3 out of 5

A somewhat focus-confused horror / sci-fi tale, Salvador Sanz’s The Skeleton still overall exceeds thanks to an internal sense of consistency, and Sanz’s weighty, mood-soaked art style.

In the future of The Skeleton, meat eating has turned us into the mindless Carnivores: not zombies, but such humans are depicted with a similar single-minded draw toward consuming flesh, evolving to have unhinged jaws for consuming prey whole. In the minority are those that abstained, never exposed to the poison found in meat, and amongst the small group of these survivors we follow is “the skeleton,” sporting facepaint and a shirt design that’ve given him his nickname.

But, eh, that’s about the end of the relevance. He has one line explaining his choice in attire, but it’s not of much depth beyond the consumerism dig of the premise, which is fine: Sanz is more interested in environment and establishing his world over making this a commentary piece.

Somewhere within those priorities, though, you can sense how the story never quite finds a throughline. There’s a main plot point about a third type of human, a “Brainshatter,” which accounts for the sci-fi aspect of the tale, and feels similar in approach to the more cryptic elements of Sanz’s later works, Angela Della Morte, and Mega. On the plus side, this gives The Skeleton internal consistency and momentum: Sanz always knows what story he’s telling. On the negative side, for a reader, it’s just a collection of moments, and details. Time passes weirdly in the book, even when one chapter very linearly follows the next, such that there’s no real urgency. But it’s confident, and immerses through environment, so perhaps Sanz is on to  something by putting his focus there.

As to the art: drawing a line from Jacen Burrows-esque solidity to European style detailing to Corben-esque heft, Sanz art is a highlight all on its own, especially in the Goya-like black and white.

Making The Skeleton surely a flawed read – lacking in some comic book basics – but also so consistent in its presentation and tone so as to be rewarding to read, even while being sort of underwhelmed by the story’s open-endedness and oblique characters.