The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 1

by James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez Bueno (Illustrator)

Overview

With Something Is Killing the Children and The Department of Truth, James Tynion IV has changed the face of horror in modern comics—now get ready for his most ambitious story yet, alongside his Detective Comics partner Álvaro Martínez Bueno!

Eisner Award Winner 2022, Best New Series

Everyone who was invited to the house knows Walter—well, they know him a little, anyway. Some met him in childhood; some met him months ago. And Walter’s always been a little…off.

But after the hardest year of their lives, nobody was going to turn down Walter’s invitation to an astonishingly beautiful house in the woods, overlooking an enormous sylvan lake. It’s beautiful, it’s opulent, it’s private—so a week of putting up with Walter’s weird little schemes and nicknames in exchange for the vacation of a lifetime? Why not?

All of them were at that moment in their lives when they could feel themselves pulling away from their other friends; wouldn’t a chance to reconnect be…nice? In The Nice House on the Lake, the overriding anxieties of the 21st century get a terrifying new face—and it might just be the face of the person you once trusted most.

Collects The Nice House on the Lake #1-6.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781779514349
Publisher:	DC Comics
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Series:	Nice House on the Lake Series , #1
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	153,192
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 6.60(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

James Tynion IV started in the comics business assisting Scott Snyder in writing backup stories for Snyder's groundbreaking Batman series. Tynion soon began writing Talon, a series that spun out of the hugely popular "Batman: The Court of Owls" story line. He has also written Batman: Detective Comics, Constantine: The Hellblazer, and Red Hood and the Outlaws.

Editorial Reviews

02/28/2022

“How do you think the world will end?” asks a pivotal character in this instantly addictive otherworldly page-turner from Tynion (the Something Is Killing the Children series) and Bueno (the Justice League Dark series). All too soon the rest of the cast learn whether their answers were right. Twelve people are invited to a swanky modernist lake house in Wisconsin by their mutual friend Walter. Walter isn’t there, but the airy house is packed with amenities, including a spa, a library, and a boat, as well as enigmas like a set of strange sculptures corresponding to the cryptic symbols each guest has been assigned. Then disaster strikes and the group is hit by two revelations: they may be the last human beings left on Earth, and Walter may never have been human at all. Each chapter focuses on a different character as they adjust to their baffling situation and investigate their architecturally breathtaking and increasingly sinister abode. Bueno’s photorealistic yet expressive artwork, drenched in alternately warm and chilling colors by Jordie Bellaire, is perfectly suited to creeping paranormal horror in an initially prosaic setting. As the Lost-like mysteries pile up, the biggest question is whether the creators can follow through to a satisfying resolution. From this initial volume, readers will be hooked on this series that’s a pleasure to puzzle over. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 11/04/2022

Walter's closest friends appreciate his unfailing loyalty and deep investment in their happiness and accept that he can sometimes be oddly intense and enigmatic, so it isn't too weird or surprising when his request that they join him on a getaway at his lake house feels more like an order than an invitation. The ten friends who accept are excited to discover the lake house is an ultra-modern, sprawling estate cut off from the rest of the world by a lush forest and stocked with enough of their favorite foods and entertainments to last the rest of their lives. And that's good, since Walter is actually an extraterrestrial, and the lake house is going to be the last place on the planet capable of sustaining human life after his people enact their plan to exterminate all life on Earth. VERDICT A deeply unsettling, breathlessly thrilling, uncommonly engrossing horror story, rendered in exquisitely atmospheric illustration, and a provocative meditation on what it takes to stay alive, and to stay human, in a collapsing world. This volume collects the first six issues of a 12-issue story.

Library Journal