Sweet Tooth: Out of the Deep Woods

Sweet Tooth is your normal post-apocalyptic comic book that takes place after a huge sickness or plague that has wiped out many people on the planet, but nobody knows why. Oh, and it has a boy with deer antlers.

To me, this volume of Sweet Tooth never really accomplishes much. It is an interesting story, with mysterious characters in a mysterious setting. There was, apparently, a plague that wiped out the population. Oddities grew out of this, such as Gus, who is a normal enough looking boy, aside from the antlers on his head.


<SPOILERS>



Now Gus lives in the woods, secluded, with his father. It is stated early on that his mother died when he was younger, leaving the two of them alone. They live their quiet little existence, praying to God and living by the established rule that Gus not leave the woods under any circumstances. And then the father gets sick and dies, leaving Gus alone. It is all very tragic. 


Suddenly, one day Gus is found by some hunters, who are bound and determined to take him away. They are overtaken by another hunter, Jeppard,  who kills both of them and explains to Gus that he is no longer safe and that Jeppard will take him to some sort of preserve for people like him.


They leave the woods, and begin their journey, one that takes them into fights and into the world of sex slaves, all while Gus is hoping for that moment when he finds the salvation that he was promised. 


It's obvious that this story is just beginning as it is very incomplete. It uses The Walking Dead model of not giving much away about what happened to the world, which can be effective at times, but frustrating as hell. I know that The Stand comic book from Marvel is an adaption, but at least you get to know what caused everything, as it is vital that the events are told and then the rest of the story can start. Lately, it's been a gimmick to keep a series being read for as long as possible. 


<END MAJOR SPOILERS>


So, this being so incomplete does creates something of a conundrum: How to handle reviewing it. The best I can say is that for the moment, there is very little here to keep me going. However, there still is that one little thing that keeps me wanting to read the next one. I just want to know what happened. Not to Gus, but to the world. It's weird. I don't know if I care much about Gus, but I guess, by association, I need to know what happened to him, too.

The art is hit and miss. There are somethings that are well done, like Gus. He looks weird, but it works. Jeppard, however, is harder to deal with. Sometimes he looks like a giant hulking older man. At other times it he looks old and a bit vulnerable. This constant change is very distracting from the story line. Other characters don't fare as well. With some of the people, it's actually hard to tell if they are male or female. And, I don't know if the sex slave women were supposed to be attractive (come to think of it, nobody is attractive in the book), but they are all very man-ish and weird. I guess it could be worse.


So I have been hard on this title, considering the fact that there is still a lot of story to tell. I know that there are several other volumes after this, and I believe the series is still going, so I am sure that the story is going to get more interesting. It has to. After all, where it ended doesn't give any type of closure.


And So...


Do I recommend it? I am going with a yes, but with the caveat that there is very little story here, but what is here is at times engaging. It was also very depressing, never really giving way to lighter fare.  I can see that there is going to be much more story to tell, so that is something to look forward to. I just hope that they start answering questions soon, and do not just keep dragging out certain things. 


I'll discuss this title more as I read the next volumes. 

Bits and Pieces

Sweet Tooth was written by Jeff Lemire and is published by Vertigo Comics. The trade is 128 pages and is Suggested for Mature Readers.

---MGS 


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