Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artist: Ian Bertram, Cover Artist: Ian Bertram
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

It’s not often you get to read a debut issue that just screams out to become a classic series but House of Penance #1 could just be that issue.

In House of Penance #1, the Winchester House is an architectural abomination with doorways and staircases that lead nowhere – based on historical fact. Set in 1905, the lady of the house, Sarah Winchester of the famous Winchester rifles family and seems to have just as many bats in her belfry as the house itself, again, factually correct.

Traumatised by the death of her husband and daughter, Sarah has their remains exhumed and transported to the Winchester House for a proper burial as an army of workmen labour to re-model the house to her exacting instructions.

Warren Peck massacres peaceful Native Americans for a living and when one of his missions goes wrong he needs a place to hide. He picks the Winchester House even if it means surrendering his firearms because Sarah, surprisingly, will have no weapons in the house. It’s a decision that Warren and Sarah both may come to regret.

House of Penance #1 deliberately raises more questions than it answers but boy do you want to know what those answers are. Moody, magnificent and spooky as heck, Tomasi and Bertram have created a true monster, we just don’t know who it is or what it wants but I predict it will be well worth the wait to find out.

Get in at the start with House of Penance #1, it is sure to be one of the most talked about series in years.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker