By the end of The Seasons Have Teeth‘s debut issue, readers don’t know exactly how its world works. But if they’re like me, they’ll want to keep reading to find out.

Primarily, The Seasons Have Teeth is an intimate portrait of an aging conflict photographer who has recently suffered a great loss. At first, you may think Andrew’s grief is the reason Sebastián Cabrol and Dan Jackson have rendered most of The Seasons Have Teeth in morose shades of black, white, and gray. And yes, that’s likely part of it, but no, that’s certainly not all of it. There’s also the fact that Spring has not visited Andrew’s hometown in years, and is just now on its way.

In this case, Spring is not a season (or maybe it is), but rather a supernatural avatar that causes spring-like occurrences. This personification of nature’s seasonal resurgence is now making its way through England, sowing destruction in its wake. Because as Andrew points out, if the natural world had its way, it would shake our society to its foundations. Nature is beautiful, yes, but it is not especially kind.

The growth that occurs as a result of Spring’s arrival is nearly the only bit of The Seasons Have Teeth that is rendered in color (even the Spring and not-Spring sound effects are colored appropriately). The only other bit is a flashback to a spring of Andrew and his wife Cindy’s youth.

This choice, as well as the choice to render most of the story’s narrative in semi-uniform, multipaneled pages, makes the story’s single double-page splash, which breaks both those “rules,” that much more effective. The splash leads directly to issue one’s final turn and surprise ending, which sets Andrew squarely on the path to Summer.

Before leaving this review, however, I must note that The Seasons Have Teeth‘s prose perfectly complements its art. Just like Cabrol, Jackson, and co.’s illustrations, writer Dan Watters’s prose is stark, measured, and just a bit surreal. (And it sets that tone quickly, in a clever segue from page one, caption one to page one, caption two.) This near-marriage of authorial and artistic atmosphere is part of what prompted me to jot down my thoughts about The Seasons Have Teeth. Every member of this story’s creative team is operating on the exact same wavelength, a feat that’s not always true of collaborative comics. When a series as tightly in tune as this appears, it’s worth celebrating.

With one season down and three more to go, I find myself quite intrigued to learn more about the world of The Seasons Have Teeth – on both the macro and micro levels. How, exactly, will Summer, Fall, and Winter manifest themselves? And more importantly, what will be the consequences, for both the larger world and the series’s protagonist?