In Issue #3 of the Dollhouse Family, we see the Dollhouse through the ages.
This title, from Joe Hill’s Hill House imprint, itself from DC’s Black Label, gets all the years involved. It’s multilevel horror, and we need to hold onto our hats.
There’s the bat creature down in the cave (I love caves by the way) who talks to the huge ember coloured guy who lies down. There’s the Victorian age household with death hanging out. Then there’s Alice Dealey, picking up a guy at a London dance club in 1998. A lot of moving parts to be sure.
It’s hard to follow without a program, frankly. Although brilliantly written by Mike Carey, perhaps there’s TOO much going on. We go from three or four-time frames, and change geographical location, turning on a dime. But my money’s on the artwork by Peter Gross and Vince Locke, who portray creepy scenes in a ‘normalizing’ way and portray ‘normal’ scenes in a creepy way. Effectively they bring the visual bookends together to help us stay in the mood. Good colour by Cris Peter.
This story of the Dollhouse family that never lets go of a good thing is a gripper. Aye, that. But seriously, it’s hard to keep track of multiple families in different time settings. Makes you want to refer back to previous issues to get one’s bearings. Which unfortunately this reviewer is unable to do, speaking of time and lost memories from the past.
Includes paper cut-outs of the characters in the backup feature, Sea Dogs. Not a story; two pages of paper cut-outs. Seriously.
DC Black Label, The Dollhouse Family #3 (of 6), $3.99 for 24 pages of story. Mature
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