It sits at the crossroads of reality, as it has since before time was measured. All who can find the House are welcome to enter. But not all who enter may leave.

House of Mystery: Room & Boredom
Publisher: Vertigo
Writer: Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham
Artist: Luca Rossi
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Todd Klein

123 Pages│$9.99│Full Color│Mature Readers

Summary: It sits at the crossroads of reality, as it has since before time was measured. All who can find the House are welcome to enter. But not all who enter may leave. Meet the five lost souls who unwillingly make the House their home. They’ll show you its forgotten hallways and its darkest rooms – if they don’t kill themselves trying to escape that is.

Fortunately, the House attracts only the finest storytellers, who settle up their bar bills using stories as currency. From strange new worlds to former dimensions in time, these patrons don’t hold back, sharing tales replete with horror, hunger, meat and murder.

So come on in, meet the staff, and rest your weary bones. The first drink is on the House.

Review: If you know DC, you know the House of Mystery. A staple of the DC universe, The House of Mystery (an actual house) made its debut as the center of an anthology of horror titles in the mid-1950s. Its form and function has evolved over the years, but the basic premise of the house generally stays the same. The House of Mystery is ever-changing, supernatural in origin, and very very dangerous.

In May of 1968 the House of Mystery as many fans know it was established with the introduction of two caretakers – Cain and Able. The brothers committed to watching over the puzzling property and its sister estate the House of Secrets. Each took refuge in a different house, connected by a graveyard at the center.

But the House of Mystery has not been confined to just it’s namesake series. If the names above ring a bell (apart from the biblical ties), it’s because Cain and Able made several appearances as the caretakers in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Additionally, well known DC characters such as Superman and Batman have interacted with the house in one incarnation or another. Elvira even had a short stint as caretaker in the mid-80s.

Elvira knows a think or two about the supernatural

So needless to say, the series had an established fanbase prior to the 2008 revamp provided by Mathew Sturges and Bill Willingham. While I can’t attest to the reception of the new series by these longtime fans, I can vouch that Room & Boredom is a gripping read I couldn’t seem to put down.

This incarnation of the House of Mystery tale follows five key characters: a poet, a pirate, a bartender, a drama queen and a newcomer by the name of Fig. Fig – the heroine of the tale – lead a fairly normal life, except for the fact that she has been haunted by the image of a house since childhood. She can draw the house backwards and forwards, and the obsession eventually lead her to study architecture.

In the opening panel we find Fig being chased down a street by two shrouded individuals who are obviously supernatural in origin. They call to Fig, implying that they wish to protect her, but the bizarre sight causes Fig to flee – as we all would. She runs until she finds a door. A door that leads into a bar. A bar inside what we know as the House of Mystery. And just like that, in the very first pages, the world becomes bat-shit crazy.

Just before Fig’s arrival in the bar, the scene is one of celebration. The bar patrons – comprised of everything from an astronaut to a pirate – toast a sullen woman in the center of the room. She is leaving the house, having been selected by a masked coachman who is the only contact any of the prisoners have with the outside world. They celebrate her departure, despite not knowing what her future holds. Some are even jealous of her, willing to risk death for the promise of change after years and years of purgatory.

This is why excitement fills the room like electricity when Fig enters through the door. Cress however – the drama queen – plays it cool. She simply walks over to Fig and begins to recite the rules. She begins by explaining that the House of Mystery is a mystical place located at a supernatural crossroads between many worlds. Anyone who can find it is welcome to enter. Leaving isn’t as easy. She warns that religion and politics can be touchy subjects, but that sex is okay, as long as it’s not on the bar tables. She also divulges that stories are currency around these parts, as everyone has an abundance of time and no need for money.

The art is simple and stylized, but gets the job done.

Fig seems to take the transition well, perhaps aided by the especially strong drink served to her by Cress. After making the rounds and being introduced to some colorful characters, she heads to her room, which was created automatically by the house upon her arrival. In the morning the rose-tinted glasses have been lifted, and as many before her, Fig panics and begins several feeble attempts to leave the house. Some patrons watch in amusement, others are saddened by the hopelessness that they themselves have felt.

But something is different with Fig. While she is just as confined as the others, the house seems to respond to her. She is caught speaking to it when alone. She begins to realize that the house that holds her is the house that she has been drawing since she was young. Evidently Fig has a much larger role to play in the House of Mystery than was originally anticipated. The story unfolds under this basic premise. Fig dives deeper into her relationship with the house, trying to solve its mysteries and escape all at once.

One of the best parts of the book is that the main plot is broken up by stories told by patrons. Some patrons tell of how they arrived at the House of Mystery, others create works of fiction. Each story is self-contained and fantastic in nature, with unique artwork to complement the tale. Similar to the main plot, each story is nonsensical and bizarre. One even includes a shark/horse/bat amalgamation, vampire cats and a rollerblading leopard. All these appearances automatically dictate that the book is full of win.

But in all seriousness, Sturges and Willingham flesh out compelling characters and an incredible mystery just waiting to be solved. Both make me unprecedentedly eager to get my hands on the next issue. My only complaint is that the book seemed to end a bit abruptly – just as the strings were beginning to unravel.

Bottom line? House of Mystery: Room & Boredom is like nothing I have read before. It mixes fantasy and horror, the luxurious and grotesque and the ordinary and  extraordinary. If Sturges and Willingham were ever to find themselves as patrons in an inescapable bar, their ability to weave engaging stories would keep them lush for a lifetime.

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