The Nice House On The Lake #2

The Nice House On The Lake #2

DC Comics Black Label 2021

Written by James Tyinion IV

Illustrated by Alvaro Martinez Bueno

Coloured by Jordie Bellaire

Lettered by Andworld Design

After the life-changing events of the previous issue, the guests at the nice house on the lake must decide their next steps-but there’s not exactly perfect agreement about the situation. Who among them is ready to walk out the door? And who is content to simply…float?

I mean how does one cope with everything that was learned last issue? Shock, disbelief and most of all fear? Those are where I’d start and possibly throw in denial for good measure because there’s that no way is this really happening thought racing through the mind, especially after she hit him with the fireplace poker. That was pretty extreme after all. It also meant that we’d all be back for issue two and we’d have told anyone who would listen just how amazing the first issue was and hopefully they picked it up as well, rinse & repeat. Now that I’m fully engaged in this book there are a gazillion questions running through my head and if he went to high school with some of them then was he fully aware of what was going to happen even back then? Was he an adult the whole time just kind of age regressed to fit in? So many things we don’t have answers to yet.

If you cannot tell I’m in love with 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 exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration or journal entries, the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter is so brilliantly rendered. These characters have fast become people and that’s impressive to me. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it almost feels like we’re becoming a part of it as well.

I like how this is being structured and how we see the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and open thanks the existing avenues and those just opening up before us. Whether these layers work with the main arc or swirl around it they definitely add this depth and complexity to the story. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is beautifully achieved.

The interiors here are absolutely bloody brilliant. The linework is strong, clean and crisp and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to bring out this level & quality of detail work is mindbogglingly brilliant. How we see the backgrounds being utilised throughout makes me a happy camper and then to see them within the composition of the panels bringing us the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is amazingly well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is absolutely gorgeous! The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and colour work show a true master colourist at work.

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The way we are already seeing the group dynamic starting to play itself out and how we’re seeing a hierarchy being established is fascinating to me. Granted having Walter show up to talk to Rick, his old college roommate whom does more for showcasing how Walter touched their lives in this issue than I think a lifetime of explaining couldn’t have done better. This book is sheer brilliance, from the concept to its execution of the writing, characterisation and these mindbogglingly brilliant interiors to this superb lettering. So complex, thought provoking and engaging in all the right ways this is psychological thriller like no other.