Sweet Tooth #27

Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Matt Kindt

Sweet Tooth took a turn into a different direction last month, with this three-part story 'The Taxidermist', which is set in the early days of the twentieth century, and features art by Matt Kindt.

Our taxidermist protagonist has traveled to Alaska to hunt for his intended brother-in-law, who went there to work with missionaries two years prior, and has disappeared.  He was revealed at the end of issue 26, and now our new narrator must travel with him to an Inuit village to try to save the life of a man in his party.  Along the way, the brother-in-law tells his story.

Growing quickly dissatisfied with life with the missionaries, Louis 'went native', marrying an Inuit woman, and being accepted into the life of the villagers, at least until his thoughtless exploration of a sacred cave led to his angering the gods.

What makes this story significant is that the cave is the resting place for what looks like human skeletons, although with evidence of animal hybridization, exactly like the series's regular main character, Gus.  We've known for a while that answers to Gus's condition, and possibly the plagued that has affected the future could lie in Alaska.  I like the way that Lemire is hinting at what is really going on, and at the same time, taking a page from Battlestar Galactica, with its assertion that everything has happened before and will happen again.

This is a great comic, and with Lemire's increased profile in the DC Universe with his Animal Man being considered one of the best comics of the New 52, I hope more people are looking into reading it.