Little Monsters #3 Review

Writer: Jeff Lemire / Artist: Destin Nguyen / Image It is a new month, which means it’s a new opportunity for Jeff Lemire and Destin Nguyen to emotionally devastate me with the tale of a vampire children. And as of last issue, a human child whose apocalypse worn face adores the cover and immediately reminds me of Clementine from the Telltale Walking Dead, except in the unfavorable condition that the supernatural entity she is confronted with look like children. Which is partly true, but…oh goodness. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s keep focused on the content of this issue. Little Monsters #3 opens with yet another flashback. This one is significantly closer chronologically to the present of the series. This time we are in 2029 in Orange County. A child is seen gathering supplies for his sickly mother, only to find that she has passed and that a mysterious man with a cohort of children is offering the prospect of never being alone again. And yes, it’s every bit of disconcerting as it sounds. Back in the present, Billy is informing his friends about the fresh blood, and Romie is having his first new interaction with a new person. Both threads are haunting. Lemire’s command of pacing and dialog is astounding, carefully titrating information and realizations from the two different arcs running in parallel. As the reader, we get to put together the different pieces and get a very tragic picture of the current set of the circumstances. It is a gut-wrenching read especiall…