Review - Sweet Tooth 1-3

Sweet Tooth 1-3
by Jeff Lemire
Vertigo

Vertigo snagged me with this book by offering the first issue for only one dollar. Their dollar strategy didn't work with their book Greek Street, but Sweet Tooth grabbed me and I had to get the following issues to see where Jeff Lemire would take the story.

Sweet Tooth is about a boy named Gus who was raised by his dad alone in a cabin isolated from all human contact. Gus also happens to have antlers and ears like a deer. Being told by his father never to leave the forest and to keep away from people, his dad dies leaving Gus alone. After a while, he wanders beyond the forest and gets assaulted by a couple of good ol' boys. Getting rescued by a man named Jepperd and discovering that Gus has a penchant for sweets, the two of them go off to find the safe place called The Preserve for Gus to live.

The story grows with each issue making it far more intriguing. It turns out, in the story the world has gone through a major catastrophe of some type and the population of the planet is mostly decimated. And that there are other children out there who have animal attributes like Gus, who seem to be immune to whatever is killing people. As Gus and Jepperd start their journey, we realize the extent of the devastation and the amount of danger is in this world. But Gus isn't dumb or so naive to follow Jepperd blindly. And indeed, Gus isn't sure he should even completely trust Jepperd, but travels with him anyway.

As I mentioned, this book grabbed me and so far, won't let me go. In each issue we find out more about Gus and his world. With sparse, dark artwork, Lemire creates an atmosphere that creates an unease in the reader. Heavily shadowed with dark colors and very little light, a bleakness is represented in almost every panel of this comic.

I would definitely recommend this comic for our older teen patrons. The level of suspense is gripping and grabs you and pulls you along.