Fangs (Andrews McMeel. 2020)
Story and Art: Sarah Andersen
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
With "Fangs", Sarah Andersen solidifies her place among the modern masters of the comic strip format. She tells the tale of a unusual romance between Jimmy and Elsie, who just happen to be a werewolf and a vampire, through 96 pages of stand-alone strips and illustrations, some of which add up to multi-page arcs, but all of which stand perfectly fine on their own.
Andersen is known to most for her long-running
"Sarah's Scribbles" strip, and those readers may be surprised by the very different art- and storytelling style in "Fangs". Instead of the scratchy, bug-eyed, squat cartoon characters from Andersen's other series, this strip features smooth lines and handsomely drawn people and animals; and instead of cutting, self-deprecating observational humor, we instead get situational- and relationship-based jokes and comic situations arising from characters that conform to the pop-culture concepts of werewolves and vampires falling in love and making a life together.
In addition to the attractive art, "Fangs" succeeds because Jimmy and Elsie are both very likable characters. They are so charming and cute that after the opening series of strips showing how they met, you will spend the rest of the book enjoying their sweet and sometimes awkward romance and rooting for them to overcome obstacles and be happy together.
But this is still a book about "monsters" in love, so some of the humor gets dark and there's an occasional dangerous edge visible in how the lovers are portrayed. This is especially true of Elsie-- although she is now "vegan" and relies on bloodbanks instead of hunting humans for her sustenance, there are several episodes where you have the sense that she could easily "fall of the wagon". Meanwhile, there's a sense that Jimmy is something of a hippy among werewolves...
Not all the gags in fangs come off effectively, among these are a few that would be perfect if animated but fall flat in the comic strip format, but each strip is cute, funny, touching, and always entertaining. The single page illustrations scattered throughout the book are also very well crafted and add value instead of feeling like filler by moments scenes that either shed light on some aspect of Elsie or Jimmy's personality or on their relationship. The drawing of Jimmy meditating and the one of Elsie getting
Another bit of "added value" is the physical quality of the book. It's a pretty little hardcover that's deep deep red in color with a simple drawing of Elsie on the cover. It looks more like a collection of poetry or a diary than a collection of comic strips. This means you can get get away with reading it almost anywhere, and you won't have to worry about people looking down their noses at you. And you should read it. Order your copy now!
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