Gideon Falls #12 // Review
Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino continue to drag readers through the Black Barn with this modern day horror classic. The psychological thematic runs rampant through the series as Lemire and Sorrentino up the ante and delivers a true masterpiece of artwork to the masses. As the series runs more in-depth, the questions continue to grow, and the existential dread lies in wait. The slow burn of the series is overall it’s gift and curse, providing a vibrant and engaging tale of nightmares while completely shutting out new readers from jumping in at any issue, outside of the very first.
As the new volume begins, Father Burke follows a chase leading into the Black Barn, his own mental landscape is explored as each page wrenches the Priest’s sanity away from his grasp. Further, he delves more rooted in the madness cast upon him as a chase throughout time ensues, and he encounters a very familiar face. With his fleeting mental fortitude, Father Burke must find the killer and his way home beyond this metaphysical labyrinth.
The sheer artistry of Andrea Sorrentino continues to be nothing less than breathtaking, even down to the double page splash of nothing more than barn wood. Every page is meticulous and thought-provoking, able to stand alone as individual pieces of artistry and standing together as more than the sum of their parts. Sorrentino’s ability to bring realism to the pages and juxtapose them with the numerous existential crises ultimately delivers the weight of the series in jaw-dropping fashion. Dave Stewart’s colorwork continues to create the atmosphere synonymous with the series, helping to bring Sorrentino’s artwork screaming off of the pages.
One of the busiest men in comics today, Jeff Lemire, has his pens dipped throughout the industry and creating not only a brand out of his name but an absolute wealth of genre-bending works. From the beginning of the series, the slow burn Lemire has been building towards consistently peaks with every new chapter and adds yet another layer moving forward. Every work he puts out is still another labor of love, the intensity and mystery of this title manage to set it apart from even Lemire’s own works currently on the market.
The spectacle of the series is by far the artistry of Sorrentino, bringing into existence the insanity Lemire puts onto these completely unhinged scripts. From the beautifully rendered depictions of life to the mind-bending landscape from within the Sinclair’s haunted black barn, Sorrentino delivers some of his best work to date. As the series is set to air on television in the future, the overall positive responses to the title bring hope for a rich story with longevity from this fantastic duo.
Grade: A+
