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The Bone Orchard Mythos #1
Le Mythe de l'Ossuaire - Le Passage
J'ai... commis une erreur.. Une grosse erreur.. Je n'aurais jamais dû venir ici..
128 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2022
21 people are currently reading
748 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Lemire
1,403 books3,868 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 243 reviews
October 27, 2022
Well, at least Lemire didn't draw the damn thing.
Was my initial reaction when I closed the book.
Because the art was cool. The story? Not so much.
I'm sure Lemire knows the overreaching plot and it all makes sense in his head, but whatever he farted out on the page was pure nonsense. It looks like he had the outline for a story and didn't bother to flesh it out at all.
There's some geologist dude who dreams about his mother drowning when he was a child. He gets sent out to this tiny little island that has a lighthouse because a big-ass hole suddenly appeared.
What's at the bottom? Is there even a bottom?
Equipment malfunctions!
Sssssssssspooky.
The old lady who lives at the lighthouse is creepy because old people are creepy. He sees her talking to the hole in the middle of the night, and of course, she's naked. Because if there's anything creepier than old women, it's old women with tits sagging down around the bottom of their ribcage.
I should know. If I don't dim the lights when I shower I get scared.
And then.
Oh no! She's seen him! Birds! Birds everywhere!
Birds are almost as creepy as naked elders. Remember that.
Birds + Big-Ass Holes + Dead Mom Dreams + Old Titties = Bad Things
Now what exactly that hole is or where it leads is up in the air. Some sort of blood-soaked doorway to hell? Maybe.
Who knows? Probably Lemire, but I'm not 100% on that.
Hardcore fans will probably love this but I'm not quite sold on this Bone Orchard thing.
Was my initial reaction when I closed the book.
Because the art was cool. The story? Not so much.
I'm sure Lemire knows the overreaching plot and it all makes sense in his head, but whatever he farted out on the page was pure nonsense. It looks like he had the outline for a story and didn't bother to flesh it out at all.
There's some geologist dude who dreams about his mother drowning when he was a child. He gets sent out to this tiny little island that has a lighthouse because a big-ass hole suddenly appeared.
What's at the bottom? Is there even a bottom?
Equipment malfunctions!
Sssssssssspooky.
The old lady who lives at the lighthouse is creepy because old people are creepy. He sees her talking to the hole in the middle of the night, and of course, she's naked. Because if there's anything creepier than old women, it's old women with tits sagging down around the bottom of their ribcage.
I should know. If I don't dim the lights when I shower I get scared.
And then.
Oh no! She's seen him! Birds! Birds everywhere!
Birds are almost as creepy as naked elders. Remember that.
Birds + Big-Ass Holes + Dead Mom Dreams + Old Titties = Bad Things
Now what exactly that hole is or where it leads is up in the air. Some sort of blood-soaked doorway to hell? Maybe.
Who knows? Probably Lemire, but I'm not 100% on that.
Hardcore fans will probably love this but I'm not quite sold on this Bone Orchard thing.
May 7, 2022
A geologist visits a distant island with a lighthouse to investigate a mysterious sinkhole that doesn’t appear to have a bottom. What lies at the end of all that darkness… ?
Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino have teamed up yet again for an ambitious new project: a shared horror universe called The Bone Orchard Mythos. I saw a double-page ad at the end of Primordial, their most recent collab, which I think listed five titles that are scheduled for this series, three of which are coming out this year alone! These two are nothing if not workhorses.
The Passageway is the first book in the series and, as often seems to be the case with Lemire/Sorrentino comics, it’s right purty but not much else.
The characters are so lightly written they may as well be ciphers. There’s the creepy lighthouse lady who clearly knows more than she’s letting on, the Canadian geologist who’s just A Guy but with disturbing dreams about his mother for some reason. We learn so little about the geologist that the nightmare flashbacks don’t really mean anything to the reader.
Sorrentino’s art though is fantastic. He captures the eerie isolation of the lighthouse island beautifully and, without giving anything away, the imagery of what’s at the bottom of the well is really striking and memorable. I never tend to have anything bad to say about this artist’s work and that remains the case here.
There are more questions than answers in the story, which is to be expected from a first book in a series, but the effect is still unsatisfying. It’s not the most impressive of stories - it amounts to a bunch of creepy images, some horror cliches and little else - but I’m at least intrigued enough to want to see where the Boner Orchard is headed. As it is, The Passageway is an inauspicious start to this new horror title.
Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino have teamed up yet again for an ambitious new project: a shared horror universe called The Bone Orchard Mythos. I saw a double-page ad at the end of Primordial, their most recent collab, which I think listed five titles that are scheduled for this series, three of which are coming out this year alone! These two are nothing if not workhorses.
The Passageway is the first book in the series and, as often seems to be the case with Lemire/Sorrentino comics, it’s right purty but not much else.
The characters are so lightly written they may as well be ciphers. There’s the creepy lighthouse lady who clearly knows more than she’s letting on, the Canadian geologist who’s just A Guy but with disturbing dreams about his mother for some reason. We learn so little about the geologist that the nightmare flashbacks don’t really mean anything to the reader.
