Source Point Press 2021
Written by Joshua Werner
Illustrated by Dustin Irvin
Lettered by Justin Birch
Thought to be one of the most haunted places in the world, The Winchester Mystery House is much more than an architectural wonder. It's a labyrinth full of secrets. Come step inside and hear the house's whispers…
Inspired by true events, this masterfully crafted horror tale written by Joshua Werner and beautifully illustrated by Dustin Irvin takes you into the non-stop construction of "the house that spirits built" and its brilliant and mysterious owner, Sarah Winchester.
The Winchester House is one of the most famous haunted houses, allegedly, in the United States. I’ve not been there so I cannot say this with certainty, however, it is highly reported as being built by Sarah as a place to talk to the dead, avoid death and evil entities through its labyrinth of rooms and deadend hallways and doors that lead nowhere. Why it has taken this long for someone to write a comic centring on it is beyond me but so far what Joshua does with it really manages to capture what we know of its construction. Where this is going to go next and what the story is going to be fully about remains to be seen but this kind of tale is terrifying mainly because it’s based off of a true story.
I’m very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a marvellous job in establishing their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story, the characters and the world they live in only makes us want to know more.
I like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to present themselves. How the layers open up new avenues to be explored and how they add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story is so well achieved. How we see everything working together to create the story's ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.
The interiors here are extremely nice to see. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work that we see is extraordinarily well rendered. We do see a good fair bit of backgrounds being utilised throughout the book but could always use more and they do a great job enhancing and expanding the moments. They also work well within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a superb understanding of how colour works and how to maximise their effects.
The subject matter alone should be intriguing enough to everyone to get you to pick this up and you’ll end up staying because of the sharp writing, witty characterisation and wonderfully solid interiors. If you are a fan of the Winchester House already then you’ll want to see how this unfolds and if you know next to nothing this is a stellar introduction to the house, its mistress and the reason why it was built. This is among the myriad of reasons why I love and support Source Point Press because they put out such strong high quality books that defy expectations.