He's afraid to talk to the girl he likes, and his boss wants to fire him.  When he brings back the spirit of Darby Quinn, an antique shop owner who was found dead the back of his store, he is close to losing his job.  He figures that solving Quinn's murder will save him, but Quinn is not what he seems.

This is the first issue of DC's new National Comics series, which is going to be a monthly one-shot featuring a different character and creative team.  From the solicitations for the next few months, I'm not too sure what the goal of this new series is going to be.  I imagine it's serving a purpose similar to Top Cow's Pilot Season comics - to float an idea for fandom and see how people respond to it, but the next bunch of issues look like they'll be underwhelming.  After reading this issue though, which sets up an opposite number for Christopher in The Keeper, and establishes what the next mystery would be, I would definitely be on-board for a mini- or ongoing series, especially if it has this creative team.

I've been a big Cully Hamner fan since I discovered his work on Green Lantern Mosaic, and would love to see him on a regular book again (or, in DCnU fashion, sharing a regular book with an artist with a similar style).  This comic was a real treat this week, and even if it doesn't lead to more new Kid Eternity stories, I hope that DC may start republishing the old Nocenti ones for a new audience to enjoy.

The Underwater Welder

by Jeff Lemire

The introduction to Jeff Lemire's new original graphic novel, written by Damon Lindelof, talks about the similarities between this book and The Twilight Zone.  Personally, I find that to be a little facile, because while there are definite points of comparison on the surface, I don't think that the Zone ever got so deeply into the mind of the characters that it featured as Lemire does here.

Setting aside Lemire's more commercial work at DC (Superboy, The Atom, Animal Man, Frankenstein, and now Justice League Dark), it's easy to see a clear progression from his earlier (and still best) Essex County, through The Nobody and Sweet Tooth, to this piece of work (in fact, Gus and the two main characters in those other books have a bit of a cameo here, although its easily missed).

The Underwater Welder is about Jack, a man on the cusp of fatherhood who has never been able to reconcile with his own father's disappearance when he was ten years old.  His father used to dive for treasure and salvage in the area around Tigg's Bay, a small fictional town on the Atlantic in Nova Scotia, and Jack has always felt connected to the sea because of this fact.  After leaving town to go to university, he felt the need to come back, bringing his pregnant wife with him, and getting work as an underwater welder on the oil rig that is just a half-hour's boat ride away.  Being under the water makes him feel close to his father, and he's always happiest when completely alone.

This is beginning to cause some strain on his relationship with his wife, who is not from the area and doesn't know anybody.  On a more or less routine dive, Jack experiences some strange things - he hears voices, and comes across a familiar pocket watch.  He comes to on the surface, and is sent home pending some medical tests.  This sends him into a bit of a spin, as he no longer feels sure of what exactly happened to him, and feels a growing compulsion to both return to the deeps, and to connect with his father.  It is here that the Twilight Zone comparison is most apt, especially when everybody else in town disappears, but this remains an intensely personal book, as Lemire dives ever deeper into Jack's psyche and his wounds.

Lemire has often played around in terms of layout and design in his work on Sweet Tooth, and here he does similar things, having Jack morph into his younger self and his father at different places, and in one case, sit down and have a conversation with himself.  It's the type of thing that only works in comics, and Lemire does it very well.

His art looks thinner than it has in his other black and white books, being much closer to what he's done on Sweet Tooth, and different scenes are shaded very differently.  The look of the book is such an integral part of the story, and Lemire demonstrates a very tight control over what is shown, and how the different approaches inform the story.

This is one of the best new graphic novels to be released this year.  Lemire remains a very exciting creator to watch, and I like that while he is becoming increasingly better known for corporate 'for hire' work, he is also able to find the time and freedom to put together something as personal and insightful as this book.  Highly recommended.

