The House of Lost Horizons #2

The House of Lost Horizons #2

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Chris Roberson

Illustrated by Leila del Duca

Coloured by Michelle Madsen

Lettered by Clem Robins

The murder mystery continues after another body is discovered! The remaining guests on the storm-ravaged island wake from the same eerie nightmare to find that one of them has been the next victim of a brutal killing! But Sarah and Marie-Therese are starting to suspect that there may be more than one murderer afoot. Who is the killer, and if they're not discovered, who might they target next?

I am really rather loving this book. There is a beautiful mix of diverse and interesting characters and it’s great not knowing who among them will live and who will die. How Chris is able to take on this mystery and tie in the occult in such a smart, intelligent way is an utter delight to read. The way that this is done is bloody brilliant actually and as Sarah and Marie-Therese interrupt the guests with their questions we see who has something to hide and who is an open book and I gotta say misdirection and interpretations being wrong could happen and there is nothing about this that you can take for granted or at face value and that’s where half the fun of this comes into play.

I am a huge fan of 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 exquisitely. The character development is phenomenal and that’s thanks to how we see the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. Don’t ever discount “coffee talk” in the kitchen when you’ve got a group of women together because that is going to be some of the most interesting conversations you are going to see. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we find ourselves drawn into this in some sensational ways.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen is magnificent to see. I love seeing the little bits of characterisation and learning of information because some strengthens the main arc while others just add depth and complexity to the story. The voodoo aspect and who those characters interact is bloody genius if you ask me. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved beautifully.

I love the interiors here and how they bring this era to life so completely and beautifully. The linework is marvellous and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is utterly sensational. The fashion is definitely interesting and Sarah’s moomoo is a definite nono but Marie-Therese’s outfit is darling. How we see the backgrounds being utilised, which we could always see more, to showcase the house as well as provide depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is incredibly well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is gorgeous! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a splendid eye for storytelling. The choices of colours and how the different techniques in laying down the colour is done show an excellent understanding of how colour works.

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A supernatural mystery is something that lends itself beautifully in the Hellboy universe but honestly this is one of those titles that would be a sensational hit whether it was in a shared universe or standing on it’s own two feet. This is just brilliantly done and to see how the story plays out and how the unexpected is even more unexpected keeping the reader on their toes is something that these folks are doing exceedingly well.