Tag: graphic novel

Hill House Comics: A Look at Daphne Byrne and The Dollhouse Family

A few years ago, Joe Hill joined forces with DC Comics’ Black Label and cultivated his own line of horror comics. The series launched with Basketful of Heads, written by Hill himself. The line continued in the following months with The Dollhouse Family; The Low, Low Woods; Daphne Byrne; and Plunge. I decided to start my journey into Hill House with Daphne Bryne.

This would prove to be a poor decision.

Daphne Byrne, written by Laura Marks, follows fourteen year-old Daphne in the mourning period after her father’s untimely death. Set in New York in 1886, the setting is perfect for the spiritualist background of the story. Daphne’s mother is drawn in by a charlatan medium who claims to converse with her dead husband and will not believe her daughter’s attempts to disprove the woman. Daphne watches as her mother wastes their dwindling coin and wrestles with troubling dreams she is beginning to have, about a young man who claims to be her friend, but who also appears to her during the daytime as well.

On the surface, Daphne Byrne sounded great and I wanted to love this story. What I got instead was a mess of convoluted ideas, many of which never went anywhere and they did absolutely nothing to advance the story. At best this was derivative of Rosemary’s Baby and honestly, it was barely passable as a cohesive narrative. Unless you are a series completist, I can’t think of any reason to recommend this title.

The bar was set low for Hill House Comics.

The Dollhouse Family, written by M.R. Carey, was my next dive into this curated graphic novel line. This story follows Alice who inherits a beautiful 19th-century dollhouse from an estranged great aunt. Alice quickly falls in love with the house and the little antique dolls inside. It’s not long before she realizes that she can magically enter the house and interact with the dolls. What starts off as a joyous escape quickly becomes a nightmare as Alice discovers the Black Room and what it asks of her to do.

Aaaand we are back on track.

The Dollhouse Family was exactly what I wanted Hill House Comics to be – dark, haunting, mysterious, cohesive – you get the picture. Dollhouse delivered with demons, a mystery, and nods to Alice in Wonderland, while still maintaining its own identity. In Alice, we have a character who takes no guff and delivers as a solid protagonist. I genuinely liked this story and would recommend it for Sandman fans. There are parts of this story that made me think of the Gaiman classic quite a few times.

Thanks to The Dollhouse Family, my faith has not been completely lost in Hill House Comics. I will be continuing on next with Basketful of Heads.

Junji Ito: Master of Horror Manga

Gyo (volumes 1-2) & Shiver

As I begin to dip my toes into the horror community on Twitter and BookTube, I have been seeing one name pop up over and over again in conversations about horror comics: Junji Ito. Uzumaki is the title that tends to pop up the most frequently, but as I was strolling through my local library, I happened upon these two titles and decided to check them out.

Click on cover art to purchase from bookshop.org.

Gyo is a 2-volume series about a virus developed during WWII that was intended to become weaponized. Tadashi and Kaori are taking a little getaway in Okinawa when fish with crab-like legs begin walking out of the ocean after a mysterious object shoots into the water. I don’t want to give too much away, but Gyo is, in truth, far funnier than it is scary. The body horror and the violence is so over-the-top that it becomes ridiculous, and if you are a horror veteran, you will find yourself laughing much more often than you will be getting any chills.

Overall, Gyo was a 4/5 Star Read for me – not because it was scary, but because it was so excessive and exaggerated. I had a fun time reading both volumes and was entertained for a few hours – that’s really what this is about in the end, right?

Shiver, on the other hand, is a large collection of short stories, almost all of which are quite creepy. Junji Ito provides commentary, story development notes, and sketches for every piece in this collection. It was amazing to me to read how an abstract thought, a portion of a childhood memory, or a dream could produce these tales. While there are different horror elements present in this collection, body horror is the most prevalent.

Click on the cover art to purchase from bookshop.org.

Standout stories for me were Honored Ancestors, about a girl with amnesia and a boy whose family tree never truly dies; Hanging Blimp; about a phenomenon that seems to start with a pop idol committing suicide; Marionette Mansion; about a family of performers and their marionettes; and Shiver; the only story to truly creep me out because of my trypophobia – I simply cannot handle small holes.

5/5 Star Review for this anthology – Shiver was an enjoyable and sometimes a truly terrifying read.

I know body horror, and even comics, are not for everyone – but if these don’t get under your skin – I highly recommend you check out Juni Ito . I will be reading everything that I can get my hands on!