After Edwin’s first approach to the camp does not work, he decides to return at night. But after spending the day on a rented boat, he finds he is adrift. But will this bring him closer to an understanding of the monster? Find out in House of Slaughter #7 from BOOM! Studios.

HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER #7

Writer: James Tynion IV and Sam Johns
Artist: Letizia Cadonici
Colorist: Francesco Segala
Letterer: Andworld Design
Editor: Eric Harburn
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 27, 2022

Previously in House of Slaughter: We meet Edwin, a Scarlet Mask. Scarlets are the academics of the House of Slaughter, the ones who decide how things are run, the ones who control the reins of power behind the scenes. He gets an assignment from Master Colin. A scouting troop found the body of a woman washed ashore. Her eyes were missing, and several incidents involving eyes have occurred in the area. That makes the situation ripe for bringing a monster into existence. Edwin thinks and acts a little differently from others, and Colin thinks he may be able to make connections more clearly. Edwin has his own monster, but instead of a stuffed animal, it is a paintbrush. He uses his art to help make sense of things. But like the monsters, it is special art that only children can see.

WATER – SOURCE OF LIFE AND DEATH

House of Slaughter #7 is melancholy and contemplative. Edwin is on a boat on the lake. He paints, not a landscape, but a reproduction of a Rothko composition. As he paints it, his brush, Hermes, berates him and questions him. By reproducing it he hopes to understand the artist’s vision. But he has no better idea for what to do. He may have run into a camper yesterday, but today the counselors will be watching them closer. He must wait for nightfall and hopes to find a more adventurous scout.

Until then, he waits. Hermes grows bored. Edwin offers to read some notes he has written about the Dragon King. When he reads that the last of the four Dragons was slain, Hermes cuts him short dismissively. The Dragons are gods and cannot be slain by mortals, he insists. Then Hermes decides he wants to hear a story about drowning.

It is a simple story. A woman with seven children waits in a storm for her husband to return to them, not realizing he has met his death. The floodwaters rise and they are trapped in the house. Even going up to the attic is not enough to save them, and all of them drown except for one girl. But that is too blunt for Hermes, who would prefer to linger over their deaths. Then Hermes realizes this is a true story. Edwin heard it from someone else, possibly someone who lived through it.

The sun begins to set, and the boat is too far from shore to get to the island. A clear night falls, and Edwin looks up to find Ursa Major and he talks about the monsters that people have put into the night sky. And he wonders how many monsters they have also put on earth. The boat continues to drift. He spots an ant, an ant who will follow a pheromone trail to its destination. But if someone ties a thread to it, what is thinks is a straight line become an arc. It does not realize what has happened to it.

Perhaps that is a parallel to their own situation, Edwin muses. They think they are following currents, but are they spiraling around on a tether? And is there a monster on the other end of that tether?

MOOD AND PERSPECTIVE

House of Slaughter #7 is moody in its patience. Edwin is preternaturally calm and introspective. His face reflects this. Even when he considers that there may already be a monster in the area, he appears unfazed. Hermes is the emotional one of the pair. It is fascinating how much emotion can be presented through a paintbrush. Sometimes he is drawn as a swooping curve which gives him a lot of energy. At times, his bristles are all fluffed out, so he even appears agitated. He has his own style of lettering and color of text box and that reinforces that he is a monster and not merely a tool.

I like the way the water appears framing the story about the drowning. On the lake, the water is unnaturally placid. A flat, calm lake appears anything but threatening, but the water hides its dangers. A terrific panel shows a view of the boat as seen from far below the surface, so we get a sense of the depth that is not so visible from above. And then there is the drowning story where water is an inexorable and unstoppable killer. It is almost so tangible as to become another character of its own accord.

BOTTOM LINE: A CREEPY TAKE ON HORROR

House of Slaughter #7 gives us a horror story that is more disturbing than disgusting. I like that Edwin thinks about things from a distinct perspective, which fills out our knowledge about this world even while drawing us deeper into the mystery.

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