Today, Jeff Lemire, creator of Vertigo’s Sweet Tooth, announced the series would be ending in December with the double sized issue #40.

Lemire goes to some pains to make sure it’s clear that DC wasn’t the one to pull the plug.

To be clear, THE BOOK HAS NOT BEEN CANCELLED by DC Comics. The decision to end Sweet Tooth is totally my own and based on the natural conclusion of the story I’ve been building over the last three years. I’d like to thank Dan Didio, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and Karen Berger for all of their support of the book. I’d also like to thank all of the amazing editors I’ve worked with on Sweet tooth, Bob Schreck, Brandon Montclare, Pornsak Pichetshote, Greg Lockhard and Mark Doyle.

He goes into further detail on the Vertigo Blog.

I suppose I could have stretched it out a bit longer. I could have had a few more obstacles pop up along the way to Alaska to lengthen the journey (and the series), but it just felt like it was time. Gus wanted to get to Alaska now…and who am I to argue? I’ll miss my little antlered friend. But I owe it to him to finish his story properly. To “leave it all on the ice” as they like to say up here in Canada. And that means not prolonging the series just because I can. But don’t give up on me. I really feel the best is still to come. The final arc, THE WILD KINGDOM, will be full of everything you’ve loved about Sweet Tooth as well as many new surprises, new characters and new revelations. And it all builds to one final double sized, fully painted final issue with #40 this December.

So he’s got seven issues to wrap up the last three years of his end-of-the-world tale, and a lot of questions to be answered. One of the really impressive things about this series is that it was clearly Lemire doing his best version of himself, both writing and drawing on a monthly schedule, while also penning regular scripts for DC Comics. He built a fully fleshed out world, and gave us a sense of wonder, danger and even innocence in the midst of all that. I don’t know how much of a sales success the series has been, and ultimately, it doesn’t matter, but when it’s all over, Lemire is going to be able to look back at quite a collection of long form work, and he’s grown as an artist many times over, and more importantly, as a storyteller. I was there since the beginning, and I’ll be there through the end.