Written by: Donny Cates
Art by: Garry Brown
Produced by: Aftershock Comics
Rating: 4.5/5 (Amazing)
Introduction
Sooooo this is the second piece of media I’ve consumed this week about the struggles of being a mother so yeah I think this is a sign I really should start to realise how lucky I am to be a penis wielder as it has even more benefits then I first thought, one of these being I don’t have to deal with the chance of CONTRACTIONS SENDING EARTHQUAKES THROUGH THE BLOODY WORLD HOLY SHIT WE REALLY DON’T APPRECIATE WOMEN ENOUGH!
So yeah, now that’s out of the way I’m just gonna gush about how much I love Donny Cates as just by reading this I instantly want to buy every comic he’s ever made! Like just listen to this combo; what do you get when you add a rosemary’s baby esque situation (sans disgusting yucky Roman Polanski) + an air of mystery hooking you in via an unreliable narrator teasing us with what’s to come, splash that with the terrifying reality of being a pregnant teenager in a world where it is still seen in such a horrible light? You get a one-way ticket to the peaked interest of nearly every comic and horror fanatic. Luckily, I can safely say this debut issue of Babyteeth will not disappoint such interest as it DE-LIV-ERS!!!! Okay okayy maybe my nonsensical description isn’t doing this issue justice but luckily I have acquired this here handy official synopsis right here to do a better job then I ever could:
Sadie Ritter is sixteen years old, nine months pregnant, and scared out of her sweet nerdy mind. Having a baby that young is tough, but with the support of her loving family behind her, everything should be okay. OH YEAH, and also her baby is the antichrist and it’s going to break open the barriers between the earthly and demonic planes and unleash eternal suffering to all of humankind. Other than that, though…should be fine.
Writing (story/Characters/themes)
I think the opening hooks the reader in so well as instead of some grand double page splash battle or a barrage of world exploring exposition we focus on our main character and more importantly a mother, a mother who just wants to tell her child she loves him and give him answers. THIS is perfect as it goes straight for our hearts and makes us fully root for Sadie Ritter before we even have a slither of her story. This kind of ability is what makes Donny Cates’ writing stand out so much to me, below is an example of what I’m talking about which I will then elaborate on:
JUST HOW ADORABLE BUT SIMULTANIOUSLY HEARTBREAKING CAN ONE PAGE BE?!?! The fact Cates adds the detail of her wanting to give her son the best video possible she takes the time to compose herself as not to scare him and even restarts said video because she forgot her little boy doesn’t even know who she is just ugh. It shows us with barely any dialogue that Sadie is a good person who loves her son and wishes she could be with him. We can deduce due to the barren environment we see her in and the fact she’s making this message in the first place Sadie’s connection to her son is in fact so strong she is willing to risk everything for them. ALSO I LOVE the fact they actually have our character in Palestine a place which is rarely represented in any media and definitely should be (I implore you to read more about the country).
Following on from this I think the use of the story being told to us through Sadie’s video, incorporating flashbacks, really helps to keep a quick pace with just enough substance there so we are continually invested in the situation while still skipping over details, like the father’s identity, because people do tell stories in a mixed match way, so it further allows us to have that natural feeling and the bonus of glossing over these details gives the reader an incentive for the reader to continue this series.
Besides Sadie the only character who I can really think has enough of a role to talk about in this issue is her older sister Sadie (not that I’m complaining I actually think it was a great move to focus on only a few characters it makes it easier for us to connect to them and stops us from getting confused with lots of names) an absolute badass who seems to be involved in illegal activities like the drug trade but is still very close to Sadie. Even though we don’t find much out about her (I’m sure we will as the series goes an) the fact she has gone down a path I’m sure her parents didn’t want her to gives us an interesting question to ponder of what their childhood and relationship with their parents is like particularly considering we see at the end of the issue her father is a military man. These implicit questions we are what I love about comics nowadays instead of the exposition filled issues of yesteryear, they treat their readers with the same intelligence one is expected to have when reading a novel, the fact that this is the case in comics now makes me HOPE the mainstream media doesn’t carry on writing it off as just ‘for children’.
