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kingtess's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderfully creepy and creative. I look forward with delight to reading the whole series. My only criticism is the heavy-handed foreshadowing at the end - something Bill Willingham is partial to.
kaigairg's review against another edition
3.0
http://greenmanreview.com/book/book_sturges_willingham_houseofmystery_one.html
mehitabels's review against another edition
4.0
this series is very interesting. having loved the [b:The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes|23754|The Sandman, Vol. 1 Preludes and Nocturnes|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1300168497s/23754.jpg|1228437] series so very much it was nice to slip back into a world familiar and hauntingly strange. or perhaps strange and hauntingly familiar. the tragically (and somewhat ridiculous) love story only distracts slightly from the overall menace of the tale.
annaptobias's review against another edition
2.0
Picked this up from the library, only because I saw [a:Bill Willingham|12444|Bill Willingham|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1261117596p2/12444.jpg]'s name on the cover. The stories are interesting, but maybe I was thinking they'd be creepier or scarier...? Anyway, it's got me curious enough to want to see if the 2nd volume gets any better.
sara_4539's review against another edition
5.0
can't wait to read the next one. i really liked most of the stories but the underlying storyline is the best part.
kandicez's review against another edition
3.0
This was good, but didn't explain enough to be the first in a series. I think I would be more apt to read on if I knew a little more of what I could expect. The individual stories, within the big story were interesting, though.
I can't decide if I like the idea of differet artist and colorists for different stories or sections of a comic. It's occasionally distracting.
I can't decide if I like the idea of differet artist and colorists for different stories or sections of a comic. It's occasionally distracting.
ostrava's review against another edition
3.0
House of Mystery is a not-so-subtle spiritual sequel of Gaiman's Worlds End run from the Sandman series. In it, a group of characters are trapped inside of a manor that won't let them out but will welcome guests from all dimensions and otherworlds imaginable. So, in order to kill time, they've opened an inn and accept stories as a currency.
Naturally, this leads to two different kinds of stories, the ones told in the inn (very much in the vein of Sandman of course) and the framed story that's just sort of okay.
The short stories do their job fine, but feel a bit aimless at times, not as high in concept as their inspiration and tend to be a bit shallow. They serve more as quick introductions to characters you won't be getting to see much anyway than actual stories.
The framed story points at some intriguing ideas, but it's too early in the oven for me to make any judgments. What's more, it hardly even feels like we've scratched an itch here of what this whole thing might actually be about.
The first volume feels like little more than a tease, mixed with some diluted attempts at following the steps of greater comic books. I would say it makes for a decent enough read, at least as far as introductions go, but it's nothing that you haven't seen better executed elsewhere.
Naturally, this leads to two different kinds of stories, the ones told in the inn (very much in the vein of Sandman of course) and the framed story that's just sort of okay.
The short stories do their job fine, but feel a bit aimless at times, not as high in concept as their inspiration and tend to be a bit shallow. They serve more as quick introductions to characters you won't be getting to see much anyway than actual stories.
The framed story points at some intriguing ideas, but it's too early in the oven for me to make any judgments. What's more, it hardly even feels like we've scratched an itch here of what this whole thing might actually be about.
The first volume feels like little more than a tease, mixed with some diluted attempts at following the steps of greater comic books. I would say it makes for a decent enough read, at least as far as introductions go, but it's nothing that you haven't seen better executed elsewhere.
proffy's review against another edition
3.0
The Short and Sweet of It (from DC Comics)
Welcome to the House of Mystery! Filled with peculiar, otherworldly characters from all walks of life, this series from Matthew Sturges (JACK OF FABLES) and Bill Willingham (FABLES) focuses on five people trapped in the reality-warping House of Mystery, a supernatural bar where tales are the legal tender and only the finest storytellers are patrons! But how – and why – they're stuck inside is all just a little piece of the puzzle in this first volume, which collects issues #1-5 of the all-new acclaimed series and special bonus material.
A Bit of a Ramble
Stories within stories within stories. That's what I get from this first volume in the series. We have the overarching narrative involving the main character, Fig, and her journey to the House of Mystery, the house from her dreams which she's been obsessing over for much of her life; Fig's story includes some clearly awesome characters, only clearly awesome because 1) we don't know anything about them, except they are the Conception which is a cool name; 2) they float across the ground, dragging their toes; and 3) it looks like they have to be touching each other to stay tethered to Fig's world.
But we also have the story of the five (including Fig) bar patrons who can't leave the House; this story includes a masked character in a carriage who is the only one who can get the trapped residents out of the house. And finally we have the stories the bar patrons tell, which cross between fact and fiction and involve multiple worlds. Awesome.
It's not just the story that drew me in. The artwork is fantastically dark and detailed:
The randomness of some of the inclusions in the frames really got me. The inclusion of beasts and people and images in general that aren't directly discussed in the story is something I really appreciate. They add to the vision of a world separate from the story; they suggest that the story taking place is just one within a larger world, and I like that.
I don't have the rest of this series on hand, but I am definitely interested in reading the rest.
Welcome to the House of Mystery! Filled with peculiar, otherworldly characters from all walks of life, this series from Matthew Sturges (JACK OF FABLES) and Bill Willingham (FABLES) focuses on five people trapped in the reality-warping House of Mystery, a supernatural bar where tales are the legal tender and only the finest storytellers are patrons! But how – and why – they're stuck inside is all just a little piece of the puzzle in this first volume, which collects issues #1-5 of the all-new acclaimed series and special bonus material.
A Bit of a Ramble
Stories within stories within stories. That's what I get from this first volume in the series. We have the overarching narrative involving the main character, Fig, and her journey to the House of Mystery, the house from her dreams which she's been obsessing over for much of her life; Fig's story includes some clearly awesome characters, only clearly awesome because 1) we don't know anything about them, except they are the Conception which is a cool name; 2) they float across the ground, dragging their toes; and 3) it looks like they have to be touching each other to stay tethered to Fig's world.
But we also have the story of the five (including Fig) bar patrons who can't leave the House; this story includes a masked character in a carriage who is the only one who can get the trapped residents out of the house. And finally we have the stories the bar patrons tell, which cross between fact and fiction and involve multiple worlds. Awesome.
It's not just the story that drew me in. The artwork is fantastically dark and detailed:
The randomness of some of the inclusions in the frames really got me. The inclusion of beasts and people and images in general that aren't directly discussed in the story is something I really appreciate. They add to the vision of a world separate from the story; they suggest that the story taking place is just one within a larger world, and I like that.
I don't have the rest of this series on hand, but I am definitely interested in reading the rest.