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May 04, 2009 Web Exclusive By Kyle Lemmon

House of Mystery was a staple DC anthology of the mid-1950s. Over the years the faces have changed but the premise remains fairly the same: put a bunch of people into a big scary house with plenty of mansards and macabre. This 2008 reboot by Jack of Fables writers Mathew Sturges and Bill Willingham infuses plenty of novel ideas and characters into this rather stale horror trope. The malignant caretakers of the 1968 iteration of House of Mystery, aptly named Cain and Abel, make a quick cameo at the beginning of Room & Boredom. From then on, readers are introduced to the small cadre of patrons that inhabit their strange environs: a bar "at the crossroads of reality."

Vertigo's discounted trade collects the first five issues of the monthly series and does a skillful job at introducing its premise: the first drink's on the house but customers must tell stories as recompense for their food and drink. The floundering architecture student Bethany "Fig" Keele is the latest visitor. After being chased by a mysterious pair of floating apparitions, she meets the house she's been obsessively dreaming and drawing about. The other regulars trapped in the creaky house include the moxie-filled bouncer Ann Preston, the self-proclaimed "charming rogue" Poet, a pirate, the jealous waitress Cress, and bartender Harry Bailey.

A comparable milieu propelled Sandman: World's End, but this House of Mystery's self-contained stories add a touch of whimsy to the frightful canvas. Apart from the always unraveling main plot, each guest artist's yarn, told across the barstools, are absurdly entertaining. Some of the best include an orphan making love to a gigantic fly, vampire cats, and a rollerblading snow leopard that devours the lovers of a witch princess. Ample doses of farce and terror are interlaced throughout, but Sturges and Willingham flesh out compelling characters and a yarn worthy of another nip of spirits. (www.clockworkstorybook.net, www.dccomics.com/vertigo)

Author rating: 7/10