Sorrentino’s art though is fantastic. He captures the eerie isolation of the lighthouse island beautifully and, without giving anything away, the imagery of what’s at the bottom of the well is really striking and memorable. I never tend to have anything bad to say about this artist’s work and that remains the case here.
There are more questions than answers in the story, which is to be expected from a first book in a series, but the effect is still unsatisfying. It’s not the most impressive of stories - it amounts to a bunch of creepy images, some horror cliches and little else - but I’m at least intrigued enough to want to see where the Boner Orchard is headed. As it is, The Passageway is an inauspicious start to this new horror title.
October 11, 2022
I'm starting to think that the horror that works best in comics is the psychological kind: an idea that is frightening, an idea that slowly dawns on the reader (that said, good old visceral body horror can still pack a punch as well).
I think Lemire tries to do that in his horror writing, but his pacing tends to be off, and he too easily goes for clichés. Both happen here too. There's terrible pacing, barely any (much needed) build up, we're just rush-rush-rushing towards the end, we barely get an idea of the characters, nothing is allowed to breathe, nothing is allowed to settle. It results in one big shrug of a story.
And so we get an ominous black hole, we get a stranger in a strange land, we get an isolated place, we get creepy old people, we get creepy old people who ask if anyone is going to miss the main character, we get kaw!-kaw!-ing crows, we get repeating nightmares, we get a Lemirean dead mother, we get guilty little boys, we get an unreliable narrator who is possibly losing his mind, we get creepy crawlies on Sorrentino inserts. It's a wonder the island doesn't sink under the mountain of clichés.
Worst of all: there's nothing here that gets under your skin. Just one big shrug.
(Picked up an ARC through Edelweiss)
I think Lemire tries to do that in his horror writing, but his pacing tends to be off, and he too easily goes for clichés. Both happen here too. There's terrible pacing, barely any (much needed) build up, we're just rush-rush-rushing towards the end, we barely get an idea of the characters, nothing is allowed to breathe, nothing is allowed to settle. It results in one big shrug of a story.
And so we get an ominous black hole, we get a stranger in a strange land, we get an isolated place, we get creepy old people, we get creepy old people who ask if anyone is going to miss the main character, we get kaw!-kaw!-ing crows, we get repeating nightmares, we get a Lemirean dead mother, we get guilty little boys, we get an unreliable narrator who is possibly losing his mind, we get creepy crawlies on Sorrentino inserts. It's a wonder the island doesn't sink under the mountain of clichés.
Worst of all: there's nothing here that gets under your skin. Just one big shrug.
(Picked up an ARC through Edelweiss)
June 17, 2022
”I saw my mother last night. She had the same look on her face...except for her eyes. Why were her eyes gone? What—what took them? I can’t think about that. I can’t think about what took her eyes.
The Passageway is the second project set in Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino’s interconnected horror universe entitled "The Bone Orchard Mythos” from Image comics. This universe will have 1 or 2 projects a year for the foreseeable future, with over a dozen confirmed so far as of me writing this, all of which will be collected in OHC editions for you trade waiters. The first project, The Shadow Eaters, was a 32-page one-shot released a couple of weeks ago for Free Comic Book Day this year in the The Bone Orchard Mythos Prelude #1. The Passageway was just recently released as a 96-page OGN (Original Graphic Novel) that can be found physically in a sleek hardcover, both of which will then be followed up by Ten Thousand Black Feathers, a 5 issues miniseries starting this September, and The Tenement, another 96 page OGN releasing next spring. Joining Lemire & Sorrentino on every single one of these projects will be Dave Stewart as the colorist, Steve Wands as the designer & letterer, and editor Greg Lockard. While all these projects are interconnected, they are all standalone stories that can be read in any order on their own.
The two stories we’ve gotten from this universe so far are very similar, as we follow an emotionally distressed protagonist's journey to a secluded spot before their sense of reality begins to come crashing down around them as the horrors hidden around begin to show themselves. This story uses psychological horror to build up its scares, with Sorrentino’s incredible art doing mostly all the heavy lifting to make sure that dread comes across effectively. When this universe was first announced, I thought it would be like American Horror Story in how it connected the universe and presented the horror, but after reading this and the prelude, it definitely reminds me more of The Twilight Zone than anything else. While there really isn’t some mindfucky or macabre twist that caps off all these stories, it does feature the protagonist trying to figure out what is and isn’t real in a place that doesn’t seem to follow the rules of reality.
In case you couldn’t tell from the high score and glowing sentiments, I really loved this and had a great time reading this, but even though I adored it, it just isn’t anywhere close to perfect. I don’t know if I can or even would recommend this to people who aren’t big fans of this creative team like I am. The story works fine enough at the end of the day, but it’s serviceable at best if we’re being completely honest. It just goes by a bit too quickly for my tastes, meaning the pacing is kind of a total mess, but thankfully Sorrentino’s art is here to save it. Lemire’s a great writer and all, but this isn’t his best work by any means, especially in how he paces out his big story beats throughout the script. Sorrentino really did carry this book on his back. This dude is one of the best comic artists nowadays and he is at the top of his game here. He’s always shown how great he is with books like Green Arrow, Batman: Imposter, and Primordial, but this is his no doubt best work yet. He manages to constantly rack up the tension from the get go with his innovative use of layouts and paneling, and the imagery in the Passageway itself is freaky and worth the ever so slight build-up.
