I have a theory that if you’re ever looking for a good comic, your best bet is to read anything written by an author who has worked on Swamp Thing. Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, Brian K. Vaughn, the list goes on and on. Every writer who has worked with the anthropomorphic pile of leaves always goes on to find great success, including the New 52 Swamp Thing writer, Jeff Lemire. Having handled both his own creations and company-owned work, Lemire has climbed the ranks of talented comic writers and is on everyone’s “who’s who” list of writers to watch. Gideon Falls is no exception. A bizarre story of obsession and possession, his newest horror work scratches deep into the recesses of human experience and brings back all those strange little things we tried to hide. Trust me, you’re going to want to add this to your comic box.
Gideon Falls revolves around two men who have yet to meet. One is a reclusive, ex-mental patient who spends his days collecting various nails and pieces of wood around his city. Convinced that they are a message from God, he keeps everything he collects in glass jars, hoping that in time, the answers will come to him. The second man is Father Fred, a down-and-out priest who gets assigned to the small town of Gideon Falls after the town’s pastor mysteriously dies. While the two men have no idea the other exists, bizarre visions begin to plague them both, culminating in a shared vision of a strange Black Barn that brings madness where ever it goes.
Gideon Falls is an interesting read. Much like Lemire’s other work, it doesn’t simply sit on the surface of a story, happy to tell a straight tale about a weird barn and some sad guys. Even at this early stage of the work, Lemire is already establishing a world as deep and unsettling as our own. Norton, the recluse, struggles with a very obvious mental disorder, but Lemire makes you wonder, how much of it is insanity and how much is really a vision from God? It’s interesting the connection he establishes between being a crazy and being a saint, something that very well could’ve gotten Norton’s image engraved in church windows for the rest of eternity if it wasn’t for a doctor telling him he was batshit nuts. This point is only further illustrated by Father Fred, whose faith is only made up by how much liquor is in his scotch bottle. Together, they prove that madness and faith sometimes goes hand-in-hand, much like the man on the corner screaming about the end of days.
On the illustration end, Andrea Sorrentino re-joins Lemire after working with him on Green Arrow and Old Man Logan. The art is appropriate to the story but it’s not very interesting visually and seems to lack that certain pop that would really drive the work home. There’s no real sense of refinement, almost as if he stopped short of filling in the last details, and the character faces all share a dreary, slightly open-mouthed expression of boredom. That’s not say it’s all bad though. There are some various interesting panel layouts with Sorrentino frequently putting one of the leads upside down in reflection of them connecting across a thousand miles. But, aside from interesting angle choices, there’s not much to write home about. It feels like Lemire is doing a lot of the heavier lifting on this particular comic.
But, despite any illustration short-comings, this is a great read and at least deserves a looking at. Out now from Image Comics!