Faster than a DC Bullet: The Houses of Mystery and Secrets, Part XV: House of Mystery: Conception

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2011 (contents: 2010-11)
Borrowed from the library
Read February 2014

House of Mystery: Conception

Writer: Matthew Sturges

Artists: Luca Rossi, Werther Dell'Edera, José Marzán, Jr.
Colorists: Lee Loughridge, Brandon Graham, Trish Mulvihill
Letterer: Todd Klein
Short Story Writers: Matt Wagner, Peter Milligan, Chris Roberson, Mike Carey
Short Story Artists: Marley Zarcone, Enrique Breccia, David Lloyd, Ulises Farinas, Gene Ha, Brandon Graham, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Michael Allred, Peter Gross, Stefano Landini
Short Story Colorists: Laura Allred, Daniel Vozzo
Short Story Letterers: Jared K. Fletcher, Sal Cipriano

The title of this volume implies answers, but they're in short supply. Or rather, meaningful answers are. Or rather, I think I'd care if anything had ever made any sense-- finding out what the Conception are up to only really matters if previously we'd ever been given anything to grab onto beyond "They're so mysterious!" There is half-hearted attempt at a cast page this time, but it's too little, too late. Fig and Cain spend most of this volume getting from one side of a house to another. And for some reason, the House of Secrets is in the Goblin Market now, and Abel is trying to run a bar out of it. Why? Who knows. Allegedly these characters ran a bar together in the House of Mystery because they couldn't leave, but now they're out and giving it a try regardless.

Still: there's some good short stories here. "The Mystery of the Missing Ghost" is a pretty uninventive Encyclopedia Brown pastiche and "Murder Most Foul"'s joke is ruined by the fact that Enrique Breccia's renditions of the characters are unrecognizable, but "Great Artists Steal" is creepy in the way that an old-time House of Mystery story would be (making it quite appropriate that Cain tells this one himself), while "Bloodsucker" is yet another awesomely terrible film script, and "Necessary Evil" is a delightful piece of metafiction.

The best part of this volume, as in The Beauty of Decay, is the special Halloween issue in the back, which sees a group of strange trick-or-treaters visiting not just the House of Mystery (where Fig is dressed as Supergirl!), but also Madame Xanadu, John Constantine, the girl from iZombie, and (best of all) Lucifer and Gaudium! Whoo! Now there's a real treat. Bring back Gaudium.

Faster than a DC Bullet: The Houses of Mystery and Secrets, Part XIV: House of Mystery: Safe As Houses

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2011 (contents: 2010)
Borrowed from the library
Read January 2014

House of Mystery: Safe As Houses

Writer: Matthew Sturges

Artists: Luca Rossi, Werther Dell'Edera, José Marzán, Jr.
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Todd Klein
Short Story Artists: Cristiano Cucina, Brendan McCarthy, Phil Noto, Esao Andrews, Carine Brancowitz

Like Under New Management, this book actually has its own discernible plot, which is a definite plus. I didn't always understand Fig's actions, and I think the return of the princess from "Familiar" in Room & Boredom is pretty random, but on the other hand, Tursig the gay goblin, who's pretty much just been a background bar patron up until this point, really comes into his own in this volume, and I also enjoyed the second look at Poet's origins, this time taking us to the Crimean War. I do think Cain is kind of squandered here-- why did Sturges bring him back if he's going to have so little to do with anything?

Overall, it's one of the better volumes. Things I loved: the explanation for why time travel in the DC universe is always a spiral with calendar pages going by, as seen in so many Legion of Super-Heroes tales; the short story "Long Strange Trip" by Matthew Sturges and Brendan McCarthy, where a Vietnam soldier becomes a sorcerer while tripping on LSD (best line: "I'm not enlightened-- I'm just tripping my ass off!" or "I learned the true names of stones and flowers and soybeans and hamsters and copper wires and jeeps and cups of coffee. It was a lot of fucking names." or the last one, which I won't spoil); Tursig's rendition of the classic goblin folk tale, "The Story about a Goblin Who Loved Babies and Also There Is a Hunter in It"; and the short story "Lotus Blossom's Theory of Names" by Matthew Sturges and Carrie Brancowitz, which is three pages of handwriting, but perfectly readable and has a foreseeable but still effective "twist."

Faster than a DC Bullet: The Houses of Mystery and Secrets, Part XII: House of Mystery: The Beauty of Decay

Comic trade paperback, 160 pages
Published 2010 (contents: 2009-10)
Borrowed from the library
Read January 2014

House of Mystery: The Beauty of Decay

Writer: Matthew Sturges

Artists: Luca Rossi, Werther Dell'Edera, José Marzán, Jr., Andrew Pepoy, Joe Rubinstein
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Todd Klein
Short Story Writers: Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Peter Milligan, Chris Roberson, Matt Wagner
Short Story Artists: Richard Corben, Al Davison, Jeff Lemire, Antonio Fuso, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Mark Buckingham, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Michael Allred, Amy Reeder Hadley, Kevin Nowlan, Stefano Landini, Richard Friend
Short Story Colorists: Dave McCaig, Laura Allred, Guy Major
Short Story Letterers: Sal Cipriano, Jared K. Fletcher

About a month (for me) passed between this and the previous volume of House of Mystery, and I was pretty confused. I can't imagine what it was like to read these collections as they came out! Sturges takes very little effort to remind us who the characters are, where they came from, what they want, or anything really. In this volume, the status quo changes a lot... but I hadn't even gotten used to the last one! Now the House is in an abandoned city or something? And there's ghosts? And the Administrator, the Conception, and Cain all have competing plans? And Fig's dad is still up to no good? But somehow Fig strikes a deal? I don't know; the metaplot here is vague and uninteresting. Either it can't be followed, or I just don't care to follow it.

A lot of good interspersed short stories, though: "The Hounds of Titus Roan" is pretty harrowing, while it's nice to get some background on poet. And, fantasically, the cockroach Brutus seen in his youthful prime two volumes back has already passed into legend and song:

"That was some story. Do you think it's true?"
"That there was a day weeks and weeks ago when garbage was scarce? Naw. That's just one of Grandpa's silly stories."

"Spellbound," about the dangers of reading, was probably my favorite: lush Michael Wm. Kaluta artwork.

The best part of this volume is the Halloween-themed story in the back, set at an earlier point in the series history, before the House was launched into the Space Between. Fig finds a creepy mask in the House, and we see the mask on many earlier Halloween nights: discarded by Merv Pumpkinhead in the Dreaming, ruining the life of John Constantine's friend, hiding a sadistic killer from a zombie, derailing the life of a child that Madame Xanadu must save. They're nice, creepy snippets of other series, other worlds, with good art and distinctive voices. If only the House of Mystery had maintained this fruitful status quo for longer.

Plus, you know, Merv-- still the third-best Sandman character.