House Of Mystery #4

As I see it, Sturges has two significant challanges to overcome in 'House of Mystery'. One is finding the delicate balance between the framing narrative and the seven-page short story in the middle of each issue. The other is ensuring that the vignettes are interesting and relevant. Issue #4 fails on both counts. Whereas issues 1-3 did a good job of introducing the story and moving events forward, here we get a lot of navel-gazing from Fig as she kvetches about her predicament and wanders around aimlessly. She comes into conflict with Cress in a manner that feels forced, given that the two only met for the first time a few days earlier. Toward the end of the book, there is some nice foreshadowing which leads to a cliffhanger, but most of the story stretched aross this book could have been condensed into a few panels.

Making matters worse, the short story is insipid. Here we have an exiled young witch with a murderous cat (snow leopard?) searching for love in all the wrong places. This isn't a story so much as a setup to juxtapose sex and gore (much like the short in the first issue--the one with the flies). The best short thus far has been the tale of the mobster from issue #3, as it had thematic bearing on the events of the framing narrative as well as being compelling in its own right.

Luca Rossi's art is good without being particularly notable, while Steve Rolston's artwork on the short comes off as a cutesy amalgam of late Disney and anime targeting young girls, a tone which is absolutely wrong for this book, as evidenced by its contrast with the strikingly beautiful and mysterious cover artwork.

In fact, though it pains me to say it, but the best thing about 'House of Mystery' #4 is the cover.