Why I didn’t see this premise turning into a full-on post-apocalyptic Furry drama up until this issue totally escapes me, but as of the last page of Sweet Tooth #3, I’m seeing this book with new eyes.
The Lost Boy kids were completely absent from this issue, which is almost entirely focused on Sweet Tooth and his new surrogate father Mr. Jepperd. Jeff Lemire does an extravagant job of invoking drama with the simplest elements of setting, which puts him in that same category as Harmony Korine and Cormac McCarthy, who I mentioned talking about issue #1. There was a lot less textual narrative exposition in this chapter compared to issue #2, too, which played to Lemire’s strengths and made this a better read in the end.
What I didn’t see coming, however, which is probably due to the Lost Boy gang wearing masks in the last issue, was the world that’s going to be opened up when Sweet Tooth eventually runs into a larger population. So far, that looks like it’s going to involve rebel bands of savage teenage Furries, and that does scare me a bit — but in a way a can’t wait to see play out.