Comic Review: Gideon Falls #19

Gideon Falls #19

Image Comics

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Andrea Sorrentino

After so many issues in which worlds collide and characters scramble to react, Gideon Falls has finally come of age. A collection of mysteries have come clear, and while the antagonist is no less nebulous, many of the plot threads have collided just as the worlds of Gideon Falls have done throughout this comic.

Whenever the color red features in a panel, something bad is going to happen. It’s a signal, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a red backdrop or a character grabbing a bottle of catchup, somebody is going to die. At the same time, readers will get reacquainted with the “ploughmen,” a secret society of sorts. They aren’t at all what you think. Of course, no issue of Gideon Falls would be complete without some reality-bending, panel breaking, sequence, and this issue doesn’t disappoint on that front. However, in terms of the story, this issue feels very much like a set-up. People talk. A lot. But very little actually happens and no new information or revelations come to light, though the plot certainly builds.

Finally, characters seem to have a clear purpose in this comic. While I’ve enjoyed the ethereal and meandering storyline, I never felt as though characters had the agency to make their own decisions. Instead, each reacted to the events unfolding, unable to change the outcome. Now characters have ideas on how to combat their predicaments and act accordingly. It’s refreshing when characters who have seen helpless for so long, find their motive and begin to act, and it sets up subsequent issues as well.

I get bored of saying it, Sorrinteno’s style is perfect for this comic. He tells a complex story with ease. The granular filter of each panel makes the very world these characters navigate look flawed. It’s like watching an old VHS or something–anyone could have taped over it. I mentioned the panel breaking art, earlier, so let’s get back into that, also: Sorrinteno does something new here, which I find exciting. He’s dissolved panels in the past, but not with sound effects. In this issue, he breaks panels up with a collection of a repeated sound, overlapped so many times that it forms a monster. It’s yet another unique artistic choice for this comic. The only question is, where can such a genre-breaking artist go from here?

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