Sweet Tooth Compendium

I was excited to get the Sweet Tooth compendium edition for my birthday last month. I had heard that this edition sold out on its publication date three months ago so imagine my surprise to receive it in the mail. Being late to comics, I hadn't previously read this story. The Compendium contains all 40 issues of the comic. The covers for each issue are also included in the book. 

Sweet Tooth takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where some of the characters are human/animal hybrids. The main  character is a young boy named Gus, a half human, half deer hybrid. He has antlers growing out of his forehead and is a chocoholic. Gus has been raised by his Bible thumping father in isolation after a manmade pandemic that began ten years earlier. When his father dies Gus is on his own. He soon meets Jepperd, a drifter who promises to help him. The two of them begin a journey into a devastated American landscape in order to locate The Preserve, a refuge for kids who are hybrids.  

The Compendium Edition, published by DC Comics, has been printed on semi-glossy paper. The pages are glued to the cover. I wish that it had been smyth-sewn because it's 915 pages will probably come loose. However, it was certainly put together better than my Saga Compendium, published by Image, and the GSM of the paper is higher.

This comic is going to look good on my bookshelf. I love to see these chunky books lined up in a row. I am rating Sweet Tooth 5 out of 5 stars.

The Father of All Things

The Father of All Things is another TKO Shorts horror comic. This one was written by Sebastian Girner, editor-in-chief of TKO Studios. Here we have a war story taking place in 1914. WWI is raging when Georg, an idealistic fourteen year old German boy, is caught up with patriotic fervor and lies about his age to get in the army. Georg wants to defend his country but is unprepared for the horrors of war.  He quickly becomes sorry that he enlisted when he sees fellow soldiers shot and killed. While sitting in the trenches Georg finds an unexplored tunnel and crawls his way through it. When he gets to the end of the tunnel he crawls out and meets a monster. Who is the monster? God? The devil? Someone else? Read the comic to find out. It's a thought provoking story.

   

Night Train

Night Train is a TKO Short comic by Steve Foxe. It is the story of a ten year old youngster named Neal whose family moves to a new home to add space for a new baby to be born into the family. The home is noisy because it is located under a train track. Neal's baby brother drives him insane by screaming all night and cannot sleep. His parents are not handling the new addition well either. Neal begins to see a spectral train with a ghost for a conductor. When the ghost offers to take Neal's baby brother away, Neal cannot resist the offer. However, when Neal wakes up he is not sure if he really gave his brother away, if he dreamed it all up or whether he is just daydreaming.

Night Train is part of a three short comic release by TKO Presents that they published in November 2020. The illustrations by Lisandro Estherren and coloring by Patricio Delpeche add to the supernatural feeling of the story. They visually appear dreamlike.  The comic is only 10 pages long but contains a well plotted horror story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

5 out of 5 stars.

Hand Me Down

Hand Me Down is a TKO Short comic by Alex Paknadel. It follows the lives of Reuben and Lyra who are on the brink of divorce when Reuben gets promoted at work. In keeping with Reuben's desire for a different lifestyle they move to a glitzy new neighborhood in order to keep up with the Joneses. The couple are invited to a risqué soiree hosted by Reuben's boss Magnus who wants his guests to enjoy the darker side of life. When Lyra realizes that the attendees are part of a secretive society that swaps partners she quickly leaves the party and goes home. When Reuben comes home Lyra sees that he is a changed person and not for the good.

Hand Me Down is part of TKO Presents second wave of shorts published earlier this year. While only 19 pages, it is still a compelling horror story with an unexpected twist at the end. Check it out. After all, it's only $2.99.

5 out of 5 stars.

Fire

Fire is a graphic biography of Zora Neale Hurston, an African American writer in the early twentieth century best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston challenged the norms of what was expected of an African American woman. She was the fifth of eight children from a Baptist family in Alabama. Her writing ability blossomed while she was a student at Howard University in Washington DC and then at Barnard College where she was the only black student. When she arrived in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance she found herself surrounded by peers such as poet Langston Hughes. Hurston later became a noted folklorist and critically acclaimed novelist. Despite her achievements, in order to make money she frequently had to resort to becoming a maid. Hurston was largely forgotten by the end of her life in 1960.

Let me say right off the bat that many people will not like, or even approve of this comic because the author has used dialogue that was the black slang common in the American South at the time of Hurston's life. Peter Bagge may have decided to use this type of language because Hurston was a folklorist whose books used this type of slang in her writing. I don't know specifically why he chose this route. Hurston made several anthropological trips throughout the South gathering information for her book and used this language in her book on folklore. I found it difficult to accept the dialogue and some of the illustrations, given the political correctness of our day.

That said, the book gave an in depth perspective of Hurston's life. She had plenty of ups and downs, many of which were due to Jim Crow laws. However, she had an indelible spirit. Nothing kept her down for long. She had a stick-to-it-iveness that helped her persevere over several years to get an education. I think many people would have given up but Zora relentlessly pursued her goals regardless of societal rules. 

Peter Bagge included forty pages of notes concerning his sources at the end of the book detailing every fact he presented in the comic. It is interesting reading and helps the reader to obtain context of the era in which Hurston lived.