Why You Should Read: The Tooth

The Tooth is a Graphic Novel written by one of my favorites, Cullen Bunn, working in collaboration with writer Shawn Lee and artist Matt Kindt.  This quirky story is a love letter to Horror and Superhero Comics of  a bygone era.

The titular Tooth is a gigantic beast of great strength that can shrink down to the size of a fang and fit in the mouth of a host.  The Tooth forms a symbiotic relationship with his host, in this case our mere mortal of a protagonist named Graham.  Whenever Graham is threatened - which happens quite often over the course of the story - The Tooth springs from his mouth in a Hulk like rage and rips the threat limb from limb.

This may sound pretty straightforward so far, but The Tooth is a comic within a comic.  There are fictional retro-style advertisements and a letters page that alludes to a massive continuity of the character 'The Tooth,' the many hosts that came before Graham, and a Rouges Gallery of Super Villains that we never get to meet within the pages of the Graphic Novel.

I'd like to take a minute to talk about Matt Kindt's art style.  At first glance it seems rather simplistic, almost childlike, but if you take a closer look you can tell Mr. Kindt knows what he's doing.  There are some really strong panel compositions here.  Matt Kindt's loose style really adds to the charm of this book.

As well as paying homage to comics as a storytelling medium, there are several visual nods to Ray Harryhausen (such as a guest appearance of the Mechanical Owl form Clash of the Titans, and Graham mentioning that the Dragon of Ares 'Sounds like something from a Harryhausen movie' the very next page) Which is appropriate as Harryhausen is the one who helped popularized stories about two monsters punching each other in the face.  It's also appropriate since The Tooth's origin is rooted in Greek Mythology.

There's a moment towards the end of the graphic novel that I really like: The Tooth Graham, and his ally Sheriff Turnbull are attacked by a hoard of Vampire women (who are wearing skimpy red dresses and black knee-high boots as a nod to 70's horror comic icon Vampirella) and Graham tries to ward them off by putting two sticks together to form a cross.  He is informed that he doesn't have enough faith to repel a Vampire.  So the Sheriff whips out his badge and drives off the Vampire using his faith in the law.  This is exactly the sort of thing I mentioned before on this blog about symbolism getting lost in modern day Vampire fiction.  It's not the cross that drives away a Vampire, but Faith in what the cross represents.

This book is a ton of fun, and comes from a creative team that clearly loves comics.  I consider The Tooth one of the gems of my collection, and I encourage you to give it a read if you have the chance.  It's quirky and fun and has big monsters punching each other.  You won't regret it.

-Geekboy.