Family Tree Vol. 1: Sapling

by Jeff Lemire, Phil Hester (Artist)

Overview

Bestselling, award-winning JEFF LEMIRE (ROYAL CITY, DESCENDER, Sweet Tooth) and PHIL HESTER (Shipwreck, Green Arrow) come together for FAMILY TREE.

When an eight-year-old girl literally begins to transform into a tree, her single Mom, troubled brother and possibly insane Grandfather embark on a bizarre, and heart-wrenching odyssey across the back roads of America desperately searching for a way to cure her horrifying transformation before it's too late.

But the further they get from home, and the closer the girl gets to completely losing her humanity, the more external forces threaten to tear the family apart as fanatical cults, mercenaries and tabloid Paparazzi close in. determined to destroy the girl or use her for themselves.

A new genre-defying ongoing series FAMILY TREE will combine mystery, action and Cronenbergian body horror into an epic story about the lengths a mother will go to keep her children safe in the face of an increasingly unstable world and unspeakable horrors.

The first collection of the hit new series by superstar creators JEFF LEMIRE and PHIL HESTER begins here!
Collects issues 1 through 4

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534316492
Publisher:	Image Comics
Publication date:	06/02/2020
Series:	Family Tree Comics Series , #1
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	1,056,585
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	13 - 16 Years

About the Author

Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.

Phil Hester has been writing and drawing comics since the dawn of time.

He has drawn Kevin Smith's Green Arrow, Mark Millar's Swamp Thing, Robert Kirkman's Ant-Man, and Jeff Lemire's Family Tree, as well as notable runs on Nightwing, The Flash, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and Kevin Smith's Tales from the Quick Stop. His recent assignments include Gotham City: Year One with Tom King, CREEPSHOW, and a return to Green Arrow.

Phil has written Wonder Woman, THE DARKNESS, Deathstroke, MYTHIC, Titans Giant, Swamp Thing Giant, INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE, and his co-creations The Coffin with artist Mike Huddleston, and FIREBREATHER with artist Andy Kuhn, which became an Emmy-winning feature on Cartoon Network.

He wrote and drew The Wretch, which was nominated for an Eisner Award. He lives in the sticks.

Editorial Reviews

07/13/2020

Readers are left guessing at every turn of this offbeat supernatural thriller series launch by Lemire (Frogcatchers) with art by Phil Hester and others. Loretta, a single mom in a small Maine town, is forced to fight for her family’s life when her daughter develops a bizarre disorder: a tree starts growing out of her back. In no time, the town is in chaos and Loretta and her kids, along with her rifle-toting father-in-law, hit the road, fleeing a shadowy organization called the Arborists. This is all played straight as hard-boiled pulp, replete with car chases, gunfights, brutal violence, and copious swearing, as if the creators barely notice how weird it is when plant life engulfs a town or Grandpa talks to his sapient artificial hand. The spare, stylized art, with shapes blocked out in strong blacks and simple colors, reminiscent of Hellboy, helps sell the genre mash-up. The first volume ends abruptly, raising more questions than glimpses of answers: What is the plant plague? What’s behind the dueling secret organizations on the family’s tail? The overall question remains: will future issues answer the mystery in a satisfying fashion? Until then, the opening volume should appeal to curious fans of well-rendered action and supernatural suspense. (June)

Publishers Weekly

LIBRARY JOURNAL — The shocking twists and intriguing mysteries packed into this first volume of an ongoing series will have readers clamoring for future installments.

From the Publisher

06/01/2020

Years after the disappearance of her husband, Loretta is still struggling to adjust to life as a single mother to teenage son, Josh, and eight-year-old daughter Meg, when Meg is suddenly afflicted by a strange rash that begins to transform her into a tree. The family soon finds themselves pursued by a group of vicious zealots determined to murder Meg in order to prevent an apocalypse; with nowhere else to turn, Loretta is forced to trust her estranged, possibly insane father-in-law. A mysterious healer in New York City offers shelter, but few answers as to Meg's condition, especially as she begins to experience visions that hint at a mystical connection to others experiencing a similar transmutation. Lemire (Berserker Unbound. Vol. 1) balances a perceptive portrait of a family in crisis with propulsive action, perfectly suited to veteran illustrator Hester's (Stronghold. Vol. 1) ability to present human drama as dynamically as he does brutal violence. VERDICT The shocking twists and intriguing mysteries packed into this first volume of an ongoing series will have readers clamoring for future installments.

Library Journal