The Passageway
Issues Graphic novel
Writer Jeff Lemire
Artist Andrea Sorrentino
Publisher Image Comics
Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino remain one of comics’ most dynamic duos. This short graphic novel is the first part of the Bone Orchard Mythos – a new, loosely connected horror universe. Future releases will include miniseries and more standalone works, and if they’re anywhere near as memorable as this, then it will be a project worth keeping a close eye on.
John Reed of the Canadian Geological Society is summoned to a remote island with a single inhabitant. Sal has been tending the lighthouse for 25 years, but something has changed: a hole has appeared from nowhere, plunging down through the rocks. Reed sets out to discover what’s at the bottom of this abyss – a foolhardy errand he will soon come to regret.
Like the creators’ previous collaboration, Gideon Falls, The Passageway has one foot in the real world, the other somewhere far weirder and Lovecraftian. Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse is a clear influence, with the supernatural elements abstract and ambiguous. It’s brilliant, unsettling stuff, expertly rendered by Sorrentino and colourist Dave Stewart, who daubs each page with thunderous greys and bright splashes of red. It’s a work so vivid you can practically feel the freezing Canadian waters and hear the cries of gulls wheeling ominously overhead.