Monday, November 15, 2010

What I Read: House of Mystery v2 - #7

Love Stories for Dead People: Chapter Two: Beneath the Skin by Matthew Sturges (writer), Luca Rossi (pencils), José Marzán Jr. (inks), and Lee Loughridge (colors) - Harry, Ann and Fig begin to explore the lower, subterranean levels of the house. Poet and Cressida remain behind to tend the bar. Its not so much what happens in this chapter that entrances me as how it happens and how it is depicted visually.

I love the way Luca Rossi draws the interiors of the House: the pasageways, the spiral staircases, the carvings and statues. Equally beautiful and more disturbing are some of the creatures he draws: the rat with a human head, the pear with a face that screams just before Cress bites into it, and the disemboweled critter that Fig cradles in her arms as the chapter ends. Lee Loughridge, the colorist, is no slouch either. His soft touch with the colors helps to set the mood.

The War by Bill Willingham (writer) and David Petersen (artist) - a story told by Poet at a party that he and Cress throw, while the others are exploring the basement. It is about a war between cats and birds. It doesn't really have a plot, its more of a description of the war.

If the story was a little better formed or had some interesting characters then I might have enjoyed it more. I get the impression, based on a comment made after the story is told, that it is intentionally devoid of the elements of plot and characters. The real draw here is David Petersen's art.

House of Mystery is published by Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics

2 comments:

Jon said...

I only know Bill Willingham through the Fables series, which certainly has no lack of either plot or characterisation. No reason to expect his work to be all of a piece though.

davelevine said...

I haven't read much of Bill Willingham's writing, just the first volume of Fables. So I wasn't comparing the story in issue #7 to anything other than the other side stories found in HoM.