Gideon Falls Volume 1: The Black Barn (2018)

Fantastico, finalmente una graphic Novel in grado di tenermi incollato alle pagine da copertina copertina. I personaggi sono originali, la storia avvincente e, anche se un po’ prevedibile, decisamente originale. Unica nota negativa i disegni non mi hanno particolarmente impressionato: a volte hanno una espressività quasi fotografica e altre volte sono appena abbozzati ma l’uso dei colori ha un effetto particolarmente impattante. ( )

The art is beautiful at times, but the story disappoints. It was all tension and buildup to... a confusing third act that led nowhere.

Don't get me wrong. The story has a lot of promise and there's a sense of underlying menace running throughout. However, it doesn't really go anywhere with it, not yet anyway. Perhaps in the second volume? I'll give it a shot but not holding my breath. ( )

A comic shop coworker turned me on to Jeff Lemire's work. I'll be honest, I'd been resisting him for two reasons.

The first is (and I'll fully admit to the stupidity of this) I've seen the artwork for his Sweet Tooth series and hated it. I know absolutely nothing about that series, but the art just turned me off.

The second is the book he did with Gord Downie, late singer of The Tragically Hip. Here, I fully admit to being a shitty Canadian (I don't drink beer, I don't like snow, I despise anything to do with hockey, and three of my least favourite Canadian musicians/bands are Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and The Tragically Hip. So, once again, that means I avoid Lemire.

But my coworker was quite insistent, so I picked up Lemire's Descender series and, while it didn't blow me away, it was entertaining.

Which is a tortuously long way of bringing me around to this series. Now, this is a series I'd actually had my eye on for a while, but we never seemed to have the first volume in stock. When I was finally able to get my hands on the first three volumes, I decided to wade in.

I'm so glad I did. I think I finally get what all the stink is about when it comes to Lemire. He takes his time with the story, quietly and unexpectedly dropping little bombs along the way, knowing exactly where the story may sag a bit, and blowing things up with interesting little clues or revelations.

And the art. Okay, can we just step back for a moment and admire Andrea Sorrentino's magnificent art for a moment? He's fucking incredible. Once again, his art comes on in a very understated way (but occasionally, he'll flip a panel 90 degrees, or 180 degrees, just to show the reader that things are not right here). But as the series carries on, his art becomes more abstract on occasion, deftly providing a visual equivalent to Lemire's words about this mad world. Hell, he almost gets Ditko on us in spots, and I love it.

So, while this first volume only sets up more and more questions, answering none, I am all in for this ride. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is the first volume in the Gideon falls series. I believe there are six volumes in this series. I got this as a birthday gift.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed the first volume of this series. The illustration is done in a dark and sketchy style that fits the tone of the book perfectly. Some of the frames are laid out in a very creative way making this a truly artistic masterpiece of a graphic novel. You can tell a lot of thought went into how the illustrations and panels are presented and I really appreciated and enjoyed that aspect.

The story is dark and eerie and I love the strange psychological elements to it. Basically, you have two different men (and at the end other people too) who are drawn to this strange black barn in the town of Gideon Falls. The story explores madness, death, evil and is truly mind-bending and strangely compelling. I can’t help but get flashbacks to the Locke and Key series; they are very different stories but similar in tone.

Despite the different POVs and the jumping around, the story is cohesive and easy to follow. There is an eerie mystery here that really makes you think. The characters are all kind of disastrous people but still strangely engaging.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel and definitely plan on continuing the series. The artwork and story are so thoughtfully put together and the story is darkly compelling. I am dying to know what happens next and eager to see how far down this evil rabbit hole our characters end up falling. This is so creepy, but in a good mentally challenging way! ( )