Family Tree #1:
There are a lot of great books out this week, but this new book From Jeff Lemire and Phil Hester really stuck with me and had me thinking at the end of the night. While an end of the world story isn't particularly ground breaking, the slow approach that this book is taking reminds me of Sweet Tooth, another gem from Lemire. While Sweet Tooth focuses on children that are born during this time, Family Tree focuses on some sort of infection or rash that literally causes plant growth on humans.
This story centers around Loretta, a single mother, and her family. She has a daughter who appears to be 9 or 10 years old and a son in high school who has a tendency to get in trouble. Lemire's books tend to have strong father like characters in them and I am curious if this book will follow that trend or if Loretta will break the mold. She clearly is struggling as a single parent, but genuinely cares about her kids and is extremely strong willed and not shy about her beliefs.
This debut issue does a nice job of establishing an interesting cast of characters that have no idea that they are about to be confronted with an end of the world scenario. I look forward to learning more about the infection that is spreading and the curious individuals who seem to know something about it and are seeking out Meg (Loretta's infected daughter). It reminds me of the individuals in Sweet Tooth who sought out hybrids for medical research. I am definitely intrigued and cannot wait to read more of this series.
The rest of the pull list:
In addition to the stellar Family Tree, Folklords from Matt Kindt told the story of Ansel and his desire to seek out the Folklords. In his town, when children come of age they go on a quest with the guidance of a mysterious cult-like group of librarians. When they hear people speaking of the Folklords, they are clearly upset and it forces Ansel to embark on this mission with the help of a friend in secrecy. This book was a lot of fun and it is always nice to have a new Kindt story to enjoy. The Target Vader series also made the cut again this week and remains an impressive highlight reel of what Vader is capable of. Lemire's other book that came out this week, Gideon Falls, demonstrated why it was the Eisner for best new series of 2019 and was one of the more disturbing books I have read in a while. I mean that in a good way and cannot recommend it enough.
POSTED BY MIKE N. aka Victor Domashev -- comic guy, proudly raising nerdy kids, and Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2012.
