Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Vertigo (2009), Paperback, 128 pages
Description
Meet the five lost souls who unwillingly make the House of mystery their home.
Media reviews
Writer Matthew Sturges creates intriguing situations, to-the-point dialogue that’s a pleasure to read, and a fascinating cast with a minimum of text, making an issue feel more dense than many others of the same length.
User reviews
LibraryThing member TerryWeyna
This graphic novel is so much more fun than Jack of Fables that it's hard to believe the same authors are responsible for both. The House of Mystery belongs to Cain, but has somehow disappeared from his realm, and become a stopping-off point for people from all realms of the imagination. For them,
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it is a bar, where they pay for their food and tipple with stories. There are a select few, however, for whom it becomes a prison, and Fig is the most recent of these. She is determined to escape, but the House will not let her; in fact, the House seems to be, in some strange way, in love with her. But the comic is not only about Fig. To the contrary, we are treated to the stories of the patrons of the House. And they are generally very odd stories indeed – fairy tales gone awry, crime stories with strange endings, detective stories that go to the very depths for solutions. I liked it a lot, and am looking forward to future volumes. Show Less
LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: There is a house that sits between worlds, where folks of all sorts may stop in for a drink. The first drink is on the house, but all others must be paid for, and the coin of the realm is stories. Most patrons come, have some drinks, share their tales, and then return to their lives, but
Review: Metafiction fans, rejoice, because you've got another series to lose yourself in. Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham are the creative team behind the Jack of Fables comics, but House of Mystery is a very, very different beast - apart from the underlying theme of the power of stories, and some similarities in the way the narration vs. dialogue is handled, I would never have put the two together. Perhaps that's because House of Mystery draws much more heavily from the Sandman tradition, both in its tone, its structure, and quite a few of its details. I'm not going to call it a Sandman spinoff, since it's perfectly understandable without having read the former series, but Cain and Abel and the Dreaming do show up (albeit quite briefly), and the House of Mystery is either the same as, or extremely similar to, The House at Worlds' End (it's been long enough since I've read Sandman that I can't say conclusively).
The frame story (which is the bulk of the pages, actually), is certainly intriguing, and I really like the conceit of using guest artists to illustrate the short (usually 4-6 page) stories that are being told by the patrons of the house - it really gives each of them an individual feel and the whole thing a unique flair. The whole thing's pretty dark, with more than a few nightmarish qualities to it, but there are also plenty of interesting character moments, and more than one place that made me laugh out loud. I'm excited to see what the rest of the series will bring. 4 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Fans of the Sandman series and The Unwritten, or possibly of some of the darker elements of Fables, and fans of metafiction with a horror twist, should all check this one out.
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an unlucky few are unable to leave the house's confines unless a mysterious coachmen comes to take them away. When architecture student Bethany "Fig" Keeler is chased by a mysterious duo known as the Conception into the house, she's not ready to deal with what she finds within. Not because of the unusual clientele, but because the House has been haunting her dreams for her whole life, and now she's stuck there until she can figure out the reason behind it all.Review: Metafiction fans, rejoice, because you've got another series to lose yourself in. Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham are the creative team behind the Jack of Fables comics, but House of Mystery is a very, very different beast - apart from the underlying theme of the power of stories, and some similarities in the way the narration vs. dialogue is handled, I would never have put the two together. Perhaps that's because House of Mystery draws much more heavily from the Sandman tradition, both in its tone, its structure, and quite a few of its details. I'm not going to call it a Sandman spinoff, since it's perfectly understandable without having read the former series, but Cain and Abel and the Dreaming do show up (albeit quite briefly), and the House of Mystery is either the same as, or extremely similar to, The House at Worlds' End (it's been long enough since I've read Sandman that I can't say conclusively).
The frame story (which is the bulk of the pages, actually), is certainly intriguing, and I really like the conceit of using guest artists to illustrate the short (usually 4-6 page) stories that are being told by the patrons of the house - it really gives each of them an individual feel and the whole thing a unique flair. The whole thing's pretty dark, with more than a few nightmarish qualities to it, but there are also plenty of interesting character moments, and more than one place that made me laugh out loud. I'm excited to see what the rest of the series will bring. 4 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Fans of the Sandman series and The Unwritten, or possibly of some of the darker elements of Fables, and fans of metafiction with a horror twist, should all check this one out.
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LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
I really love Bill Willingham so I was psyched to see his name on a new title (even though this probably isn't considered new anymore). A group of people are stuck in a house that is at a bar in the cross roads of many dimensions. In the house they run a bar and people tell stories to pay down
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their tabs. The book goes back and forth between the stories told by bar patrons and the stories of the house's residents. I can't wait to find out more about why they are stuck in the house and the patrons tales provide interesting breaks in the story and I wonder if some of the patrons tales aren't going to be related to the major story in the long run. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
I really love Bill Willingham so I was psyched to see his name on a new title (even though this probably isn't considered new anymore). A group of people are stuck in a house that is at a bar in the cross roads of many dimensions. In the house they run a bar and people tell stories to pay down
Show More
their tabs. The book goes back and forth between the stories told by bar patrons and the stories of the house's residents. I can't wait to find out more about why they are stuck in the house and the patrons tales provide interesting breaks in the story and I wonder if some of the patrons tales aren't going to be related to the major story in the long run. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
I really love Bill Willingham so I was psyched to see his name on a new title (even though this probably isn't considered new anymore). A group of people are stuck in a house that is at a bar in the cross roads of many dimensions. In the house they run a bar and people tell stories to pay down
Show More
their tabs. The book goes back and forth between the stories told by bar patrons and the stories of the house's residents. I can't wait to find out more about why they are stuck in the house and the patrons tales provide interesting breaks in the story and I wonder if some of the patrons tales aren't going to be related to the major story in the long run. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill
I really love Bill Willingham so I was psyched to see his name on a new title (even though this probably isn't considered new anymore). A group of people are stuck in a house that is at a bar in the cross roads of many dimensions. In the house they run a bar and people tell stories to pay down
Show More
their tabs. The book goes back and forth between the stories told by bar patrons and the stories of the house's residents. I can't wait to find out more about why they are stuck in the house and the patrons tales provide interesting breaks in the story and I wonder if some of the patrons tales aren't going to be related to the major story in the long run. Show Less
LibraryThing member aratiel
Interesting, with echoes of Sandman. Too gory though, and gore without meaning.
Original publication date
2009-01-20
Physical description
128 p.; 6.61 inches
ISBN
1401220797 / 9781401220792