Broken Frontier

House of Mystery reaches its twentieth issue this week. The critically-acclaimed Vertigo book is not so much a reimagining, as an extrapolation, of the themes of the fondly-remembered DC title of the 1960s, '70s and '80s. HoM's prime architect Matthew Sturges dropped in to talk to Broken Frontier about the comic's cast, the nature of an "anthology" title and just what's it's like working with a veritable who's who of horror and fantasy artists...

BROKEN FRONTIER: The first two House of Mystery trades are now available and the third is scheduled for January. So for potential new readers, coming to the book through the collections, how would you summarise the title’s original premise and, without giving too much away, describe its evolution over the last 18 months?

MATTHEW STURGES: The initial premise for the series was "five characters trapped in a bar, in which the patrons pay for their drinks with stories instead of cash." That's what we came up with the first night we started talking about the book. Over drinks at a bar, appropriately enough. That's the setup, but House of Mystery is really the story of Fig Keele, the newest arrival. She finds herself trapped in the House along with the four other series regulars, and the first three trades is, with some detours, Fig's attempt to unravel the mystery of why they're all stuck there, who's keeping them there, and why she seems to be so important. Then it takes a couple of sharp left turns. Then it takes a hard right turn. Starting with issue 21, we kind of circle back around to the original premise, but with a number of significant changes.

BF: I think you’re on the record as saying that your original exposure to the House of Mystery was when Cain and Abel were first revealed as denizens of the Dreaming. Have you had the opportunity since to go back and read some of the original series and, if so, what do you think it is about this particular DC locale that makes it so fondly remembered by fans?

MS: Those old stories occupy the same warm place in the hearts as old episodes of The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, and the EC horror comics. They're very much a product of their time: the twist endings, the ironic reveal, the sometimes heavy-handed moralizing. The heyday of those comics was before my time, but I spent many an evening watching old The Twilight Zone reruns and bad horror movies, so I get the sensibility and have a certain fondness for it. To be honest, though, it's not a big influence on what we're doing in the current version of the book. The sensibility of it doesn't really play today.

BF: The anthology title is, notoriously, one that we are continually told no longer has a place in the current comics market. How far was that a consideration when you originally began planning the "framing sequence" (for want of a better term) format for House of Mystery and its direct ties to the "anthology stories"?

MS: It was an enormous consideration. If you go back and look at the press for the book when it was launched, the word "anthology" is never used. The reason we dreamed up the "characters stuck in a bar telling stories" scenario was to find a way to trick the market into letting us do an anthology book.

The first two Vertigo House of Mystery trades are now available with a series of Showcase Presents volumes reprinting the classic DC material of yesteryear.

BF: One thing that has become very apparent as the months go on is just how much House of Mystery rewards re-reading. What seemed like self-contained, one-off stories in the earlier issues have turned out to have a far deeper resonance as the book has continued. Just how far in advance have you seeded future storylines and are there any major future plot elements already introduced that readers have yet to pick up on?

MS: I try to be pretty economical in my storytelling, especially in a book where as much as half of any given issue is given over to something that doesn't directly relate to what's happening in the main story. I try to make up for it by having things mean as much as possible. Some of those short stories have payoffs that we may not see for a long time. There's a single panel in issue 5 that doesn't get acted upon until issue 21. I'm just a big fan of that kind of storytelling. It's in some ways not as clever as it sounds; often what happens is that I set things up intending to knock them over a few issues later, and then some other big thing gets in the way and I can't circle back to it until later. And then sometimes you put little things in not really knowing what they are or what they mean, trusting that you'll figure it out later.

There are a few things that readers have yet to pick up on, but to their credit, it's because they may not yet know how important they are. And to my knowledge, no one has ever deciphered any of the secret codes which have been hidden in plain sight in three different locations to date.

BF: Recently the book’s "status quo" has been shaken a little as the readers have realized that there is no safety net under the core cast. Was it always your intention to pull the rug out from under the audience just when they may have been slipping into something of a comfort zone with the regular characters?

