EDITOR'S NOTE: Guest Gary Scott Beatty takes us into the world of Hill House Comics and shares some more of his amazing art with us. It's all Gary from the next sentence until the end . . . . .
Today we drop in on War World, in chapter two of The Maketch Girl over on Webtoons at Gods of Aazurn, a planet at conflict for so long no one can remember its original name.
Gods of Aazurn is here on Webtoons.
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I explore the steps I took years ago to complete this illustration and rip myself a new one talking about how it could have been better, for Patrons on Patreon here. You can join us there, we are a small, disorderly crew.
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Now that a couple of Joe Hill's Hill House comics line from DC are completing their stories I'll offer you my thoughts on the entire line so far.
This can't honestly be called a review, because I enjoyed reading the whole line monthly and I don't, personally, enjoy those kind of articles. Who am I to criticize Joe Hill, writer of Locke and Key? Let's just say if you liked the first few years of Vertigo, the stories there with a horror slant, you'll probably like Hill House Comics.
I am very glad Hill House Comics art is not the current DC house style of line art filled with complex coloring. This is horror and shadows are very important. Each story has its own style but the choice was clear: draw it dark.
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An interesting thread that pulls all of these comics together is the series Sea Dogs that ran, continued, at the end of every Hill House book. The marketing worked -- I subscribed and read every Hill House comic through Comixology, rather than waiting for the trades, because this bonus story was there.
Sea Dogs has a bloody, pulp magazine feel to it. It's 1779, and the American Navy has smuggled werewolves onto the British’s flagship to cause havoc. The historic, war horror story becomes a mystery, as we, and everyone left on board the ship, try to guess who may be murdering their mates.
Since there are only a couple of pages for each chapter, this must have been hell to write, but Hill does a good job of it, stuffing much onto each page. Illustrator Dan McDaid is up to the task. I'm sure I mixed up the chapter order as I read Sea Dogs, and was confused much of the time, but am entirely caught up now. There are fewer (living) characters as the story winds down.
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On the other hand, Basketful of Heads, recently concluded, has plenty of space for mood, character development, and an odd, twisted humor.
June Branch, trapped in a room with four criminals, decides to fight for her life using an 8th-century Viking axe which can cleanly slice through a neck with a single swipe. The weirder thing about this axe is that the severed heads are still alive.
All of these titles have layers to the writing. While many writers would have been satisfied to make Basketful of Heads a simple woman-fights-for-her-life story, Hill brings in the town and its inhabitants' backstories to build a crime drama, then has fun with the premise for some odd humor. Leomacs' art is dynamic but gets the job done. Sometimes you just need a good story told directly.
I'm not picking favorites, but Basketful of Heads is so straightforward and wacky it's high on my list.
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The Dollhouse Family recently concluded with issue six but I wish it could have gone on and on.
Written by Mike Carey, with layouts by Peter Gross and finishes by Vince Locke, The Dollhouse Family follows Alice and a 19-century dollhouse she learns she can enter and spend time with the family who lives there.
This series fits wonderfully into the kind of horror I most like to read: real world setting, Gothic, historical setup, hints of darkness unfolding.
The Carey and Gross team brought us Lucifer, way more complex and interesting than the TV show, and The Unwritten. Lucifer ran for 75 issues and never bored me.
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The Daphne Byrne story is still going, written by Laura Marks, and illustrated by Kelley Jones.
Kelley Jones drew outstanding illustrations in the original The Sandman series and some of the best Batman stories over the last 25 years. His influences are obviously '50s and '60s illustrators who knew that shadows should be dark and solid.
Daphne Byrne is set in late 19th-century New York. Daphne's father died and left her grief-stricken mother asking why. The mother has fallen victim to occultists who promise they can contact her dead husband. Meanwhile, the 14-year-old daughter feels an insidious presence inside her which gives a terrifying power.
This is another Hill House comic that checks the boxes for the kind of horror I most like to read.
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If you like weirdness taking over home town stories you will enjoy The Low, Low Woods.
I like how this plot is all over the place. We're being lead somewhere and I'm happy to go along for the ride. You've read my stories, you know I don't need everything spelled out in a linear plot.
Writer Carmen Maria Machado has a good grasp of her small town characters. Illustrator Dani takes some getting used to, but by issue three it starts coming together for her. Like I said, this is not DC house style, and I personally love exploring different art.
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The Hill House line concludes for now with Plunge, a direct adventure story written by Hill and illustrated by Stuart Immonen. This story is still being told and I'm hooked.
In 1983 a research vessel, the Derleth, disappeared on the edge of the Arctic Circle. 40 years later, the Derleth’s distress signal has surfaced again and a US salvage team – with competition from the Russians – goes in to investigate. Trapped by an arctic storm, the team discovers – things.
Stuart Immonen is a DC veteran that knows how to enhance a good story.
Mainstream comics have been so unstimulating for me lately, and indies so undependable, I am glad I discovered and subscribed to Hill House Comics. There is so much noise out there in the comics world I could have missed it.
Hill said in an interview, "– it’s like this ten-car pile-up of great art coming into my inbox every morning. It doesn’t get much more thrilling than that." Add skilled writing to that assessment and I agree. The Hill House comics are seriously well crafted, a great pleasure to read.
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2020 hasn't been a wash, we're not even half way through! We all have much to think about going forward. Take lessons from the isolation about yourself, what you really need from the world, work, friends and family. Your life, your choices.
Stay safe and be happy. Non-Comic Con Relaxational Week is coming!
In glorious service to our Aazurn overlords,
Gary Scott Beatty
For Gods of Aazurn illustration details, join us on Patreon
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