Trapped inside an old gothic mansion, Deadman must battle the forces of darkness alongside Berenice, a young woman with a complicated love life who is gifted—or cursed—with the ability to communicate with the dead. Romance, mystery, and evil await in the new, bimonthly miniseries.

Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love is written by Sarah Vaughn who is part of the team behind Alex + Ada, a painfully overlooked Image series that you should go out and check out. For folks who have read it, it should be no surprise as to how good this first issue is. Vaughn is extremely talented and this debut issue is a haunting mystery with just enough creep to hook horror fans. I’m not even that big of a horror fan and I immediately want more even with the comic being double the size of a normal comic.

Vaughn does an amazing job teasing out the mystery as the issue progresses giving the reader just enough information as they need to know. In many ways we’re finding things out as the main character Berenice does and that creates excellent pacing in this oversized issue that feels like a solid deal for the price.

The comic is helped by the art of Lan Medina which is helped by colorist José Villarrubia. I said the comic has a nice creep factor about and the art is haunting as well. No idea how to describe the combination but it feels like a color pencil style (not meant as an insult, I really like it). The art too has this weird throwback style about it for the characters and the setting though I’m not quite sure exactly when. That mystery adds to it somehow.

I honestly went into this with no expectations and maybe a bit of a negative one (I don’t care too much for Deadman), but came out loving it. I can’t wait to see the next issue not just for Vaughn’s solid writing, but Medina’s art too. If you’re a fan of horror this is one you’ll absolutely want to check out as it’s a solid comic to be released as we head into the Halloween season.

Story: Sarah Vaughn Art: Lan Medina
Story: 9 Art: 9 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review