I was thinking about it and if any other artist had drawn this book, it would’ve fucking sucked and probably be rated one or two stars. I’m thinking of Lemire’s other longtime collaborators like Dustin Nguyen or even himself drawing this book, and it just wouldn’t have been nearly as compelling. Even other horror artists like Tyler Crook & Michael Walsh wouldn’t have been able to bring the energy this book needs, it only could have been Sorrentino. I kinda get why Lemire is starting this kind of interconnected universe up with him, as no one else would have been able to help him tell this story in the way he wants to. Sorrentino is the perfect artist to draw everything in this series, it’s literally almost as if the stories and the imagery in them were made just for him, which makes sense since he had just as much of a hand in creating this mythos as Lemire did.
Another complaint I want to touch on before wrapping this is the fact that Lemire claimed he wanted these books to be, and I quote, “character-driven”, which is a great goal to have and all, but you actually need to write interesting characters if you want to do that. Sal and John just aren’t all that great of characters, with John, in particular, having a pretty tropey backstory for a Lemire character, while Sal isn’t much better since she acts how most old people do in Lemire books. I honestly thought the nameless dude and his dog from the Prelude had more personality and depth than anyone in this, which is saying a lot since that was 32 pages and this is almost triple that length. I didn't hate John though, and I did like how this book ended for him, but he wasn't some gripping character or anything.
I loved this a lot, but that doesn't mean I would recommend it to others either. Unless you are a massive Lemire & Sorrentino fan like me, I'd say just wait for other titles in this universe to start coming out before jumping in. While I did get the gist of all this from the Prelude and Passageway, it does give you way more questions than answers, which may be unsatisfying for some. The main highlight of this series so far is Andrea Sorrentino's art, which is, as mentioned before, the best it has ever been before. Reading it in a physical edition also helped my enjoyment of this, because lets be honest, reading physical comics will always beat digital. Lemire's script and characters need some more work in future titles, especially if he wants these books to be "character-driven", but this was a fine enough second installment to this universe. I'm debating on whether to give this 3 or 4 stars, but I think I'm gonna keep it at 4 because the art really is that impressive and the hardcover itself is pretty great and worth buying at the cover price. Excited for Ten Thousand Black Feathers in September and whatever else this universe has on the way.
The Passageway is the second project set in Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino’s interconnected horror universe entitled "The Bone Orchard Mythos” from Image comics. This universe will have 1 or 2 projects a year for the foreseeable future, with over a dozen confirmed so far as of me writing this, all of which will be collected in OHC editions for you trade waiters. The first project, The Shadow Eaters, was a 32-page one-shot released a couple of weeks ago for Free Comic Book Day this year in the The Bone Orchard Mythos Prelude #1. The Passageway was just recently released as a 96-page OGN (Original Graphic Novel) that can be found physically in a sleek hardcover, both of which will then be followed up by Ten Thousand Black Feathers, a 5 issues miniseries starting this September, and The Tenement, another 96 page OGN releasing next spring. Joining Lemire & Sorrentino on every single one of these projects will be Dave Stewart as the colorist, Steve Wands as the designer & letterer, and editor Greg Lockard. While all these projects are interconnected, they are all standalone stories that can be read in any order on their own.
The two stories we’ve gotten from this universe so far are very similar, as we follow an emotionally distressed protagonist's journey to a secluded spot before their sense of reality begins to come crashing down around them as the horrors hidden around begin to show themselves. This story uses psychological horror to build up its scares, with Sorrentino’s incredible art doing mostly all the heavy lifting to make sure that dread comes across effectively. When this universe was first announced, I thought it would be like American Horror Story in how it connected the universe and presented the horror, but after reading this and the prelude, it definitely reminds me more of The Twilight Zone than anything else. While there really isn’t some mindfucky or macabre twist that caps off all these stories, it does feature the protagonist trying to figure out what is and isn’t real in a place that doesn’t seem to follow the rules of reality.
In case you couldn’t tell from the high score and glowing sentiments, I really loved this and had a great time reading this, but even though I adored it, it just isn’t anywhere close to perfect. I don’t know if I can or even would recommend this to people who aren’t big fans of this creative team like I am. The story works fine enough at the end of the day, but it’s serviceable at best if we’re being completely honest. It just goes by a bit too quickly for my tastes, meaning the pacing is kind of a total mess, but thankfully Sorrentino’s art is here to save it. Lemire’s a great writer and all, but this isn’t his best work by any means, especially in how he paces out his big story beats throughout the script. Sorrentino really did carry this book on his back. This dude is one of the best comic artists nowadays and he is at the top of his game here. He’s always shown how great he is with books like Green Arrow, Batman: Imposter, and Primordial, but this is his no doubt best work yet. He manages to constantly rack up the tension from the get go with his innovative use of layouts and paneling, and the imagery in the Passageway itself is freaky and worth the ever so slight build-up.
