I’m very familar with the House of Mystery and it’s sister title, Hous of Secrets. I’ve been reading the Cain and Abel hosted horror anthologies since I was aged in the single digits. This version of the House of Mystery is somewhat new to me.

I know of the premise of this title is that the House has been turned into a sort of Bed and Breakfast (except Breakfast’s been replaced with a speak easy and guests stay and drink for free in exchange for a (hopefully scary) story.) I’ve read some of Bill Willingham’s tales from HOM that are in his omnibus, The Complete Bill Willingham. Each tale is susposedly hosted by Cain.

So imagine my surprise that there’s this entire cast of characters living in the House that I’ve never been introduced too. Being volume 7, I’m a little lost, not knowing who is who and so forth. Thankfully, there is a one-page Cast of Characters that got me a little caught up.

The style of writing and art is like that of other Willingham works (especially Fables and Jack of Fables), even though he’s not the author of any of the issues in this collection. I liked what I read and I think that future vacation stays to this new and improved House of Mystery are expected in the near future.

Worth Consuming.