By T.W. Worn — In my hometown, there is a local legend about a house that was built in the early 1940s, and abandoned after multiple families had tragedies strike while living there. Murders, suicides, and freak accidents stained the walls of the house, but seemed to stain the pages of local newspapers and true crime rags even more. There was no reason for such a condensed level of pain and evil to exist there. Many people in my town blamed the land it was built upon. They had said the land was cursed but that never sat right with me. The house was demolished a few years ago after sitting empty for almost two decade, and the fast food restaurant build on its bones never suffered from any strife.

The Me You Love In The Dark #1 is the beginning of a five-part story by Skottie Young (Middlewest, I Hate Fairlyland), and it follows an artist who has left the big city to work on her art. The house she rents, a large farmhouse ripped from the pages of a Faulkner story, has a little-explained history of violence. Throughout the issue we watch as she struggles to make art. A pain any creative knows all too well. The overwhelming infinity of a blank canvas or word document that craves to be filled, only to reject anything that enters its space. A slow story, easily nestled in Any-Small-Town, U.S.A., about the alienation of artistic endeavors and the inevitable failure to produce something, a feeling that strikes all of us.

I never entered the house while it was around. I'd sit outside of it and stare at the windows and doors, trying to study it's emotions. I personally believe that the house was the issue, not the land. After it was built, it sat empty for 15 years before someone moved in. An object created to protect and provide was purposeless from the very beginning. Abandoned and alone, I feel as though the house may have grown to hate. It's large windows, the eyes of this house, were no longer warm and welcoming. The door, no longer a smile but a snarling grimace resentment. The house rejected its purpose. The house had its own agenda. The house grew to prefer the loneliness and alienation over the fostering of a family.

The art in The Me You Love In The Dark is by Jorge Corona (No. 1 With a Bullet, Middlewest). The beloved second half of the duo in another collaboration. Corona's art sets a large, spacious tone for the comic. Panels that feel distant and voyeuristic. A fly on the wall of the large house, waiting for the tone to turn sour. An uncomfortable anticipation as we see the character walk throughout, only pulling close when she struggles with the anger of being unable to tap into her creative abilities. Jean-Francois Beaulieu's colors are mute and somber. The light shines from outside, reaching in but unable to fully combat the darkness that resides inside the house. The two create the perfect sense of space and dread, filling the pages with a tonal emptiness that compliments the themes of the book. The lettering of Nate Piekos of Blambot sit perfectly on the page. Four powerhouses of their respective fields, bringing us a slow and steady story of the fears of our artistic ability.

I will never know if that house was evil. Evil may be an overly subjective term, but it's the one I choose to use. The house wasn't misunderstood. The house wasn't lonely. The house held hate. The house was hate. And even though many argue that a house can't feel, or think, or grow to reject its purpose, nothing else can explain the condensed tragedy that took place in its walls. In a world where we have more than enough homes for everyone, sitting empty and abandoned, it doesn't surprise me if we see more of them reject their purpose as they sit cold and empty, housing nothing more than resentment.

Overall: The Me You Love In The Dark #1 sets up an interesting premise about fear, art, ambition, and loneliness. 7/10

REVIEW: The Me You Love in the Dark #1

The Me You Love In The Dark #1
Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Jorge Corona
Colorist: Jean-Francois Beulieu
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer SKOTTIE YOUNG (I HATE FAIRYLAND, Deadpool, Strange Academy) and artist JORGE CORONA (NO. 1 WITH A BULLET, Super Sons, Feathers) follow up their critically acclaimed series MIDDLEWEST with a brand-new haunting tale. An artist named Ro retreats from the grind of the city to an old house in a small town to find solace and inspiration without realizing the muse within is not what she expected. Fans of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman will enjoy this beautiful, dark, and disturbing story of discovery, love, and terror.
Price: $3.99
More Info: The Me You Love in the Dark #1

Read more great comic book reviews!

I'm T.W. Worn (@twworn) and the doctor is in!