I was thinking about it and if any other artist had drawn this book, it would’ve fucking sucked and probably be rated one or two stars. I’m thinking of Lemire’s other longtime collaborators like Dustin Nguyen or even himself drawing this book, and it just wouldn’t have been nearly as compelling. Even other horror artists like Tyler Crook & Michael Walsh wouldn’t have been able to bring the energy this book needs, it only could have been Sorrentino. I kinda get why Lemire is starting this kind of interconnected universe up with him, as no one else would have been able to help him tell this story in the way he wants to. Sorrentino is the perfect artist to draw everything in this series, it’s literally almost as if the stories and the imagery in them were made just for him, which makes sense since he had just as much of a hand in creating this mythos as Lemire did.
Another complaint I want to touch on before wrapping this is the fact that Lemire claimed he wanted these books to be, and I quote, “character-driven”, which is a great goal to have and all, but you actually need to write interesting characters if you want to do that. Sal and John just aren’t all that great of characters, with John, in particular, having a pretty tropey backstory for a Lemire character, while Sal isn’t much better since she acts how most old people do in Lemire books. I honestly thought the nameless dude and his dog from the Prelude had more personality and depth than anyone in this, which is saying a lot since that was 32 pages and this is almost triple that length. I didn't hate John though, and I did like how this book ended for him, but he wasn't some gripping character or anything.
I loved this a lot, but that doesn't mean I would recommend it to others either. Unless you are a massive Lemire & Sorrentino fan like me, I'd say just wait for other titles in this universe to start coming out before jumping in. While I did get the gist of all this from the Prelude and Passageway, it does give you way more questions than answers, which may be unsatisfying for some. The main highlight of this series so far is Andrea Sorrentino's art, which is, as mentioned before, the best it has ever been before. Reading it in a physical edition also helped my enjoyment of this, because lets be honest, reading physical comics will always beat digital. Lemire's script and characters need some more work in future titles, especially if he wants these books to be "character-driven", but this was a fine enough second installment to this universe. I'm debating on whether to give this 3 or 4 stars, but I think I'm gonna keep it at 4 because the art really is that impressive and the hardcover itself is pretty great and worth buying at the cover price. Excited for Ten Thousand Black Feathers in September and whatever else this universe has on the way.
August 12, 2022
Sets a Lovecraftian tone for what is to come, but isn't much fulfilling on its own.
A geologist comes to a remote island lighthouse to investigate a mysterious deep hole that has appeared in the rocky soil. He repeatedly flashes back his mother's mysterious death as he deals with the mysterious lighthouse keeper. Birds mysteriously flock around the hole. Mysterious things happen, like eyeballs popping up everywhere. Or are they?
But what's it all mean? It's a mystery.
This reminds me too much of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, which starts cool and mysterious -- and features a lighthouse to boot -- but never ends up going anywhere. I'm very pessimistic about this getting better.
A geologist comes to a remote island lighthouse to investigate a mysterious deep hole that has appeared in the rocky soil. He repeatedly flashes back his mother's mysterious death as he deals with the mysterious lighthouse keeper. Birds mysteriously flock around the hole. Mysterious things happen, like eyeballs popping up everywhere. Or are they?
But what's it all mean? It's a mystery.
This reminds me too much of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, which starts cool and mysterious -- and features a lighthouse to boot -- but never ends up going anywhere. I'm very pessimistic about this getting better.
June 19, 2022
A geologist is called to a remote island to investigate the appearance of a perfect hole that has appeared overnight. Is this some natural phenomenon, or is there something more sinister at work?
I wanted to rate this higher, but it's really a whole lot of nothing so far. The first half of the story builds nicely, introducing the mystery and the strange characters that surround it, but the second half is so cryptic and obtuse that I had no idea what was going on. Whether this is meant to be a hook for the other Bone Orchard books or it's actually just a sign that I'm dumb, I'm not sure, but it left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
The artwork is of course phenomenal, because Andrea Sorrentino can't do anything else. His innovative panel arrangements are on display as always, and more than once he managed to give me a scare on a page-flip, which is hard to do in comics. Lemire always knows when to get out of the way and let Sorrentino work his magic.
Maybe in retrospect this book will be better, once it's placed into the grand context of the rest of the Mythos that Lemire and Sorrentino are crafting. But as a standalone book, there's not enough resolution or even a hint as to what the actual point was for me to recommend it right now.
I wanted to rate this higher, but it's really a whole lot of nothing so far. The first half of the story builds nicely, introducing the mystery and the strange characters that surround it, but the second half is so cryptic and obtuse that I had no idea what was going on. Whether this is meant to be a hook for the other Bone Orchard books or it's actually just a sign that I'm dumb, I'm not sure, but it left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
The artwork is of course phenomenal, because Andrea Sorrentino can't do anything else. His innovative panel arrangements are on display as always, and more than once he managed to give me a scare on a page-flip, which is hard to do in comics. Lemire always knows when to get out of the way and let Sorrentino work his magic.
