Mine Is a Long, Lonesome Grave

Folk horror meets small-town noir in this chilling outing from Jordan (The Strange Talent of Luther Strode), Shehan (House of Slaughter), and House (Morning Star). Fresh out of prison, tough guy Harley Creed returns to his Appalachian hometown of Briar Falls to check on his estranged daughter, Maybelle, despite being warned, “Ain’t nothing here but death.” Briar Falls is a stronghold of dark folk magic, and the most powerful witching family in town, the Weavers, nurses an old grudge against Creed. When he’s hexed with the Black Bone Curse, which will kill him if he can’t kill the person who cast it first, he’s forced to unleash his own deadly mystical skills. If the story is sometimes too elliptical for its own good—the narrative almost reaches its end before sketching a clear picture of the feud’s stakes—the streaky, shadowy, and boldly colored art, reminiscent of classic Vertigo artists like Duncan Fegredo, sets the perfect eerie backwoods mood. In the book’s most effective recurring image, spectral faces hover behind Creed as a reminder of the secrets he carries. Horror fans will fall under this graphic novel’s spell. (Dec.)