Finally, when it comes to the writing, I think it’s great that even though this story, I’m sure, will develop into a horrific tale of satanic proportions this issue is full of happiness, humour and above all love. It would have been so so easy to make this some edgy, horrific grungy tale with no real substance *cough* Wanted by Mark Millar *cough* but instead we take the time to have a moment to laugh at little sweet moments like this:
This is just so accurate to what happens all the time and the mix of the truth Sadie is explaining in the video compared to the events in real life make for a very natural little bit of comedy. The main example I wanted to talk about regarding finding the positive, the love and the joy even in the midst of a terrible situation is this line “it means you saved the world in your very first breath.” LIKE ISN’T THAT JUST THE SWEETEST MOTHERLY THING YOU’VE EVER HEARD?!?!? The labour of her baby boy resulted in her bleeding instead of breaking water, her DYING and every time she contracted an earthquake would rupture across the area at a bare minimum of 5.0 on the Richter scale would make nearly anyone hate baby Clark but instead Sadie, instead of seeing that as her son being evil and wrecking destruction looks at the fact all this horror stopped once he was born and perceives it as Clark saving the world the second he was born now THAT right there is more than just good writing, that is the ability to encapsulate a mothers love, something when its purest and most beautiful form can make us feel safe, loved, give us the will to persevere, can give us the happiest moments of our life and also some of the saddest when we think we are testing it. A mothers love is so powerful and universal we understand why Sadie wants to look past this almost pre destined evil her sons birth is exhibiting because there bond is more powerful then that ever could be.
Artwork (Colouring/Panel and Lettering Layout)
OKOKOK now I can finally gush over some of my favourite panel layouts and interpretation of death I have seen in any medium for a very veryyyy long time:
The utilisation of the two distinct powerful colours, red associated with danger, blood and hell considering the red is only below her contrasted with the white which could be a representation of pureness, serenity and holiness. Personally I see this as a representation of Sadie being in purgatory as she is in-between these two colours I see as heaven and hell which yeah just the fact just two colours on one page has that kind of subtext is just pretty bloody cool if I’m being honest even if lots of mediums do this it never gets old. Also I like the fact the images do line up with the text, sounds like something obvious but you’d be surprised how many times it’s done wrong, you believe that even in a place so different to what we see as reality Sadie in this page, like she says, does feel calm and this space away from literally everything else in her existence is almost tranquil in a way because she can just take a second and breathe. I think you may be able to tell ever so slightly this is my favourite page in the whole issue I just think it’s beautiful and allows the reader to get a really cool interpretation of something no living person can see.
So, on the very next page (as seen above) Garry Brown comes in, slaps his artistic ability on the desk and gives us the terrifying image of what happens when the red, hell, death, danger, comes to take you away. A tidal wave attacks Sadie which gets bigger and bigger overwhelming nearly all the white from the page, but Sadie runs to the white and we get some FANTABULOUS panel layout work as the panels are separated by Sadie’s heartbeat which is getting stronger and stronger the further away from the red she is towards the light WHICH REPRESENTS HER COMING BACK TO LIFE OMG THIS ISSUE JUST MMMMMMM, I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH!
On a broader point I really like the curvy, loose sketchiness of the issue via the pencil work as it gave the book a more unique almost cartoonish style which isn’t going for realism which is very much to my taste, as well as that the designs make it easy to 1) differentiate the characters and 2) obvious as to what the characters are thinking and feeling duh to the exaggerated body language and facial expressions. You can really tell Heather is a strong intimidating presence from the hard, sharp lines on her face whereas Sadie’s face is a lot simpler with less lines and large sweet eyes with give her have a kind, wholesome look. The inking may be a bit TOO rough for some people but personally I think its fine and even though the colouring for the most part seemed rather uninteresting it was more than made up for in the panels I talked about above as that sequence really popped out so much more because of the drastic change of colour palette.
Just one more thing to mention here, the other use of colouring I liked was how inverted colours were used in certain panels to visually represent the pain each contraction has for our main character, it really makes the pain pop and shows how abrupt as well as overwhelming this is for her.
Final Thoughts
Overall I thought this was a perfect example of how to nail a first issue and make it the perfect toe in the water for horror fans, as well as comic fans who want to read original and compelling stories from smaller publishers, to dive into the comic medium . I’m very excited to see where this story goes next and hope it has had the following it rightfully deserves.