Maybe in retrospect this book will be better, once it's placed into the grand context of the rest of the Mythos that Lemire and Sorrentino are crafting. But as a standalone book, there's not enough resolution or even a hint as to what the actual point was for me to recommend it right now.
September 4, 2022
The Bone Orchard Mythos: The Passageway is an Image Comics original graphic novel written by Jeff Lemire, art by Andrea Sorrentino, and colors by Dave Stewart.
A geologist is sent to a remote island and lighthouse to investigate a giant mysterious pit that has appeared.
I was so excited to read this after the fantastic FCBD Prelude issue. This is a new shared universe horror series that will all be produced by the same creative team. But this book feels incredibly incomplete. The tone, atmosphere, and first third of the book are fantastic. A really cool mystery is set up and it feels incredibly dark. And then it feels like that was all Lemire could think of, gives up, and says “Hey Sorrentino, go draw whatever you want for the rest of this book.” And thankfully Sorrentino’s art keeps the book going. I can’t help but think Lemire has too much on his plate and should slow down. Mazebook was amazing but Primordial and now The Passageway have felt like great premises that were never fleshed out. I’m still looking forward to future entries of this series, but I will be a little more skeptical now.
A geologist is sent to a remote island and lighthouse to investigate a giant mysterious pit that has appeared.
I was so excited to read this after the fantastic FCBD Prelude issue. This is a new shared universe horror series that will all be produced by the same creative team. But this book feels incredibly incomplete. The tone, atmosphere, and first third of the book are fantastic. A really cool mystery is set up and it feels incredibly dark. And then it feels like that was all Lemire could think of, gives up, and says “Hey Sorrentino, go draw whatever you want for the rest of this book.” And thankfully Sorrentino’s art keeps the book going. I can’t help but think Lemire has too much on his plate and should slow down. Mazebook was amazing but Primordial and now The Passageway have felt like great premises that were never fleshed out. I’m still looking forward to future entries of this series, but I will be a little more skeptical now.
September 9, 2022
A fun fast-paced horror book by Lemire and Sorrentino. Hard to hate this even if it has some issues. The art is nice, the story goes by quick. It's pretty disposable. With some deeper writing, this could have been great. It needed some more character development (or some actual characters). These characters are just empty.
October 12, 2022
(Zero spoiler review)
I can barely bother my ass to find an original way to state just how absurdly overrated Jeff Lemire is. I can't recall how many attempts I've given this man to impress me, and yet he never fails to find new ways to let me down. Lemire, along with a few noted others, epitomise the talentless comic book 'big name', and I offer The Passageway: Bone Orchard as exhibit A, for the dreadful state of the comic book industry as a whole. This is it! This is the kind of shite a supposed luminary of the genre offers up. This was somehow considered good enough to publish! And not only that, but somehow he managed to rope Andrea Sorrentino into doing the artwork. The only, and I mean the only saving grace of this shameful waste of a once wonderful tree, is Sorrentino's art. Lemire's limp, weak, watered down script (that quite probably took him all of two hours to write), and that's if I'm being generous), is painful to gaze upon. This is a hazily recollected dream, quickly jotted down as a first draft, that somehow made it to print with zero additional effort or oversight. There isn't really even any writing here to speak of. It pisses me off that a writer can shit out a few paragraphs, space it over a few or more pages, then call it a script, and expect an artist to spend weeks or months labouring over it. It's pathetic and uncreative, and I can't stand it.
There is zero characterisation, zero story, zero tension (beyond whatever Sorrentino evokes despite Lemire's best efforts to ruin it). Zero everything really. And a big fat zero is what this dreck deserves, though again, it gets two for Sorrentino's efforts, even though I wish he would stick to sequential panels and let the abstract collage's and quirky designs go. If Gideon Falls wasn't a disappointing enough kick to the nuts with all that it promised yet failed to deliver, then read The Passageway. Or you could do something equally worthwhile, like insert long sharp objects into your ear canal and the finger paint with what pours forth. Your writing is bad, Jeff. How you could look yourself in the mirror and call this a solid effort is beyond me. Avoid like the plague. 2/5
OmniBen.
I can barely bother my ass to find an original way to state just how absurdly overrated Jeff Lemire is. I can't recall how many attempts I've given this man to impress me, and yet he never fails to find new ways to let me down. Lemire, along with a few noted others, epitomise the talentless comic book 'big name', and I offer The Passageway: Bone Orchard as exhibit A, for the dreadful state of the comic book industry as a whole. This is it! This is the kind of shite a supposed luminary of the genre offers up. This was somehow considered good enough to publish! And not only that, but somehow he managed to rope Andrea Sorrentino into doing the artwork. The only, and I mean the only saving grace of this shameful waste of a once wonderful tree, is Sorrentino's art. Lemire's limp, weak, watered down script (that quite probably took him all of two hours to write), and that's if I'm being generous), is painful to gaze upon. This is a hazily recollected dream, quickly jotted down as a first draft, that somehow made it to print with zero additional effort or oversight. There isn't really even any writing here to speak of. It pisses me off that a writer can shit out a few paragraphs, space it over a few or more pages, then call it a script, and expect an artist to spend weeks or months labouring over it. It's pathetic and uncreative, and I can't stand it.
