This week, I had the opportunity to take another dive into the dark and gritty world of the Bone Orchard Mythos with The Bone Orchard Mythos: Tenement #1 from Image Comics. Does it deliver like Ten Thousand Black Feathers before it? Let’s find out.

 

 

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Andrea Sorrentino

Colorist: David Stewart

Letterer and Designer: Steve Wands

Editor: Greg Lockard

 

This issue introduces us to seven people that will be featuring into the story Lemire and Sorrentino intend to tell, and to the interpersonal relationships at play between them. All seven live inside this tenement, and each comes with their own baggage. As we are given brief glimpses into each of their lives, it becomes clear that what binds them is more than the place they live, and is more sinister than any of them could possibly know. 

 

Lemire and Sorrentino have already proven very adept at character craft and world-building, so I found it very easy to be drawn into this issue. It’s also the little details that start from the front cover that are so very interesting, and I think, important. The seven lighted windows on the cover echoing the seven characters we meet are no less important than the mirroring of some of the letters in the title. If my experience with their previous entry in the Bone Orchard Mythos holds true, no small detail will be unimportant on this journey. Sorrentino goes above and beyond with these characters, and no detail is overlooked. We are given expressive characters who don’t need dialogue bubbles to convey emotion. The art is also notably different than TTBF, while also distinctly Sorrentino, showing a real commitment on her part to the idea of telling different stories in different ways while exploring a shared universe. While the “real” world we explore is bleak (but beautiful), the glimpses we get into the other side are terrifying and menacing, with malice practically leaping off the page. Lemire once again delivers flawed characters with apparent depth, and doesn’t shy away from the ugliness of the human condition. Yet, he also gives us relationships that we can relate to, with hope, worry, and wonder also lying beneath the surface. It quickly becomes clear that one of these residents is clearly clued in (at least in some way) to what really may be going on, but what is more curious is the choice he makes in who he may trust above all with his secrets. Lemire and Sorrentino are quickly becoming names that I think will be associated very positively with the horror genre. This is to say nothing of Stewart and his continued wonderful work with color. The brilliant use of shadows and hues of color to play off of light and darkness, as well as the equally startling use of lighter colors like yellow and white, show evidence of an artist that really knows how to utilize color to underscore a story. 

 

Lemire, Sorrentino and Stewart once again leave me enthralled, and continue a trail of excellence that will redefine horror for the next generation.

 

Rating:

ComicsOnline gives The Bone Orchard Mythos: Tenement #1 – 5 out of 5 mysterious keys!