Comic Info
Comic Name: Gideon Falls
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Andrea Sorrentino
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2019
Gideon Falls #8
Reprints Gideon Falls #7-11 (October 2018-February 2019). Norton Sinclair and Dr. Angela Xu are building the Black Barn in the city of Gideon Falls…but the danger of the Black Barn could force Xu and Norton to go on the run. In the small town of Gideon Falls, Sheriff Clara Miller and Father Wilfred find their experience with Joe Reddy has unleashed something within them. Clara believes her missing brother Daniel could be a live and Father Fred is having dreams of someone called Norton Sinclair…and the two sides are about to collide!
Written by Jeff Lemire, Gideon Falls Volume 2: Original Sins is an Image Comics horror science-fiction series. Following Gideon Falls Volume 1: The Black Barn, the series features art by Andrea Sorrentino. The issues in the volume were also included in Gideon Falls Deluxe Edition—Book 1.
I picked up the first volume of Gideon Falls for Halloween when I wanted to read some horror theme comics. I read the first volume of Gideon Falls and immediately ordered Volume 2 and Volume 3. The second volume continues the fun and mystery of Gideon Falls.
Gideon Falls #11
I will say that this volume of Gideon Falls is less horror based than the first volume. It isn’t necessarily because it has taken a harder science fiction turn (it has), but because a lot of horror is atmospheric and even more so in this volume. The series starts to dip back into the horror in the final issue of the collection involving the real Norton Sinclair (and a batch of cockroaches), but the science fiction takes center stage for most of these issues. Gideon Falls feels like it could become more horror as the series moves on.
The basic story feels a little like other science-fiction horror type stories. It has a tone of something like X-Files and some direct ties to things like Twin Peaks. Books like Coraline and shows like Stranger Things deal with similar ideas of “other world” that exist in parallel like universes and contain people similar but darker. Gideon Falls in that sense feels very familiar, but Lemire makes it work and makes it still feel original.
Gideon Falls is a good reminder that there are tons of comic books with solid stories that aren’t superheroes and aren’t Marvel or DC. It is a series for adults and it is a series for those who like horror and thrills. It is also a series that reminds you that one of the best aspects of comic books is that they are not just a written medium, but a medium that has a push and pull with the art that helps tell the story. Lemire and Sorrentino find that happy medium to present a story that is both interesting and visually appealing…visit Gideon Falls. Gideon Falls 2: Original Sins is followed by Gideon Falls 3: Stations of the Cross.
Related Links:
Gideon Falls 1: The Black Barn
Gideon Falls 3: Stations of the Cross
