Comic Review: Little Monsters #2 (Image Comics)

All the young vampires, struggling to survive. This mature look at fanged kids is titled Little Monsters #2, from Image.

Jeff Lemire teams with illustrator Dustin Nguyen (Steve Wands on letters) in this sombre tale of two-toned violence. The minimal treatment; mostly black with some white strewn about to illuminate things for us, and some red to liven up the surroundings, is very effective.

It’s a cutting-edge journey into the backstories of these children left to their own devices and appetites. Who is the foe, who is the predator or victim? The scenes are expressive in their emphasis on ‘putting us in the moment’. That is, we don’t have an ‘ever-hovering’ narrator, explaining what is going on; instead, we are cast in with the kids, seeing them in their isolated, vulnerable state, and watching what they decide to do.

The drawings are expressive, here treated in big brush strokes and minimal detail. This is not one of those ‘count the window shades in the building’ epic dramas; rather we see just enough to give us goosebumps, punctuated by moments where we look around the room, perhaps turning the lights up a bit brighter.

Check out this ongoing ‘youth with teeth’ title, it’s driving thru somewhere good.

Image, Little Monsters #2, $3.99 for 24 pages of quickly read content. Mature