Image continues it's string of really excellent creator-owned stories at $2.99 lately with Sweets. The comic is by Kody Chamberlain who believe it or not does the writing, pencils, inks, coloring *and* lettering! Talk about a man for all seasons--knowing that, I was immediately impressed.

More impressive, though, is the story within, which in the first issue, sets-up what looks like is going to be a really great crime/suspense mystery, very much in the vein of Ed Brubaker's Criminal & Incognito and a lot of the recent Vertigo crime stories. I'm a big fan of crime fiction, particularly in comic books; there are many good ones right now, but also some mediocre ones. Thus far, it looks like we have a good one here.

The setting is New Orleans days before Hurricane Katrina, which is a very solid place to start. New Orleans is a city that was very under-utilized for years until recently. Like Chicago, San Francisco and many other very interesting places with great history, it's a welcome change from New York (which don't get me wrong, remains my favorite city), Los Angeles and the often-used "random midwestern small town".

The story is called "Sweets" because a serial killer is targeting notable residents of New Orleans, including his latest, a Priest. At the scene of each crime, he leaves Pecan Pralines. (Naturally if I was a cop, I might indulge myself on the evidence after a long day). Complicating matters, like any good crime story, there are several characters with suspicious motivations (which usually means mysterious pasts and relationships). The lead characters are a pair of detectives, one who just went through his daughter being killed in a hit & run and thus experiencing his life fall apart, and another trying to pull him back from the brink.

Chamberlain does a fantastic job. Since he's doing EVERYTHING, it all works together very well. His art is dark and moody, moving the story along nicely. He keeps the dialogue informative (character-wise and story-wise) and doesn't waste any words.

Anyone looking for a solid crime comic for $2.99, or just something a little different--or just something GOOD, should check this out.