Customer Reviews

House of Mystery Vol. 2: Love Stories for Dead People

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an amazing book. I have no reservations about saying that I love it.

I was skimming the graphic novels shelf in the bookstore and this book, mis-shelved and separated from its fellow House of Mystery volumes caught my eye because of its excellent title. Honestly, the title is worth a star all on its own. Thinking it was a standalone book, I read a bit before I realized it must be part of a series, and I wasn't lost or confused at all. I was really enjoying every aspect of it, the overarching adventure/mystery, the shorter stories within, the writing, the various styles of art...as I said, I was enjoying pretty much everything.

After reading the first volume, House of Mystery: Room and Boredom, I went back to this one and I appreciated what I'd already read even more and loved the rest. The story "The War" was especially good, and I made a note that I really loved page 30. The result of the exploration of the basement was wonderfully creepy and surprising, and the little revelations either made me more anxious to get the full story or sometimes created more mystery to solve.

I guess it's obvious that it would be this way, but the quality of the writing surpasses the artwork here. Sturges/Willingham lay out a convincing comic/horror genre story. Call it "Fables meets Horror," it's pretty darn good. The story meanders in typical Sturges fashion, taking us on a few side journeys. The opening tale seems to have the most promise, but ends too fast. I guess you gotta leave 'em wanting more. The concept is cool, a crazy "haunted" house in which the denizens all get stuck in a "groundhog day" type existence that repeats as they tell various tales. In this collection of books, we start to learn that there is something more here than meets the eye.

Speaking of the eyes, what annoyed me about this book is Luca Rossi's drawing style. Maybe some call it "impressionistic" or artistic, but to me, it comes across as "lazy." I love the detail that I just don't get with Rossi. It feels rushed, while others that wrote on "Fables" left their very hearts on the page. I love a detailed comic in which I wonder how they could even draw that small. You won't get that here.

Sloppy artwork mars a solid story here, and because comics are a visual medium, I just can't give it better than three stars.

I've always loved the way DC Comics is able to take old series and characters and re-invent them for a modern audience. The latest success is the new House of Mystery series. This second volume collects issues #6 - 10 of the monthly series and begins to explore the deeper "Secrets" of the House...if you'll pardon the pun.

We met Fig Keele in the first volume as she escaped the phantasmal Conception and raced headlong into the House. Now, she only has a desire to escape its walls and the crazy inhabitants who seem all too willing to call the place home. Her new friends Bartender Harry and pirate "Bloody Ann" seem to think they know a way out...down a long flight of stairs to a forgotten door. Behind that door they will find a terror greater than all their fears. A terror so great that even Cain's oft-murdered brother Abel shows up to try and tame it. The main story is interspersed with back-stories that feature art by the likes of Berni Wrightson & Kyle Baker.

The problem with the short stories is that they create an uneven tone due to the different writers and artists who worked on them. While some of the back-stories were really good, especially the Wrightson story, I found they distracted rather than enhanced the main story. I love this title and while it will probably never be a huge hit I hope this is one of those Vertigo titles that develops enough of a niche audience to keep it going.

This was a very good second book for the House of Mystery series. I liked the story and the build up to the climax was great. The basement was filled with creepy goodness. There were a few sections other others stories but I enjoyed all of them. Bill Willingham (the writer of the Fables graphic novel series - which are fabulous) also had a special insert in this volume with a story about cats. It was good. I enjoyed the complexity of the characters more in this book as some of their secrets came out. I also was left with more questions and so I am looking forward to the next one. I did like this more then the first House of Mystery book but some of humor in the previous book wasn't in this one.

I wasn't sure about getting the second House of Mystery after reading the first one. I loved the art, the overall idea, and little mini-stories were clever and entertaining, but so much about the world was so mysterious that it failed to draw me in. I had hoped the second volume would begin to explain something about the characters, their situation, the house of mystery.

Unfortunately, it headed further in the wrong direction. The mini-stories were less good than the first book. More mysterious things were added to the story but not explained, so that it felt like random events were happening with no context or framework. The result of this is that I'm not the least bit involved in the story. It shows characters doing things without explaining why, and when it does, it doesn't make any sense. The story is also broken into abrupt little segments, switching mid-scene to another, and then back in a way that is just jarring. And then the main character is also narrating something random philosophical stream of thought across the entire story while she's having conversations with people and running around. It distracts from what's happening. For example, how does it make sense that she's waxing poetic about the meaning of "home" while running for her life? Not only that, but it has basically the same plot as the first story - hang out in the bar telling stories, then go exploring under the house, and then things go bad and they retreat to the bar. Same story.

I wanted to like it. I suspect it's more Sturges and less Willingham behind this volume. But whatever it is, it's not very good. I'm done with the series.

Room and Boredom, the first highly captivating trade from the new House of Mystery series, did a superb job in setting up the book's main premise and intriguing cast of characters. The engaging and sardonic writing of lead scribe Matt Sturges, adeptly aided by the sinister snippets of suspense scattered throughout from partner Bill Willingham, provocatively set the stage for the next act to follow. Regrettably this second volume fell well short of its' desired goal, as the drawn out and pedestrian story did not dramatically develop or further expound on the plight of our imprisoned protagonists. Thankfully Sturges' stimulating musings in general did help to offset the prosaic proceedings, but this rather directionless sequel makes one seriously question whether or not the creators have an established design in mind with well conceived plot outlines, or are just winging it as they go. Another quandary is the book's relatively mild tone, which may be too tame for any title featuring the ghoulish and ghastly, especially one published under the mature Vertigo masthead. As things currently stand, this series will have to radically shift gears and pick up in both pace and profundity if it hopes to enjoy a healthy run. So while still a pleasant diversion, this latest entry treaded some considerable water, with only time telling whether this was just a temporary standstill, or possibly all that this book has to offer period.

This is the second volume of House of Mystery reprinting issues 6-10 of the Vertigo series that started in 2008. This series is not so much a continuation of the long running DC series of the same name, but more of a re-imagining although it does look like we'll be getting snippets of the old continuity from time to time. In this installment, three member of the cast venture into the HoM's basement in the hopes of finding an escape route. Alas, the house hides many secrets and dangers and the group finds more than they bargained for. Meanwhile, a new subplot involving a female character gets started as part of her past is revealed to involve encounters with some well known monsters. After seducing a man, she does something mysterious but we don't learn much about it quite yet. I apologize to any who find this synopsis vague, but I try to avoid major spoilers while hopefully saying just enough to give interested readers a general idea of what's waiting for them.

A recurring them in House of Mystery is that stories are currency to those who live there, but they are really even more important than that. The characters each harbor backgrounds with intensely personal and complex stories and sharing them with one another is sometimes more of a challenge and/or commitment than that person might be willing to make. It's already clear that the authors have set up many layers both to the story and the character backgrounds and that these layers will be peeled back slowly in their own time. This is not a series for those who demand instant gratification or a simple read.

I had somewhat mixed feelings about House of Mystery: Love Stories and Dead People. While reading the first half it felt a bit slow and seemed to be a bit adrift. But things started to come together nicely in the second half and the story both ended well and left me wanting more. So while I was initially thinking I might not buy the next volume when it comes out, my final verdict is that this was a good read and I'll continue on with the series. I can't say that it favorably compares to Willingham's work on Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile and the rest of that series, but taken on its own terms, this is an entertaining book.