Comic review: Tooth & Claw #1- Magic and money

STORY BY: Kurt Busiek
ART: Ben Dewey
COLORS: Jordie Bellaire
COVER: Ben Dewey
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
RELEASE DATE: 5th November, 2014


Tooth and Claw #1 is a world creation book with strange looking alien creatures that look suspiciously like cute animals found on planet Earth. First off, it’s great and you need to get it now.

The story at first might seem a bit intimidating. Here’s this huge world with a brand new cast of characters and you know nothing about it. Don’t worry about that. The writing is very reader friendly, letting you navigate the world through the use of a clever writing technique where you take a sympathetic character trying to find his own way in this world, and largely tell the story through that individual. The technique is ideal as not only does it allow you to contextualise the world, but it also gives you the opportunity to build emotional empathy through a sympathetic babyface (to use the pro wrestling term) character.

The book is easy to read, easy to get into, and you quickly begin to build empathy for the main protagonist, but what about the art? It’s great. It’s clear, you know who is who, the world is captured and you get an excellent idea of what is going on. There is no confusion in the art. There are no annoying shadows and show-off artistic flourishes. I like it. It’s perfect for the book.

What about the underlying socio-political aspects/themes that the story is addressing? If you’ve ever read any of my previous reviews you’ll know that I like my comic books to deal with contemporary issues, and I’m not talking about the divide and conquer race/gender/sexuality nonsense that Marvel comics obsesses over like politically correct school children. I’m talking about real issues that have relevance in a 2014 context of perpetual war, government surveillance and criminal banksters.

How does this sound? In this book the ruling classes are running out of ‘magic.’ As they pay the ‘lesser ones’ with this ‘magic’ this is a huge problem, as when the ‘magic’ runs out, their position as rulers will be in serious jeopardy. The narrative of issue #1 follows the ruling class as they embark on an extremely dangerous strategy to avert the upcoming crisis. No spoilers, but what I’m reading about here is the end of the monetary system.

Money is magic, as money has the magical ability to make people do whatever you want them to do. Money allows you to own and control millions of people with imaginary pieces of paper. Money turns everything, including human beings, into commodities to be bought and sold. What could be more fantastic, more magical than that? But what happens when the magic no longer works? What happens when magic no longer controls the masses? What happens when the magic is running out, and the ruling elite’s are forced to do something so drastic that the entire world is changed forever? Buy this book, and you’ll find out.

I’m already a huge fan of ‘Tooth & Claw.’ It’s a fascinating book, very well written and with contemporary themes about the power of the monetary system hidden under a clever allegory about ‘Magic.’ It has lovely art, likeable characters and is absolutely brimming with the potential to say so many things about the world as it is today, all under cover of the sci-fi genre and with cute animal alien characters. That’s what a good comic book should be doing, making you think about important issues with clever allegories that shine a light on what is happening in the real world today. It always surprises me how few comic books actually do that, but this book is a bit special. That’s it, review over. Get the book, get it now.

Rating: 10/10