Kieth revisits familiar themes and circumstances with this latest effort. What's interesting about this book is that it's been quite a while since Kieth brought his unconventional storytelling and art to something other than a major publisher in the industry. Oni Press's status as a strong but smaller publisher certainly seems to make for a good fit. I'm also pleased to discover that Kieth's art is just as strongin black-and-white as it is in color. This story, like many of Kieth's other words, makes a connection with the reader by tapping into those experiences and feelings linked to times in one's life when powerlessness and loneliness threatened to devour each of us whole.
Annie lives in a trailer with her dad, an artist who's barely making ends meet, and her older sister, Lorna, a hateful and sadistic girl who represents everything that's wrong with older siblings. Annie desperately wants a pet of her own, something she can care for and nurther the way she wishes her mother was still around to care for her. But everything Annie touches seems to die... until she finds an unusual little creature in a pile of rotting boards.
Kieth is perhaps best known for his bizarre and exaggerated characters, whose forms reflect how they feel. However, what struck me the most about his work on this comic book was the unconventional panel layout. Several pages are crammed with a bunch of panels, but the panels represent rooms or key physical spaces as well. Those crammed pages convey the tight quarters in which the characters live, and they communicate how smothered and overwhelmed Annie feels as a result of her sister's actions and her loneliness.
Kieth's main character here reminds me a great deal of Lilo, the little soul in Lilo and Stitch who refused to let the tragedy and disappointment break he spirit. Annie is full of personality, imagination and emotion. She's designed to be likeable, but she's not too cute. She's a rough around the edges, and as adorable as she is, one can't help but admire the fighter inside her as well.
I was quite impressed with Kieth's characterization of Annie's father. He's not a one-dimensional villain in his daughter's world. Kieth successfully demonstrates that he's a single father doing the best he can. His love for his daughters shines through, but so does his indecision and his inability to tend to all of his children's emotional needs.
The only thing about this book that didn't quite sit well with me was how familiar it all seemed. Readers new to Sam Kieth's storytelling can look forward to discovering a whole new, surreal world, but for those of us who have read a lot of these stories -- featuring lost little children who find their way thanks to fantastic and bizarre circumstances -- there's a sense that we've been here before. I guess I'm looking for a little more diversity in the creator's work.