There is zero characterisation, zero story, zero tension (beyond whatever Sorrentino evokes despite Lemire's best efforts to ruin it). Zero everything really. And a big fat zero is what this dreck deserves, though again, it gets two for Sorrentino's efforts, even though I wish he would stick to sequential panels and let the abstract collage's and quirky designs go. If Gideon Falls wasn't a disappointing enough kick to the nuts with all that it promised yet failed to deliver, then read The Passageway. Or you could do something equally worthwhile, like insert long sharp objects into your ear canal and the finger paint with what pours forth. Your writing is bad, Jeff. How you could look yourself in the mirror and call this a solid effort is beyond me. Avoid like the plague. 2/5
OmniBen.
January 29, 2023
I should've paid attention to who the artist is ... this is Gideon Falls all over again.
And just like Gideon Falls, the creepy character designs always draw me in, but then the formatting of the panels with all the boxes, spirals, and separated bits, and then the convoluted story make me regret starting it.
But hey, at least this one is short.
2.5
And just like Gideon Falls, the creepy character designs always draw me in, but then the formatting of the panels with all the boxes, spirals, and separated bits, and then the convoluted story make me regret starting it.
But hey, at least this one is short.
2.5
July 5, 2022
Really great art, weird as fuck, and the dialogue is solid. But the story itself is a bit too weird, bit too "What is happening" without too many answers. Creepy though and some great visuals. A 3 out of 5.
October 11, 2022
I'm going to go with 3 stars for this, since the artwork is a standout. The story is a bit too inscrutable to be really a success, but it might get better once we can see where it fits into this new mythos. I did like the isolated lighthouse and island and the creepy factor, but it doesn't really add up to much...
November 9, 2025
Comme d'habitude, j'aime beaucoup le dessin, cette présence très brutale, vivante voire viscérale du rouge qui éclate dans le gris, c'est très puissant ! On pourrait dire qu'il y a peu de paroles, mais le dessin se suffit à lui-même. C'est une bd d'ambiance et j'aime.
January 1, 2025
Very atmospheric horror, but I also read it in under 30 minutes. I’ll read the rest of the Bone Orchard Mythos, but my suggestion right now is to wait for an omnibus.
August 30, 2022
Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino created some great spooky vibes with Gideon Falls - and completely failed to tell a coherent story. Welp, the duo are back again with another incoherent, yet very spooky story in The Passageway.
A geologist arrives on a lighthouse rock to investigate a mysterious hole. We see flashbacks to a childhood in which his mother died (and lost her eyes?). We also meet the lighthouse keeper, Sal, who hasn't been to shore in 25 years.
Before you know it, we're down the rabbit-hole, uncovering brutally fantastic architecture, naked old women, and waves of blood. What does it all mean? Why should I care? Totally unclear. The Passageway is part of a grander "Bone Orchard Mythos," so maybe further reading will offer clues. Or, this'll all turn out like Gideon Falls: great visuals, terrible storytelling.
A geologist arrives on a lighthouse rock to investigate a mysterious hole. We see flashbacks to a childhood in which his mother died (and lost her eyes?). We also meet the lighthouse keeper, Sal, who hasn't been to shore in 25 years.
Before you know it, we're down the rabbit-hole, uncovering brutally fantastic architecture, naked old women, and waves of blood. What does it all mean? Why should I care? Totally unclear. The Passageway is part of a grander "Bone Orchard Mythos," so maybe further reading will offer clues. Or, this'll all turn out like Gideon Falls: great visuals, terrible storytelling.
Read
May 14, 2022It's the Gideon Falls team, back with more ominous locations, moody layouts, uneasy family histories, and scary faces suddenly popping up where you weren't expecting them. I imagine that, much like Gideon Falls, the more we get explanations the less satisfying it will be. But for now, Lemire is being smart enough to step back and let Sorrentino weave a mood. And what a mood! The lonely lighthouse looms well, the mysterious hole nearby is suitably menacing, but it was once we saw what was down there that I realised Sorrentino is the only artist I'd trust to illustrate House Of Leaves.
(Edelweiss ARC)
(Edelweiss ARC)
Read
June 23, 2023Bone Orchard é um projeto ousado. Diferentes histórias que podem ser single editions, graphic novels, séries contínuas... passadas num mesmo universo de horror. Ousada também é a estratégia de não contar nada a respeito desse universo para o leitor. Tudo o que acompanhamos são histórias de pessoas entrando em contato com diferentes elementos de horror que quebram nossa expectativa de realidade. Só ao longo do tempo é que os leitores começarão a ligar os pontos e as histórias revelarão um pano de fundo maior.