MS: Oh, absolutely. You spend enough time being manipulated by Joss Whedon and the only outlet for those emotions is to do to your characters what he's done to his. One of the things that made me instantly fall in love with Whedon's storytelling is that notion that nothing and nobody is safe. As soon as you think you know what's going on, the game changes. As soon as you get too comfortable, you're going to get hurt. And it's vital, I think, in serial storytelling. To keep things from getting stale. Kicking the status quo in the face is a great way to see what your characters are made of. They always need to be responding to something new, so you can see more of who they really are. That's the ultimate end of this sort of thing.

BF: So far you have ingeniously piled mystery upon mystery. Just when we think we are getting answers even greater mysteries are opened up and the individual tales the cast tell are also always worth revisiting to see how they play into the bigger picture. With this in mind, though, do you have a finite plan and a definite ending for House of Mystery that you’re working towards? Or are your intentions to devilishly tease us for as long as you can?

MS: A little of both, really. I know how the series ends, but there's still so much to do before we get there that I could take forever to do it. I imagine that at some point if it starts to wear out its welcome I might set an end date and then consciously work toward it. Every few months I start to think maybe I've run out of ideas, but then some new story or character catches my fancy, or I remember that some existing character has an entire backstory that I haven't even touched on yet, and then I get excited again. And the allure of doing the short stories every month is always enough to keep me coming back. I have this wild notion that at some point I might just end the big story I've been building up to and then just start a new one. Why not?

BF: David Petersen, Kyle Baker, Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, Jill Thompson, Sergio Aragones, Gilbert Hernandez, Richard Corben... that list of stellar talent is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to guest contributors to the book. How much of a thrill has it been to see so many renowned creators working illustrating your and Bill Willingham’s tales? And can you share any names of upcoming artists on the book?

MS: That is, by far, the best part of writing House of Mystery. To have been in comics for such a comparatively short time and to have worked with SO MANY of the best artists in comics is a huge privilege. It's exciting, but it can also be more than a little daunting. When you're writing a story for one of your comic book heroes, like Gilbert Hernandez, for instance, you want to write the best story you can possibly write, and so I end up putting a huge amount of pressure on myself to write something that's worthy of being drawn by them. But it's also a pleasure to work with comparatively unknown artists like Antonio Fuso and Farel Dalrymple and Grazia Lobacarro. You get to see things you haven't seen before. But I'm always astonished when I find out that someone like Neal Adams or Sergio Aragones or Richard Corben wants to work on the book. As for artists to look for coming up, how about more Sergio Aragones, Sam Kieth, and John Bolton?

BF: Without spoiling anything for those tempted by this interview into picking up volume 1 of the House of Mystery trades and, in the spirit of HoM itself, what oblique hints can you give us to future events in the book?

MS: Well, if you look on page one of issue five, you'll see a drawing that Fig has done of her family and you may notice something strange about it. That's a pretty big hint. We're going to be seeing a lot more of Cain and Abel. We'll be learning much more about The Conception, and exactly why they're so interested in Fig. And we'll discover a traitor in the midst, someone who's been there since issue 1.

BF: And, finally, for those readers already enjoying House of Mystery what other current Sturges projects would you like to direct them towards?

MS: If you've got a Vertigo sensibility (whatever that means) you might also like Jack of Fables, which I write with Bill Willingham. You might also enjoy my novel Midwinter, which came out this year, and its sequel The Office of Shadow, which comes out next summer. And of course there's always the superhero books. If you like those, I like to think that mine are pretty fun. Two books that might appeal to non-superhero fans are Blue Beetle [editorial note: currently to be seen as co-feature in the pages of Booster Gold] and Final Crisis Aftermath: RUN!, which are the two things I've written that require almost no knowledge whatsoever of superhero continuity in order to enjoy.

House of Mystery #20 goes on sale this week from DC/Vertigo priced $2.99 and the book is also available in trade paperbacks for those wishing to follow the saga from the beginning.