Story & Art: Jeff Lemire
$5.99, 64 pages
Image Comics

What It Is: The latest weird fiction from the busiest man in comics hits paper in this revised version of the serialized strip from his paid Substack subscription. It’s a monster comic and a crime comic that feels like a classic Twilight Zone episode—what more could anyone want?

The Good: Lemire’s best stuff, like this book, is when he is both the writer and the artist. No shade to any of the great artists he collaborates with regularly, they’re all superstars, but when Lemire operates as a cartoonist and his voice solely communicates narrative to the reader, it is damn special and unique comics.

The pacing of this yarn breathes and roams given the extra page count. There was no way that slicing this up into the standard twenty-ish pages would’ve worked as well. Kudos to Lemire and Image for giving this format a shot.

Lemire’s art has always been a bit creepy and gross. This is a compliment, certainly in the context of this story, from the setting to the subject matter on down to the sniffling little protagonist. His art amps up the dread while compelling you to keep flipping pages.

With the subtle watercolors and ink washes, the “yellowed” paper, and the square binding—every aspect of this book works in conjunction to tell the same story. Engrossing. Fingers crossed we veer lose him complete to Hollywood.

The Bad: Three issues worth of content for less than the price of two? Not much to complain about here. A Bimonthly pace can be a death sentence for maintaining momentum, but let’s see if he pulls it off before we cry about it.

The Score: 10 out of 10 capes

Further Reading: Just about any of Lemire’s solo catalogue are worth mentioning—UNDERWATER WELDER (Top Shelf) and ROUGHNECK (Gallery 13) are a couple of highlights—but hi