O problema é que isso significa comprar e ler quadrinhos com um pacto de não entendimento. Pelas avaliações, dá para ver que o produto em si não tem agradado a todos. Até porque, sem sabermos a ideia por trás do projeto a sensação ao lermos The Passageway é a de que não entendemos nada nem sobre os personagens. O elemento de horror sendo um mero detalhe.
Gosto de finais abertos, acho que entendimento é superestimado como critério de qualidade, que a subjetividade é tão ou mais importante do que a superfície das coisas, que o onírico deveria se sobrepor mais vezes a racionalidade, MAS... é preciso estender a mão para o leitor de alguma maneira.
Tenho certeza de que um roteirista com o currículo imenso do Jeff Lemire conseguiria fazer isso se quisesse. Gideon Falls taí de prova. Espero que ele corrija o curso nas próximas histórias de Bone Orchard para que um projeto criativo como esse não fique pelo caminho.
O problema é que isso significa comprar e ler quadrinhos com um pacto de não entendimento. Pelas avaliações, dá para ver que o produto em si não tem agradado a todos. Até porque, sem sabermos a ideia por trás do projeto a sensação ao lermos The Passageway é a de que não entendemos nada nem sobre os personagens. O elemento de horror sendo um mero detalhe.
Gosto de finais abertos, acho que entendimento é superestimado como critério de qualidade, que a subjetividade é tão ou mais importante do que a superfície das coisas, que o onírico deveria se sobrepor mais vezes a racionalidade, MAS... é preciso estender a mão para o leitor de alguma maneira.
Tenho certeza de que um roteirista com o currículo imenso do Jeff Lemire conseguiria fazer isso se quisesse. Gideon Falls taí de prova. Espero que ele corrija o curso nas próximas histórias de Bone Orchard para que um projeto criativo como esse não fique pelo caminho.
November 9, 2025
You get punched at some page turns. The ambiance is weird and dark, nightmarish.
A book of impressions
A book of impressions
March 31, 2022
Received an early review copy of this, devoured it immediately, and it did not disappoint. A great graphic novel (if a little short) with some jaw dropping scenes and creepy imagery throughout. I’m very excited to see how Lemire and Sorrentino develop the mythos further.
July 1, 2022
Incredible art. Not heavy on story though. Not sure where this new 'shared universe' of horror is headed, but I enjoyed Gideon Falls enough that I am willing to give these guys the benefit of the doubt and keep checking out the rest of the Bone Orchard Mythos...at least for now.
July 30, 2022
Art 5
Story 2
Story is … minimal
Art is stellar
Story 2
Story is … minimal
Art is stellar
March 15, 2024
Gorgeous existential weirdness that I have come to expect from Lemire.
July 1, 2023
Don't buy it, for god sakes. You'll breeze through it, before you finish taking the dump.
It's called a 'novel'. It's not a novel. At best, it's a story you can fit in for a free comic book day issue.
And yeah, it should be free. You can't charge money for sth like this, it's bordering on unethical already, what this guy's doing and I'm not even joking. It's insulting and bordering on criminal.
But I know that at this point Lemire just does THAT and then you think about somebody like Alan Moore and suddenly, you know Lemire isn't a writer. He's tried to sell a premise and an idea in its infancy as a fully baked product every god damn time now.
Maybe he's just looking for sb to license his 'INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY' to get some netflix deals. Good luck with that. This and his other recent 'works' are just overpriced storyboards drawn by a brilliant artist locked in a basement.
It's called a 'novel'. It's not a novel. At best, it's a story you can fit in for a free comic book day issue.
And yeah, it should be free. You can't charge money for sth like this, it's bordering on unethical already, what this guy's doing and I'm not even joking. It's insulting and bordering on criminal.
But I know that at this point Lemire just does THAT and then you think about somebody like Alan Moore and suddenly, you know Lemire isn't a writer. He's tried to sell a premise and an idea in its infancy as a fully baked product every god damn time now.
Maybe he's just looking for sb to license his 'INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY' to get some netflix deals. Good luck with that. This and his other recent 'works' are just overpriced storyboards drawn by a brilliant artist locked in a basement.
June 25, 2022
My biggest gripe with this book is it’s overpriced for what you get, it’s such a short story, way too short for a poorly assembled book that clocks in at over 25$ CAD after conversion and taxes. The build is the same as the Marvel Now premier HCs, gutter loss and all.
The story isn’t bad, there’s a great sense anxiety throughout that enhanced the psychological and cosmic horror elements found in the book but it’s also very ephemeral and too many pieces just aren’t there and the reader is expected to come up with his own interpretation of just what the hell happened. Very mid.
The art is great, there’s amazing imagery found throughout.
The story isn’t bad, there’s a great sense anxiety throughout that enhanced the psychological and cosmic horror elements found in the book but it’s also very ephemeral and too many pieces just aren’t there and the reader is expected to come up with his own interpretation of just what the hell happened. Very mid.
