Hot on the heels of Gideon Falls, Jeff Lemire has a new book out (when I say book I mean digital, baby!). He’s teamed up with Jock on art, and this is a Comixology original, so you’ll have to get it through there. Is it worth it? Read on and find out!

(Hint: it is)

Swiss Family Trench

So this takes place in an apocalyptic, snow-driven, ditch. At least, all the action so far has been in this giant ditch, or The Trench as the characters call it. I’m gonna GO OUT ON A BIG LIMB AND ASSUME THIS IS EARTH. We’ll see if that’s true, but they refer to the demi-goddish pre-apocalyptic people as The Colden. This family is a single dad, two daughters, and they’re on a special hunting trip for the older daughter’s 12th birthday. I won’t say any more, all of that info is in the first few pages, but obviously things go awry.

Now this is just prelude, so it’s a little early to make any predictions about the state of the universe, so I’ll talk about the writing itself. I’ve always liked Lemire because he’s very succinct. He’s a veteran comics writer who understands how and when to let the art tell the story, and he also teams up with pretty fantastic artists. He’s also teamed up with fantastic writers as an artist (think A.D. After Death), so he knows both sides of the coin! If I have any complaint about Lemire, it’s that his characters can be a little same-y, they’re all pretty glum and thoughtful.

It’s hard to judge the writing in a first issue of a book like this, because I know that everything is going to go haywire, and there’s gonna be lots of world-building, and probably inter-dimensional stuff, so I’m only getting a tiny glimpse of what’s going to happen. Having said that, I liked it! The pace was good, the story made sense, and the characters seemed realistic. Lemire’s writing goes really well with this setting, kind of bleak and minimalist.

Snow Dogs Are Tasty

The art is anything but minimalist, although tonally it does match the bleakness of the writing. Jock pours a lot of detail into these panels, and really brings the world to life. I really like that, on each page, there is a background image which is part of the flow of that page, but then there are panels arranged around it that point to that background. It kind of focuses everything on one central image, and moves the action along really nicely.

I haven’t seen any of Jock’s other work that I know of, although I’ve heard the name before. I’m definitely a fan, and I look forward to reading more of this, and I recommend you go pick it up today!