Sweet Tooth #35

by Jeff Lemire

Like many Vertigo series these days, Sweet Tooth is nearing the end of its run, and that means that some of the larger mysteries that we've been exposed to over the last three years need to be explained.  Dr. Singh has finally arrived in Alaska, and is investigating the circumstances of Gus's birth, and his connection to the plague that has wiped out most people in North America, and probably the rest of the world.

From the beginning of this series, Lemire has experimented with and pushed the boundaries of traditional comics storytelling, finding innovative approaches to panel layout or narration.  This issue is no exception to that, as he divides each page into two distinct sections.  The upper two-thirds of the page is devoted to Gus's 'father', and the events that led to his coming to care for Gus in a secluded region of Nebraska.  These scenes are silent.  The bottom third of the page is narrated by Dr. Singh, and shows him visiting Gus's father's home, and then the military base where the father worked, and where Gus was born.  Frequently, the images in each section mirror one another, or show the same scene, but over the bridge of twelve years or so.  It's a particularly effective way to share this story.

This issue also incorporates the events that were shown a few months ago in issues guest-drawn by Matt Kindt (there is a montage of many of his images at one point).  This means that the connection between the events we saw in Alaska at the beginning of the 20th century and the hybrid children in the story's present is confirmed, if not yet explained.

I'm really going to miss this title when it's gone, but I appreciate that Lemire's being given the chance to tell his story at his own pace, and in his own unique way.

Sweet Tooth #34

Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Jeff Lemire and Nate Powell

According to Jeff Lemire, being a nice person after the Apocalypse happens is just not feasible.  This issue shows us the full history of Doug and Johnny Abbot, two characters who have been with this series for quite a long time.

Doug Abbot, usually just called Abbot, has been the closest thing this series has had to a main villain.  He's the one who was capturing hybrid children and having them studied.  He's the one who killed Jeppard's wife, and who has been tracking down Gus, Jeppard, and Dr. Singh for the last little while.  Johnny is his younger brother, and the guy who let everyone escape (twice in Jeppard's case).

In this issue, the two brothers are face to face again, Abbot having found the Evergreen Dam where Johnny had decided to stay.  At that point, the story flips to a flashback (drawn by Nate Powell, whose name is not on the cover), and we see just how their relationship has always been, and we learn how Abbot came to be running the militia camp we first met him in.

This is a very good comic.  Powell's art fits well with Lemire's usual house style for this comic, and I enjoyed seeing him draw the scenes set around the time that people started dying all over the place.  Lemire's not shown us a lot of this transitional period, which is the type of thing I always find interesting.

Like many other Vertigo books that I read, Sweet Tooth is moving towards its finish, but it is doing so very well.

Lost Dogs

by Jeff Lemire

In Timothy Callahan's introduction to this new edition of Jeff Lemire's first published graphic novel, Lost Dogs, he talks about how when he saw the first edition at MoCCA just after it came out, he almost passed on it due to the roughness of Lemire's art.  This reminded me of a time a few years back, right before Sweet Tooth began, but after I'd read the Essex County books, when I was in a complete hole in the basement comic book store (we've all spent too much time in places like that) in Toronto's north end, looking for some back issues.  They had a copy of Lost Dogs, I think priced at $10, but for some reason I don't recall, I didn't buy it.  Reading today that there was only a 700-copy press run for that book (it won a Xeric grant), I definitely regret not picking it up.

Anyway, thanks to Top Shelf, the chance to read the book, now with legible lettering, has come around again.  Lost Dogs is a pretty rough piece of work, but it's not hard to see the seed of Lemire's later brilliance in this very heart-felt graphic novel.

The book is about a gentle giant of a man who wears a red and white striped shirt, set some time in the late 19th or early 20th century.  He lives in a rural setting with his wife and daughter, and shortly after the book opens, they take a trip into a big city.  When the daughter begs to look at the boats in the harbor, the family is attacked by ruffians.  The man tries to fight back, but is overwhelmed and dumped in the water.  Later, he is found by some fisherman, and through a strange course of events, he ends up being used in some bare-fist boxing match to defeat the unstoppable Walleye Thompson.

