Three issues in, and we finally get some background and footing on what exactly is going on here and what the stakes are in Matt Kindt’s new mystery, Grass Kings. And for that matter, what exactly the mystery is. Things have been so incredibly vague thus far that it feels unnecessary. There was a murder at some point or there is a murderer somewhere.

This is a rural world, and within this world a series of events have led to a certain area of land becoming sectioned off from the rest of society, thereby self-sufficient. They have their own law and their own economy. They live a decade or more in the past. They live in what anyone else would consider poverty, but there’s tension brewing with the outside world. A local sheriff thinks a killer lives within the boundaries of this utopia, but any move on it would start a war. In issue two, he made that subtle move. In issue three, a new character makes a move that could jeopardize that stability completely. Within this utopia are two brothers, one a sheriff and one a man whose life seems to have given him more tragedy than he can bare. It feels like they are both about to step into a bear trap that neither of them is prepared for.

This is a story about the hidden, subversive happenings that live underneath the small-town demeanor. Those secrets that can tear lives apart. For those of you who haven’t lived in the country, there’s often something that seems a little off, or just on the edge of catching a spark and turning into a wildfire. Kindt is capturing this atmosphere pretty well so far. It’s Tyler Jenkins artwork that I wasn’t as fond of…at first. But now that the characters are coming into focus and really creating the mood of the story. The atmosphere of Jenkins’ art is fitting the story and this world quite well with very simple backgrounds and a slightly unkempt look to the landscape and the characters.

While I’m still waiting for the story to kick in, the elements Kindt has been setting up have been very intriguing and enough to make me carry on reading.