Sweet Tooth #26

Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Matt Kindt

Both Vertigo books that I bought this week were given over to flashback, although Lemire took things much further back in Sweet Tooth than Chris Roberson did in iZombie.  This month (and, I presume, for the next two, as this is the start of a three-part story) we a told the start of the story of Dr. James Thacker, which begins in 1911.

Thacker's soon-to-be brother-in-law left some six months ago to complete some missionary work in Alaska before marrying Thacker's sister.  He, and his expedition, have gone missing, so the Thacker family has paid a lot of money to hire a boat and send James on a rescue mission.  The journey is difficult, and Thacker doesn't exactly see eye-to-eye with the other men on-board, which becomes more clear when they need to trek in-land to search for the missionaries.

After a few days of hiking, the rescue party wake up to find their sled dogs slaughtered, and things become even more problematic once they reach the church that the missionaries had built.  I have no idea what any of this has to do with Gus, Mr. Jeppard, and the regular Sweet Tooth cast, except for the fact that they were traveling to Alaska when they found the dam that has been the setting for the last few issues.

This story arc is being drawn by Matt Kindt, who is an excellent cartoonist.  He employs his usual artistic technique to make the comic look much older than it is, and to add a sepia-toned, scratchy look to the art, reminiscent of old photographs.  This book reads well on its own, and would be enjoyable even to people who don't normally read this comic.