Sweets #1
Reviewed by Otomo
Kody Chamberlain has set up a beautiful noir piece in Sweets. Having crafted the script in between projects before Image picked up this four issue series, the hard work Chamberlain put into this book is very apparent throughout. The book has a very cinematic pacing and several interesting sub plots that were established in this first issue, and it will be interesting to see how this series progresses.
As anyone who's seen the previews on nearly every comic news site has read, the beginning of Sweets starts off with a recipe for some ...sweets. It seems like it's pretty inconsequential at first, but this does play a major part in the overall story later.
The story is broken up into segments, each corresponding to a place and a point of time that builds the story up. The main story deals with a city prosecutor and what appears to be a detective though his role is never explicitly spelled out in the book. There's crimes that are being investigated and it proceeds in a noir fashion that I've only seen matched in recent comics by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal.
What makes the writing really good, is Chamberlain's attention to detail. You get subtle information about the background of New Orleans, the flaws and backstories of the main and establishing characters, even down to a chief who throws his coffee around and stains his shirt, which is very amusing. Despite the fact that the characterizations have a lot of depth to them, the story is very fast paced and flows nicely at the same time. It's a very fine line to walk and Chamberlain does it masterfully.
Sweets was chosen for publication by Image for more than just the good writing, the art is wonderful and fits the noir styling very well. Very dark and heavy lines, a spottiness to make it feel retro and gritty details to the characters and the backgrounds create a dark world of New Orleans. The last page corresponds very nicely to the cover, giving a nice sense of beginning and end closure to the issue, even though it ends in a semi-cliffhanger for the issue.
Chamberlain's choice of colors are perfect for the vibe of the book as well, with muted autumn colors providing a nice setting for the book. The crime scene toward the beginning was done in black and white, which highlighted the importance of it, and there was a nice style contrast at that point to provide for an interesting change of pace to what could have been somewhat monotone.
A little thing I appreciated that is somewhat inconsequential to the story was the priest being a prominent member of the community and not portrayed as some psycho or pedophile. You see the Catholic Church railed on far too much in both mainstream and indie media, so though it's a small part of the story, I was happy to see that in a comic. Hopefully in subsequent issues things don't change in this regard.
Sweets was a really fun book, and stood out nicely in a week where there are so many great comics out that it makes it hard to choose ones for review. Chamberlain did a great job all around from the plot, to the characterizations to the art and colors. This book doesn't have a cliffhanger shocking closer, so you have to go into this realizing you're reading a detective noir genre piece, and in that regard it succeeds greatly. One more thing I'd like to comment on is the logo, which is unique compared to most comments and really cool looking. If you've been reading my tweets, I definitely recommend picking up this book.
Take A Look Inside
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Issues rating - 9/10
Jon Del Arroz
Writer/Contributor www.comicrelated.com
Writer/Editor www.truebelieverreviews.com
A Review by Otomo
Writer/Contributor www.comicrelated.com
Writer/Editor www.truebelieverreviews.com
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