Written by Jeff Lemire
Illustrated by Matt KindtSWEET TOOTH’s most unusual storyline yet, “The Taxidermist,” continues. Thacker and his men are taken on a journey deep into the frozen heart of Alaska where the origins of the plague may lie hidden deep below the ice! Jeff Lemire and guest artist Matt Kindt continue their mysterious mini-epic!
Part 2 of the Lemire/Kindt Sweet Tooth Flashback Extravaganza is here! People with no sense of plot dynamics or foreshadowing poo-pooed the last issue and claimed it had nothing to do with the main plot. Well guess what haters? Get ready to take your lumps as this issue proves this arc may be one of the most important in the book’s history.
Click on down to find out why.
Now, normally my standard approach to review writing follows the form of “general rambling – talk about story – talk about art – more general rambling”, however today I am going to shake things up a bit and start with art. “Why the sudden change, Josh?! I hate change, I’m a comic fan!”, you may exclaim. Well fanboychild, the change is because, quite simply, if Matt Kindt was on art duties for the rest of the series I would be perfectly content. Thing to note: I go absolutely bonkers for Lemire’s art on a regular basis, however my statement stands. Ultimately this is becaue it is clear that Lemire and Kindt’s longtime friendship and mutual admiration of each other was a key factor in this issue’s art succeeding.
Not only does Lemire very obviously know how to write Kindt’s strengths, but Kindt himself knows how an issue of Sweet Tooth needs to look and feel. Few books are as visually distinctive as Sweet Tooth has been since it began, not only front a character design and environment structure perspective, but in the way those two things interact with each other on the page. For 25 issues, the book maintained a visual aesthetic that was both primal and stunningly vivid, blurring the line between a 1940s comic feel with the raw, jagged feel of ancient cave paintings, and Kindt’s diffused, subtle water color work fits that aesthetic perfectly.
As far as the story itself is concerned, for anyone to think that last issue didn’t matter is complete absurdity, and THIS issue proves it. While plenty of writers are guilty of disconnected, seemingly meaningless storytelling, Jeff Lemire (so far) has proven to not be one of them. Anything he does has intention, even if we aren’t quite sure what it is just yet. Case in point, the final page of this issue. This revelation is absolutely huge, I’m just not quite sure why yet. I have a few ideas though, which is in part why this book is so great.
Sure, Lemire has made it clear that the plague that overtook humanity in this book will be explained (or at least sort of explained), but he is revealing bits and pieces in such a way that even though we know that the truth is coming, it still leaves enough space between revelations to encourage speculation and personal investment. That is grade A storytelling right there, and that doesn’t even begin to touch upon the continued incredible character development as well as the cultural and religious cues Lemire weaves together in this story, which combine to cement this mini-arc as one of the most significant we’ve seen both in terms of quality and strength of story.
Ultimately, with the book ending at around 45ish issues, we are already past the halfway mark and in terms of sheer overall structure, it could not be more clear that things are being set-up to lead to a massive payoff before the series is put to bed. That sense of overall intention and continuity is what has made this book a must read for over two years, and what will no doubt propel it to the fantastic conclusion we (or at least I) have been waiting for.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy
