By Zack Quaintance — Family Tree is the best type of genre-bending comic, in that it doesn’t feel like it’s setting out to be a genre-bending comic. And look, I know that sounds goofy, but I really couldn’t get to a better way of phrasing it. This is a comic that has family drama, body horror, and a foreshadowed apocalypse. There’s a lot going on within the 20-some pages of this debut issue, and yet it doesn’t feel at all like the creators felt obligated to include any of the places this story goes for marketability or shock value or standing out, or whatever other reason contrived narrative bits find end up in comics.

Like the transformation undertaken by our young protagonist (who as the previews and cover indicate is turning into a tree), this is a comic that feels natural. I’ll get to why I think that is in a moment, but first a word about the artwork in this comic. Within comics discourse, when critics and fans start describing a comic as “smart,” the qualities that they point to are almost always characterization, conceptualization, metaphors, captions...basically, things that they attribute to the script, right or wrong. Family Tree #1 can be described as smart on those merits, for sure, but moreover, the visuals this comic uses to do its storytelling are just as smart, if not smarter, than all of that.

Penciller Phil Hester and inker Eric Gapstur are a veteran and formidable creative team, viscerally unafraid to take risks and give readers credit to interpret striking page layouts. Panel boundaries are used in interesting ways, and by the third page we have characters looming over them or sprinting out of them to convey intimidation and flightyness in really interesting, immersive ways. At other times, panel boundaries suddenly fade, to lead the eye into moments of surprise. Family Tree #1 also uses white space really effectively to emphasize character expressions, subtly clueing us in to who are characters are, what they’re feeling and why. I found myself turning the pages of this comic quickly, not just because I wanted to know what happened next but also because I wanted to see how the artists were conveying it. Ryan Cody’s colors are also a great, almost somber fit for this chapter, which takes place in the past in a small town, and letterer Steve Wands does a great job leading they eye at times, while at other times (especially in the opening scene) using color and upsized font to convey how jarring noises. 

But back to my opening premise for this review — the smart visuals are just one part of why I think this feels like such a natural story. The other part is that Family Tree feels like an extension of the storytelling interests writer Jeff Lemire has been pursuing for many years. The familial dysfunction and absent dad are evocative of both Royal City and Essex County respectively, the naturalistic body horror of Sweet Tooth, the leaves tumbling through the air so often of much of his work in between. Lemire’s career has been nothing if not an exploration in the quiet terror of inhabiting modern rural settings, of the isolation and vulnerability that feel heavy in such places, and after one issue, my impression is that this story is an evolution of all of that. I can’t wait to see where it’s all headed.

Overall: With a genuinely unique premise and top-tier visual storytelling, Family Tree #1 is a must-buy debut, a great start to another essential creator-owned comic in 2019. 9.8/10

Family Tree #1
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Phil Hester
Inker: Eric Gapstur
Colorist: Ryan Cody
Letterer: Steve Wands
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.