Gideon Falls Volume 1: The Black Barn

This story is a a story of the macabre. Laramie is Poe meets David Lynch with his story of a search for peace amongst the quiet horrors of perpetual chaos the stories characters reside. The dark and violent brush strokes provide the perfect visual companion to this tale of self discovery into darkness. The illustrations help the reader to jump out of the shadows and enter the doors of our imaginations. All for the sole purpose of asking the reader to solve the mystery of the Black Barn piece by piece and nail by nail .

I’ve heard wonderful things about this series. It explores a mythology about an evil presence personified as a black barn. The barn always seems to be there but is always out of sight.The story creates a strong mystery and explores the realm of believability. The pacing does well in building tension, and the characters are interesting.The art and paneling is mostly good. As an artistic choice, the inking and shadows are loosely defined and are not solid. The shading looks like vertical hatching giving the art a slightly unsettling appearance. A few panels have a few too many words, but it isn’t common. Also some of the paneling is a little too strange for me.The story has great build-up, but the impact of the climax is a little blunted by the unusual delivery. It gets a little too strange towards the end. I would have preferred if the author leaned more heavily into horror than strangeness.

One of my all-time favorite comic book series is Lemire’s and Sorrentino’s Green Arrow run. When I saw these two were back at it, I had to pick this book up. As a horror fanatic, I was very excited to read this story. Unfortunately for me, this first volume did not live up to my expectations. I found it pretty slow and half of the main characters underdeveloped. I can understand not fully disclosing the plot and the mysteries behind the black barn so soon. However, they could have had better character development in the 140+ pages of this first volume.I also believe they emphasized strangeness too much. It’s filled with strange panels and not much dialogue, adding to an already confusing story ark. I’m going to keep reading just because Lemire is my favorite author and I have faith that this series will pick up the pace. If vol 2 has not convinced yet though, I’m giving up on.The positive side for me was the story ark with the Father Fred. I think it has a lot of potential. Norton I could care less about right now.

Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino reunite for a supernatural suspense comic. Lemire's gifts and his vices are intertwined here: his love of character development and world-building runs into his problems with pacing. His twin narrative, however, doesn't seem to entirely work yet. While it is intriguing: the urban Dr. Xu and the seemingly insane man doesn't seem as developed as rural conspiracy mongering of new Priest. Both involve the black barn, but the rural story line is more developed and the characters feel more real. Returning to the pacing: this is a slow burn, but it is a suspense comic. One either loves Lemire's pacing here or hates it, and there is almost no in-between.Sorrentino's artwork is appropriately stylized for the material, but will remind one of lots of other horror comics. Furthermore, Sorrentino often uses to color and expressionistic line art but the faces aren't always clearly expressive.

I struggled with this review because while it is easily five star - in the sense that the artwork in so unique and incredibly well done ... and the story is interesting and unique... I just don't yet know if I am going to continue with the series. It's dark and labyrinthian in scope. The magnificent artwork on every page pulls you deep into the storyline. It's got everything I normally like. Maybe it's the timing (late in this never ending pandemic), but I just don't know if I want to stay inside the world created in this admittedly masterful graphic novel. Still giving it my highest rating.

Starting off slowly but building into the mysterious antagonist,the writer also manages to introduce and intertwine several characters linked by the same phenomenon.I felt that the story rushed a bit after the start,but it was well worth it,especially towards the end. Can't wait to get the next one!

It's not gory, just a little bit spooky, but like the majority of Manga it leaves you wanting more. I got this thinking "oh boy! A horror comic!" It's not ..it's more! Low on shock value, but incredibly interesting in its own way. Imagine X-FILES crossed with a bad joke: "A priest, a cop, and a patient from an insane asylum walk into a barn..." Did I mention that I like it? Yeah I'm definitely going to read the whole shebang.

The black barn indeed, I always thought you paint barns red.That aside this is a very good story. Good and spooky. SomeMay call it slow, but not me . I found it well placed.Sincerely,M.T. Stopper

Uma boa estória de mistério. E gostei bastante da experiência de ler uma HQ no Kindle. Muito bom como os quais são destacados automaticamente e se juntam para montar o todo depois.

Voy en el volumen 3 al momento de escribir esta reseña. Y es una historia que me tiene hipnotizado junto con el arte de Andrea Sorrentino que es un “woooow” para mi. Recomiendo que compren por lo menos los volúmenes 1, 2 y 3 al mismo tiempo, por que se leen muy rápido.

É uma ótima narrativa, pequena que é tão cara.

Excelente historia y el arte es excepcional.No dire mucho para no poner spoilers pero la historia aunque parece convencional tiene buenos giros y es prometedora.Sin duda la narrativa visual es única y juega un papel importante en el relato. Logra plasmar muy bien la psicología de la historia.Recomendable para aquellos que gustan de trillers con aspectos sobrenaturales.No le pongo 5 estrellas porque aunque es muy bueno y lo recomiendo no se me hizo una genialidad.

Deben tener cuidado con el manejo del producto, pues llegó muy maltratado.