Reviews
House of Whispers #1 by John Rauch, Sean Murray, Maika Sozo, Aneke, Nalo Hopkinson, Dominike Stanton
magdalenahai's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Mainio Nalo Hopkinsonin ja Neil Gaimanin yhdessä kirjoittama ja Dominike Stantonin kuvittama tarinakudelma lisää Sandman-universumiin. Voodoojumalia ja globaalia pandemiaa vuodelta 2019(!).
delmaamoun's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
mushimilda's review
3.0
C'est la série des Sandman Universe qui me tentait le plus. Pour l'instant j'attends de voir comment ça évolue, c'est intéressant mais pas encore à la hauteur de mes attentes.
kimswhims's review
4.0
This hovers at a high 3.
Maybe a 3.8
Detailed colourful drawings of voodoo deities and souls that are captured in The Dreaming leaving the walking dead on Earth. An original story-line.
Slightly obscure and confusing, which didn't really add to the reading experience.
Maybe a 3.8
Detailed colourful drawings of voodoo deities and souls that are captured in The Dreaming leaving the walking dead on Earth. An original story-line.
Slightly obscure and confusing, which didn't really add to the reading experience.
lsmith36's review
4.0
Beautiful art, unique style, and story, but not really engaging yet. I'll probably read another issue to see if it catches my interest more before I commit to finishing the series.
naiadtales's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
Great introduction! I'm very interested in seeing house this plays out
andreablythe's review
5.0
Neil Gaiman's The Sandman is one of my all-time favorite comic book series. When I learned that the characters would live on through stories told by different authors, I was both excited and wary. However, with Nalo Hopkinson (who is known for putting a Carribean spin on fantasy and horror), I knew the story would be in good hands. Her take, The House of Whispers is phenomenal, with gorgeous illustrations by DOMO.
When the Dreaming begins to be disturbed by unusual occurrences, it unleashes strange affects upon the worlds — releasing a strange magical pandemic that makes people to believe they are already dead and causing Erzulie, a deity of voodoo mythology, to crash into the Dreaming. I love all of the characters, all the additions to the world building. I fully appreciate this new perspective. I've only read volume one, but I haven't been this excited about a comic series in a long time. I can't wait to dive into more.
When the Dreaming begins to be disturbed by unusual occurrences, it unleashes strange affects upon the worlds — releasing a strange magical pandemic that makes people to believe they are already dead and causing Erzulie, a deity of voodoo mythology, to crash into the Dreaming. I love all of the characters, all the additions to the world building. I fully appreciate this new perspective. I've only read volume one, but I haven't been this excited about a comic series in a long time. I can't wait to dive into more.
silky_octopus's review
4.0
This was probably the most interesting of the comics I read this week. Three-quarters of it takes place inside Ezrulie's ... palace? home? I'm not sure quite what to call it, but on the outside, it looks like a two-storey swamp shack built out of wood, while on the inside, it's some kind of palace inhabited by Ezrulie, her relatives, and the dreaming forms of all of those who worship her and gather amidst some kind of frenetic, frenzied party/celebration/invocation. Holding court, Ezrulie is petitioned by those who want her favour and attended to by her husband, who brought his own dinner - live prawns, which he seasons with misery and fear to make the flavour more piquant.
The other quarter or so of the book takes place inside an apartment where three teenagers are playing around with a book, and inadvertently attract the attention of a voodoo spirit associated with plagues and viruses, vexing Ezrulie with its misbehaviour.
The book does some interesting things in this first issue; the idea of memes as a virus is one of the more obvious ones, but I also liked smaller touches, like the way the book took one trope - a woman wants Ezrulie to make a man fall in love with her - and avoided the predictable plotline, whereby said man would become obsessive and the woman would declare that wasn't what she wanted. Instead, the petitioner is well-aware of that pitfall; she doesn't want Ezrulie to make the man fall in love with her; he's already interested, and she just wants Ezrulie to give him a nudge, so that he'll act on those feelings. When Ezrulie warns that the man in question isn't a good man, the petitioner argues that she knows he isn't, but that she's basically sure she can fix him, bring out his better nature - and so, in avoiding the initial, obvious trope, instead deliberately highlights something depressingly common: a woman who believes she can change someone's character, and is instead being set up for a painful fall. There's a lot of unspoken commentary there about how common such patterns are.
