By Steve Baxi — What makes a house a home? One answer is when you hang up your pictures, when you work on it to create a sense of continuity and identity. It's your home when it can tell your story. A haunted house, then, is particularly interesting because it actively resists your ability to do so. The Conjuring, or Paranormal Activity or any number of haunted house films are set up the same way: an innocent family moves in, filled with hope for their new home, and at every attempt to make it into their own, the house fights back. Graveneye by Sloane Leong and Anna Bowles from TKO Studios takes these familiar elements and gives the haunted house itself a voice. They ask, if our walls could speak, what story would they tell?

Graveneye is a masterclass in horror storytelling, channeling familiar locations, creatures and violence into a package that could only come in comic form. Bowles’ artwork walks a careful line between clear, intricate geography, and the uncertain, complex layouts of a place we don’t recognize. Leong’s voice harkens back to a long tradition of gothic tales from the late 19th and early 20th century, but infused with an awareness that avoids leering gazes or divine condemnation of our occupants. Their efforts ultimately combine to tell a refreshing, horrific story about loneliness and understanding.

The story of our two protagonists, Isla and Marie, are told entirely through the perspective of the gothic manor they dwell in. We follow their routines, their different impressions left on the house and carefully come to understand them not simply by how they make the house a home but how they do so differently. Isla travels by hardly leaving a trace of her presence, she lurks and hides and fades into the consciousness of the house itself. Marie on the other hand lovingly embraces the tactile sensations around her. Every footstep, every bench, every window is used noticeably and lovingly. Isla allows herself to become the house, while Marie loves the house as herself. Their different vulnerabilities and fascinations with each other come alive as they force themselves to cross paths, living in the same space but understanding it completely differently.

Oftentimes, the gothic manor operates as a trap, something that the innocent try to escape but are pulled into as captives. The monster becomes the expression of the house they reside in, while the guest attempts to find their freedom away from them. However, here the tables are slightly turned where Marie appreciates and finds freedom in the house, and our “monster” is less a kidnapper and moreso a captive themselves to their relationship to this place. Their joint fascination then is why they choose the house over all else, and whether that choice masks hope for a better home or the tragedy of where they came from.

Bowles renders this world with a sense of awe and mystery that captures the perspective of both our protagonists. In one sense, the horror, the hallways and shadows favor Isla’s lurking, with the house’s own narration about the minor details of its walls and floorboards creating an unsettling atmosphere. And yet each scene of Marie walking through the grounds feels open, spontaneous and perhaps even loving. This however never stops the horror and bloodshed from being impactful, as the deep reds and grotesque figures come to life more in line with traditional horror imagery but now with a sense of geographical familiarity we don’t often see with other hauntings.

Where Leong and Bowles have their greatest success is their ability to channel what makes a horror comic tick. Without jump scares, musical scores, or blood curdling screams, a horror comic is a very different animal. It lacks the wordy engagement of a novel because of its images, and yet its images aren’t loaded with the technical abilities of film. Thus, horror comics often have to depend on a strong grasp of pace, allowing the chills to build and build until we crescendo into full scale frights. Each page needs to read just a little longer than the last, and then be disrupted by silent spaces that allow the art to hook you into a moment words alone couldn’t convey. Leong’s ability to control the words-per-page, and Bowles’ layouts work together here to create a textbook case of how to effectively terrify your reader, while maintaining a tragedy and humanity that lesser horror stories often miss in the service of flashy images.

TKO unsurprisingly has another hit on their hands. Graveneye is everything I want a horror comic to be and more, with art that still gives me chills, and a truly unique perspective on how we engage with the world around us. Leong’s voice for this story feels lifted from the heyday of gothic fiction but perfectly attuned to how the genre needs to evolve today, while Bowles is tasked with creating not only iconic images of horror, but an entire world all its own as we explore the ups and downs of this instant gothic classic.

Graphic Novel Review: Graveneye from TKO Studios

Graveneye
Writer: Sloane Leong
Artist: Anna Bowles
Publisher: TKO Studios
Price: $19.99
What if a haunted house was not the horror, but the people who dwell within it …
Isla's house has seen its share of blood horror, and the depths of the human soul. Cursed with sentience, it is destined to observe the terrors that lurk inside each and everyone of us.
Acclaimed author Sloane Leong (A Map to the Sun, Prism Stalker) and renowned artist Anna Bowles in her debut graphic novel deliver a dark and beautiful tale of hunger and obsession.
Publication Date: November 15, 2021
More Info: Graveneye from TKO Studios

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Steve Baxi has a Masters in Ethics and Applied Philosophy, with focuses in 20th Century Aesthetics and Politics. Steve creates video essays and operates a subscription based blog where he writes on pop culture through a philosophy lens. He tweets through @SteveSBaxi.