The Nice House On The Lake #4

The Nice House On The Lake #4

DC Black Label 2021

Written by James Tynion IV

Illustrated by Alaro Martinez Bueno

Coloured by Jordie Bellaire

Lettered by Andworld Design

A terrifying truth about the house is revealed! David wants nothing more than to make his fellow residents of the House laugh. He’s the Comedian, right? That’s what he does. But if no one’s in the mood to laugh, then perhaps it’s time for him to perform the other function of comedy: to tell his audience an unbelievable truth…

Oh my bloody fuckin stars and garters this issue packs in so much emotional and mind blowing storytelling that it’s like I’ve been sucker punched and had my organs rearranged in my body. I mean dayum son. I don’t normally use swear words in my reviews but this one is going to be full of them if this opening is any indication because this is in every way, shape and form the absolute single best issue that I’ve read in my lifetime thus far. How in the bloody hell James manages to keep this series getting better and better with each new issue is beyond me and if this is my reaction to this issue then what can I expect from the next one?

So to me this is bloody brilliant and how the story is told blows me away. 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 that we see through the dialogue, which is fuckin bloody well off the charts, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really allow us to get some great glimpses into what makes these characters tick. Mind you we’re only getting the surface not what is really inside and when that comes phew look out it’ll be like trying to dodge asteroid fragments. The pacing is amazing and how it takes us through the pages pulling us further and further and it’s all thanks to David.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is magnificently portrayed. The kind of depth, dimension and complexity we see within these pages is bloody well electrifying. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

These interiors are practically perfect in every way, to quote Mary Poppins. The style of the work we see is flawless and seamlessly transitions into both visually stunning and incredibly informative, they say a picture is worth a thousand words and boy this subtle subtext we see through the visuals is bloody well amazing. The way we see the backgrounds utilised to enhance and expand the moments and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is utterly magnificent. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masters eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a true understanding of colour and how it works. That we see how colour can be used to its maximum effect and to have such an impact upon what we see is the work of a master colourist.

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The creativity and imagination that we see throughout this book is bloody luminous. The writing is beyond masterful and the characterisation is scary good beyond words and these interiors just indescribably good, damn well bloody mindbogglingly brilliant good. I don’t know what “IT” is but this has it and if this doesn’ sweep every single award category then there is no justice in the world.