I liked how the book managed to emphasize that Ezrulie's world is a dark and dangerous one in many ways; her husband is perhaps the most obvious example of that, but there's an undertone of menace running throughout the first issue. Ezrulie and the other gods and beings of her world are powerful and dangerous, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the story as it rolls forward, as I'm not particularly familiar with the mythology of the various practises that fall under the umbrella of voodoo. One touch I did like was seeing a couple of men dancing together wearing nothing but womens' stockings and underwear in one of the wide-shots of the revelry going on; not just because it adds emphasis that Ezrulie's world is a place where you don't want to lie, by act or by word, but also because of the fact that they were simply there. Rates of violence against African-American trans women or femme men are extremely high, even in comparison to similar communities amongst the white population, so seeing them in Ezrulie's realm felt powerful - after all, isn't voodoo entirely about a place and a power that was born in and from oppression?
Of the titles I read this week, this is the one I'm still thinking about; I'm not sure if I'm going to like the story, but I think it's going to be fascinating, and I'm really glad Vertigo are taking a chance and publishing it. Wherever it goes, it'll be interesting - although possibly not to anyone who just wants to read comics about a couple of angry white guys punching each other and angsting about how hard their lives are.
The other quarter or so of the book takes place inside an apartment where three teenagers are playing around with a book, and inadvertently attract the attention of a voodoo spirit associated with plagues and viruses, vexing Ezrulie with its misbehaviour.
The book does some interesting things in this first issue; the idea of memes as a virus is one of the more obvious ones, but I also liked smaller touches, like the way the book took one trope - a woman wants Ezrulie to make a man fall in love with her - and avoided the predictable plotline, whereby said man would become obsessive and the woman would declare that wasn't what she wanted. Instead, the petitioner is well-aware of that pitfall; she doesn't want Ezrulie to make the man fall in love with her; he's already interested, and she just wants Ezrulie to give him a nudge, so that he'll act on those feelings. When Ezrulie warns that the man in question isn't a good man, the petitioner argues that she knows he isn't, but that she's basically sure she can fix him, bring out his better nature - and so, in avoiding the initial, obvious trope, instead deliberately highlights something depressingly common: a woman who believes she can change someone's character, and is instead being set up for a painful fall. There's a lot of unspoken commentary there about how common such patterns are.
I liked how the book managed to emphasize that Ezrulie's world is a dark and dangerous one in many ways; her husband is perhaps the most obvious example of that, but there's an undertone of menace running throughout the first issue. Ezrulie and the other gods and beings of her world are powerful and dangerous, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the story as it rolls forward, as I'm not particularly familiar with the mythology of the various practises that fall under the umbrella of voodoo. One touch I did like was seeing a couple of men dancing together wearing nothing but womens' stockings and underwear in one of the wide-shots of the revelry going on; not just because it adds emphasis that Ezrulie's world is a place where you don't want to lie, by act or by word, but also because of the fact that they were simply there. Rates of violence against African-American trans women or femme men are extremely high, even in comparison to similar communities amongst the white population, so seeing them in Ezrulie's realm felt powerful - after all, isn't voodoo entirely about a place and a power that was born in and from oppression?
Of the titles I read this week, this is the one I'm still thinking about; I'm not sure if I'm going to like the story, but I think it's going to be fascinating, and I'm really glad Vertigo are taking a chance and publishing it. Wherever it goes, it'll be interesting - although possibly not to anyone who just wants to read comics about a couple of angry white guys punching each other and angsting about how hard their lives are.
More...