Who's Joe Hill? He's a writer of horror novels and comic books. He also happens to be Stephen King's son. Several of his works have been adapted for the screen, most notably his comic book series Locke & Key. His real name is Joseph Hillstrom King.
Hill House Comics? It's a line of DC horror comics that fall within the larger DC Black Label imprint which replaced Vertigo. The collection discussed here includes all of the Hill House comics with the exception of Refrigerator Full of Heads, which is a recent sequel to the earlier Basketful of Heads.
The individual books/comic book series in this collection are:
1. Basketful of Heads
A young woman stumbles upon an ancient ax with horrifying properties. Joe Hill wrote the story with art by Leomacs. Its the funniest book in this collection, it's well paced, and the conclusion is satisfying.
2. The Dollhouse Family
A family suffers the presence of a sinister dollhouse. M.R. Carey wrote the script, with art by Peter Gross and Vince Locke. This one was my favorite by far. It would make an excellent movie.
3. The Low, Low Woods
Two girls living in a dying town discover a disturbing secret. Carmen Maria Machado served as writer, with Dani illustrating. I liked it, but parts of the story seemed a little unfocused. I think the writer could have pulled it together more tightly in terms of theme.
4. Daphne Byrne
A lonely young girl strikes up a friendship with an otherworldly being. Laura Marks wrote with Kelley Jones (!) on art. It's a very solid effort overall, and it reminded me how much I missed Jones' work on Deadman.
5. Plunge
A salvage crew runs into trouble off the coast of Russia. Joe Hill wrote the story, with Stuart Immonen providing the best art in this collection. It borrows a bit too much from other stories, and the little nods to John Carpenter's The Thing weren't helping. Definitely not bad, but it's juggling too many balls at the same time.
6. Sea Dogs
This was originally a backup feature for Basketful of Heads. It was also written by Joe Hill and features art by Dan McDaid. It reminded me a lot of the old EC comics (Tales from the Crypt, etc.), but its tongue in cheek tone is more of a liability than an asset. I suppose that many will find it goofy fun, but it wasn't working for me.
And that's it. With the exception of Sea Dogs I'd say that all of these comics are worth reading, some (of course) more than others. I'm not a big reader of horror comics, but I'd be glad to read more Hill House titles in the future.
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