The art is great, there’s amazing imagery found throughout.
July 28, 2022
Lemire and his writing is in this the weaker piece, but still delivered what I was expecting from this. Which are simple characters, weird elements/places, and "what the fuck actually happened and how should I understand it?". Sorrentino's art is once again something I admire and always will, Stewart's colors are once again the thing that really adds up to that art quality. And though I will never feel that some comic book is really unsettling as when I was reading Infidel, this was still pretty good. 4/5
September 21, 2022
Weird and rough start to Lemire's new Bone orchard series. A strange story about a mysterious small island that has a deep dark hole on it. You really don't get much beyond except for some character building. It is a very creepy series and I am glad Lemire is going in that direction but it needs more development before I can tell if it is good.
Sorrentino is fantastic in the art and it really helps the book because there are times when the writing is sparse. I am on the fence but I am intrigued with the idea.
Sorrentino is fantastic in the art and it really helps the book because there are times when the writing is sparse. I am on the fence but I am intrigued with the idea.
July 9, 2022
3.5 stars
A promising, evocative first entry in this world, with stark imaginative art from Sorrentino and Stewart. Lemire’s writing is mostly vibes (eerie dread primarily) but I’m intrigued by what little story is hinted at. I’d admittedly be more excited about what’s to come if I hadn’t fallen off the so-far familiar Gideon Falls in its back half, but even so I’m still squarely interested to see how this world develops.
A promising, evocative first entry in this world, with stark imaginative art from Sorrentino and Stewart. Lemire’s writing is mostly vibes (eerie dread primarily) but I’m intrigued by what little story is hinted at. I’d admittedly be more excited about what’s to come if I hadn’t fallen off the so-far familiar Gideon Falls in its back half, but even so I’m still squarely interested to see how this world develops.
February 16, 2023
I’m so confused why there are so many bad reviews my only complaint is that I want more, the last three pages tear your heart out. I’m in tears.
Also I don’t think you need to read the prelude to enjoy this.
Also I don’t think you need to read the prelude to enjoy this.
June 8, 2022
A geologist from the Geologic Survey is dispatched to a remote lighthouse island to investigate an unusual hole in the rock, and what he finds is beyond expectation.
I must admit, I might have found this book more intense were it not for my own recent reading history. In the past year or so, I’ve read more than one book placing a stranger on a lighthouse island, and so it feels cliché. I can’t say for certain whether it’s truly an overused plot device or a fluke of my reading selections (though they were all new releases.) The lighthouse is a visceral setting by virtue of its isolation, with only an antisocial lighthouse keeper for company.
The bigger challenge for me was the decision to let the art do much of the heavy lifting at the climax of the story. This created a great deal of ambiguity, and I couldn’t tell whether it was purposeful / strategic ambiguity or whether it was just a misunderstanding of what the reader would glean from the rapid succession of stylized panels. The artist did a good job of capturing the stark and frightful imagery necessary to achieve the requisite emotional palette for the story. However, I was distracted by so many questions: “Is this meant to be real or a dream?” “Why does the island work that way?” “What is the story’s base reality?” etc.
The book’s art and premise are good (if overly familiar,) but I felt the story was given short shrift, possibly the author was more focused on the overarching story and not enough on this as a standalone entity. Long-story-short: it’s okay, and maybe as a whole the series will be more promising.
I must admit, I might have found this book more intense were it not for my own recent reading history. In the past year or so, I’ve read more than one book placing a stranger on a lighthouse island, and so it feels cliché. I can’t say for certain whether it’s truly an overused plot device or a fluke of my reading selections (though they were all new releases.) The lighthouse is a visceral setting by virtue of its isolation, with only an antisocial lighthouse keeper for company.
The bigger challenge for me was the decision to let the art do much of the heavy lifting at the climax of the story. This created a great deal of ambiguity, and I couldn’t tell whether it was purposeful / strategic ambiguity or whether it was just a misunderstanding of what the reader would glean from the rapid succession of stylized panels. The artist did a good job of capturing the stark and frightful imagery necessary to achieve the requisite emotional palette for the story. However, I was distracted by so many questions: “Is this meant to be real or a dream?” “Why does the island work that way?” “What is the story’s base reality?” etc.
The book’s art and premise are good (if overly familiar,) but I felt the story was given short shrift, possibly the author was more focused on the overarching story and not enough on this as a standalone entity. Long-story-short: it’s okay, and maybe as a whole the series will be more promising.
July 18, 2022
Lemire and Sorrentino are a powerhouse comic team. Gideon Falls is one of my favorite comics of all time, and this has a lot of the same feel and aesthetic. The artwork is gorgeous and the page layouts are amazing. This is definitely a story that is driven by the art on the page more than the writing. As the start of a shared universe of horror, I am excited to see more. I just wish we would have had a more definitive story arc within this volume. It does not feel like a complete story. In comics that is not unusual, but I was under the impression that these were standalone stories. This does not feel like the case. Since I plan on reading everything released within this world, I do not mind so much. Others may find it disappointing.
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