As I said, the book, and Lemire's art, are both very rough.  Lemire slops ink all over the place, and that creates a very distinct look for this comic.  Some of his panels and figures are awkward, but his better pages look very much like what we are used to seeing from him today.  I enjoyed this book as a piece of comic book archaeology, and as the only published piece of work by a creator that I admire a great deal that I have not read yet.

Sweet Tooth #33

by Jeff Lemire

With this issue of Sweet Tooth, Jeff Lemire returns to a technique he used in issue 18, and turns the comic sideways to paint a storybook-like comic which relies mostly on narration, with only a few instances of dialogue.

Lemire's art, especially when painted in watercolours by Jose Villarrubia, is stunning throughout this comic.  I also found that the writing was more effective than usual in pulling out an emotional response, as many of the main characters of this series split into two camps.

The issue begins with Lucy's funeral.  After that, Jeppard, Gus, Becky, Wendy, and the Fat Man, an old hockey buddy of Jeppard's decide to continue their journey north to Alaska.  Johnny and Bobby decide to stay in the dam with the Evergreen people, although it's not long before they are visited by some people they probably never would have wanted to see.

A surprisingly large chunk of the comic is given over to the traveling group singing in their car, and while that may seem strange, it does help to both continue the children's book motif that Lemire is going for in this issue, and to remind the reader that many of the principal characters, despite being human/animal hybrids, are in fact children.

This issue makes clear how much I've come to like the characters of this series, and so I feel trepidation as they journey closer to finding the secrets of Gus's birth, and the origins of the plague that has all but wiped out mankind.  This is a terrific series.

Sweet Tooth #32

by Jeff Lemire

Despite being Canadian, I've never developed an interest in hockey.  For that reason, the sight of Mr. Jeppard and his new friend/former torturer Jimmy Jacobs skating along a frozen river to rescue Gus and his friends, did not fill me with the sense of pride and excitement that it probably did for many of my countrymen, but I did think it was pretty cool.

Jeff Lemire wraps up the Unnatural Habits storyline in this issue, which has Gus and the other hybrid children affect their own rescue of Becky and Lucy from the twisted attentions of Haggarty, while Jeppard eventually talks his way out of Jacobs's custody.

It's cool to see how, over the course of the last few years, Gus has matured and moved from being more dependent on Jeppard for protection and guidance, to being an equal partner in their survival. 

Also in this issue, Jeppard learns just how sick Lucy has been, and it doesn't look like she'll be in this comic for long.  Now that the dam, with its electricity and safe housing, belongs to them, I wonder if the group will be split between their desire to travel north and find out the secret behind Gus, or if they will be more tempted to stay.

As always, Sweet Tooth is an excellent read.

Sweet Tooth #31

by Jeff Lemire

Once again, Sweet Tooth does not disappoint.  Jeff Lemire is constantly finding new challenges for Gus and his group of traveling companions.

When this issue opens, Gus has been kidnapped by Dr. Singh, who has become obsessed with going to Alaska to solve the mystery of Gus's birth (or creation).  Mr. Jeppard has been taken prisoner by some wild backwoods type, who has a small hybrid in a birdcage.  This guy thinks he knows Jeppard from somewhere (and it's not from his hockey career).  The rest of the gang are being held captive by Walter, the man who lives in the dam where they have been staying lately.  Of course, his name is not Walter, and he's a total psychopath who seems to have a particular interest in Becky.

This series often carries with it a certain level of menace, and like some of the better plotlines in The Walking Dead, it's when the characters begin to feel safest that things go seriously wrong.

Jeff Lemire has become one of the most feted writers in DC's New 52 stable, yet I don't hear much love for this series from anyone beyond its already devoted fans.  Anyone who is enjoying Animal Man should be checking this out.