After last week’s themed extravaganza, some of you probably feared that Off the Cape might falter and not give you some of the best non-cape related titles on the market. However, I am here to help put your fears at ease.
In today’s installment, I’ll be looking at a recent release from the Oni camp. From the minds of Cullen Bunn, Shawn Lee, and Matt Kindt comes: THE TOOTH.
Check after the cut for some thoughts on the title (and to see how long it takes me to bust out the pun “the tooth hurts!”).
Before we begin talking about the book itself, I’d like to force you to participate in an exercise: I want you to think really hard and imagine back when you were a child. Think about the doodles you’d put in notebooks, scattered on various pages throughout notes, homework, or just activity paper. Think back to this time and imagine your most wildest invention, and picture what it would be like to take this character (or whatever it is you’ve designed) and bring him/her/it to life.
In a nut shell, that is what the Tooth is. The Tooth is perhaps one of the most wildest inventions of childlike storytelling brought to life in the eyes of an adult through the lens of an age of comics long since past. Beginning with the evolution of the mere idea of the Tooth as he grows from a scribble on a page to a fleshed out role-playing character and even as he exists in the subject of papers, you witness the evolution of a character in a way that no other comic book will show you (outside of various backmatter and long-winded notes from creators about the importance of x, y, or z). That is, in no shorter terms, what makes the Tooth oh so special, and what allows us as readers to connect to the story on a much different way than usual (presuming a) you did my excercise and b) that you created characters when you were young and wish you could see evolved into modern entertainment).
The Tooth is not just a show and tell piece on the power of characters, however. It is actually a comic in it’s own right. Printed as a collection of a relaunched comic from a trio of brand new creators charged with the task of making this character fresh and relevant again (so, in modern terms, think Scott Snyder’s upcoming Swamp Thing comic with Yanick Paquette and Francesco Francavilla), the Tooth tells the story of a magical tooth who, when lodged in the mouth of an unsuspecting young man, becomes a tool in a war older than the comic itself. Full of humorous storytelling and rather outrageous feats, this highly unusual tale of teeth gone bad is very much more than your dentist’s worst nightmare. But as the story moves along in it’s own right, we’re given a very solid story that both “introduces new readers” to the Tooth as well as explains deftly it’s mythos in a way that very much opens itself up for further elaboration (if a sequel should ever come).
On top of that, the comic is both a humorous look at the days of old (fondly referred to as the Golden and Silver Age of comics among fans) as well as what happens when older titles get relaunched. As most readers know, we’re in the prime period of relaunches, with both Marvel and DC being guilty of several title revamps as of late. The Tooth itself is a “relaunch” of the original series within the context of the story about the story, which is understood from reading the fictitional backmatter attached to each issue, including letters from fans curious about when their favorite characters might come back. Each letter is responded to by an over-enthusiastic editor who assures fans that everything will be ok and that the stories they loved will be treated with respect. It’s a quaint out-of-the-box representation of us as fans in the way we integrate with the stories that we read and love, and the Tooth humorously gives us a mirror image of the timeliness of our opinions on the books we still choose to read. The books overall emphasis is on the fun and enjoyable aspect of comicbook storytelling, so in a quiet way these bits and pieces serve to simply be the creative group’s way of saying, “Come on, guys. Every book is someone’s first, and it’s all still enjoyable, right?” Which it is, and it is.
The whole ordeal of the comic book is very meta. All of the pages itself are faded to give the impression that this book has felt some time to it, and you’ll be able to read old letter columns and references to stories you’ll never read and character’s you’ll never meet (assumedly), as well as a list of all the Tooth stories that have supposedly ever existed. The title pokes fun at the very notions of comic book collecting, and to that end it operates as a very interesting piece of commentary. Obviously the intent here is to tell a good fun and story, but when you present your story in a way that begins to offer up humorous affectations about the general habit of the material it exists upon, your entire piece becomes a quaint bit of commentary. Obviously not in a negative light since the Tooth thrives on the aspect of being fun and lighthearted, but the nods are rather visible.
Suffice it to say, the Tooth is a very enjoyable comic book. While it is not the gritty and realistic book that the average reader tends to lean towards these days, it is instead a tribute to the comics of yesteryear in the clever guise of a brand new old book about this impossible hero. The Tooth is a meta-textual observational look at the comic reading populace in the clever guise of a childhood dream come to life, but most importantly it is Bunn, Kindt, and Lee at their obtuse best, piling on the weird, mixing in the humorous, and – most importantly – offering up a wonderful little bang for your buck book of supernatural heroics.
