Jeff Lemire Origins of Hybrid Children from Sweet Tooth

The world of Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth is rife with deadly secrets, but at the heart of them all is the mystery of the human/animal hybrid children who stand to inherit the Earth. The extent of each hybrid’s mutations varies dramatically, but all survive where humans have fallen prey to a near-apocalyptic illness and the antlered, chocolate-loving protagonist Gus could be the key to it all.

Below are Lemire’s original sketches of three of his favourite hybrid children and the story behind each one. 

“I always knew that eventually I’d have to create other human/animal hybrid children to accompany Gus the antlered boy on his journey across the post-apocalyptic landscape of Sweet Tooth. But to be honest, I only referred to them in the most vague terms in my early outlines and pitches. I didn’t really have a clear sense yet of who they would be, or even how big a role they would end up playing in the book.

For some reason the thought of designing new hybrid kids seemed more overwhelming than it did exciting. Maybe it was the fact that by the time I need to actually create them I was already in full swing writing, penciling and inking the monthly Vertigo series, and was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the schedule. Taking the time out to design new characters was a luxury I didn’t really have at that point. So to be perfectly honest, they were pretty much created on the fly, with a little help from my wife and (unbeknownst to him) my then editor, the great Bob Shreck.”

A couple of those early hybrids that appear in “In Captivity” didn’t really have what it took to survive in Sweet Tooth’s world. The weird little Pug-dog Girl from issue 6 was poorly designed and too hard to draw consistently and never made another appearance. And then there’s poor, poor Horse-boy, (to learn his ultimate fate see issue 9) but thankfully, despite their rushed beginnings, three of these characters have become my, and many of my readers’, favourites in the series. So here’s a quick look at their origins and some of the first sketches I did (You’ll also notice a few outtakes like Lesley The Cat Girl and an Ermine-Boy).

1. WENDY The Pig-girl: Wendy is my favourite character to draw in Sweet Tooth. I just love her. Really. She has a heart of gold that may even be sweeter than Gus. So now I have a confession to make… I didn’t design her, my wife did. Lesley-Anne Green is an amazing sculpture and doll-maker. She is also the co-creator of the “real” Gus (our 2-year old son). I was feeling the crunch and my hybrid sketches were going nowhere, so I asked her to design one for me. Like her amazing dolls, Lesley-Anne’s Wendy design is cute and hideous all at the same time (the sketch is featured here). Maybe that’s why I like drawing here so much, she reminds me of my wife (the cute part, not the hideous part).

2. BOBBY The Groundhog Boy: …is Bob Shreck. Let me explain. Bob was the first editor on Sweet Tooth and a big part of the book and my success at DC and Vertigo. Bob is also an all around great guy, mentor and friend. Another fact about Bob is that he shares a birthday with my son Gus, February 2nd…Groundhog Day! I was disappointed when I heard he was leaving [to head Legendary Pictures' Legendary Comics] so I decided to create a character based on Bob that would live on in the pages of Sweet Tooth. Thus Bobby the loveable groundhog-boy was born.

3. BUDDY The ? Boy: What the hell is Buddy? Honestly, I have no idea. Originally he was supposed to be a sheep-boy, but then when I looked at how I drew him in Issue 6 I realized he didn’t look anything like a sheep, but that issue had already been printed so I had to stick with the design. I like how he looks; I just don’t really know what the hell he looks like. In my mind he is kind of a Donkey-boy."