House of Horror 48 - Daphne Byrne

:house_of_horror: Greetings Horror Hounds! :house_of_horror:

I am somewhat in a hurry as I was hoping to get this done earlier but the day has been a bit hectic for me. I hope everyone enjoyed reading Hellblazer: Rise and Fall last week.

Halloween is just 2 weeks away and I have slowly been getting into the mood. I have been watching some horror movies and reading Wonder Woman from New 52. I know you might be thinking that isn’t a horror title but I definitely see horror vibes throughout the series. Anyway, what comics or movies or tv shows have you been watching to get ready for Halloween?

:st_swamp_thing: If you missed a House of Horror event have no fear! Here is a list of every HoH topic! Feel free to jump into the conversation no matter how old the topic is! :00_swamp_thing:

EVERY HOUSE OF HORROR EVER

House of Horror 1 - House of Mystery
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House of Horror 7 - Member Picks Vol. 1
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House of Horror 12 - Plunging Into The Infinite
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House of Horror 43 - THE SANDMAN BY NEIL GAIMAN
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This week we are going to take a journey to the late 19th-century with Daphne Byrne. This is a Hill House book, which is a House of Horror favorite. However, this is not for the kiddos. While Joe Hill didn’t write this comic, Laura Marks did. She knows a thing or two about horror as she has also written episodes for the tv series The Exorcist.

:house_of_horror:BOOKS TO READ:house_of_horror:
Daphne Byrne 1 (2020) (rated 17+)

Daphne Byrne 2 (2020) (rated 17+)

Daphne Byrne 3 (2020) (rated 17+)

Daphne Byrne 4 (2020) (rated 17+)

Daphne Byrne 5 (2020) (rated 17+)

Daphne Byrne 6 (2020) (rated 17+)


Don’t forget to tell us what your thoughts of this week’s books!!!

Halloween Profiles:
Cain
Zatanna
Madame Xanadu
Circe
Swamp Thing
Deadman
Justice League Dark
John Constantine
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

A few new horror comics are hitting comic store shelves this week! We might not be reading the books right away and some of them might even be discussed in other clubs upon release. Think of this as a preview of what might be lurking in the dark corners of House of Horror.

:house_of_horror: 10/26/2021 :house_of_horror:

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:house_of_horror: New to DCUI 10/26/2021 :house_of_horror:
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This series has been on my short list for a real long time. I can’t wait for some Victorian horror!

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I’m 100% on Hill House comics so far. Loved every one of them. I know I’ll like it!!!

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I might start it now. I was about to go to bed. Then my friend texted me that there’s a documentary about my friend from high schools mom, my friends dad was suspected of murdering her. My entire town, my barber and his wife who is also a barber are all over it. Even shows him wrestling at my high school & the Flea Market I put on promote your local comic shop. Whole documentary is set in my town. Here’s the flea market & documentary. It’s on Discovery +.


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I finally caught up on all the previous weeks of HoH readings so I can participate in real time now haha. I’ve loved all the other Hill House comics we’ve read, but this one doesn’t really do it for me. It was definitely a scary story, but this time period isn’t my favorite setting. I did love how crafty the artist was in censoring the nudity in the last book though. This panel is a great example:

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DC vs Vampires looks like a fun read. I’ll for sure check that one out.

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Hey there @thisiscourt! So glad you have finally caught up!!! I still have to read Daphne Byrne, which will probably happen tonight after I get some quality time in on Tales of Arise on the PS5.

I do think you will be enjoying next week’s selections a lot more.

I have had that on my pull list for a while and completely forgot about it until this week! After DCeased, I am willing to try anything that I might have rolled my eyes at in the past.

Did anyone happen to pick up Refrigerator Full Of Heads this week? That first issue was the start of something and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

On a completely unrelated note, expect to see many more of the Halloween Profiles pop up in the very near future!

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I have to agree with you. I didn’t strongly dislike this story but it seemed rushed. Where other Hill House stories with the same book count build a world around the story, this one was just a story with horror stuff happening.

One thing I did enjoy was the showcasing of the seance stuff. During this time period seances were really popular. Socialites and the common person were both known to frequent these parlors. I have read past presidents and first ladies were even believers in this and seances took place in the White House.

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I’m not saying a word because I’ll probably love it lol.

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I’m with you, I’ve been enjoying it so far I’m on issue 3. I love the atmosphere of the darkness deepening around poor Daphne. The gathering vultures around Mrs Byrne, the bullies picking on Daphne. The mixture of realities nightmares and the looming evil has got me on edge. I’m excited to see where this goes.

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I’m literally going to read it right now. I’m halfway thru issue 2 & same place as u mentally. I’m excited also.

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I loved it lol. Art was great. I loved how it was kind of up to the reader to determine if she was insane? Or, just a victim of darker powers? As a double science major, I appreciated the Trilobite fossil. That was the beginning of the Cambrian Explosion. When organisms started to develop the abilities of predator vs prey. A perfect parallel to what was happening in the storyline. Trilobites we’re the most dominant species in the ocean of their time. Developed hardened skeletons which started the predator vs prey arms race. Definitely worth the read.

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I loved it too! Had to finish it once I wrote the comment above. I got myself all hyped.

The thing I love about stories set in times before our own is the sense of danger in everyday life and how precarious everyone’s situations are. There is also this early discovery of natural science and psychology. The ability to observe things were still very on the surface and the understanding wasn’t all that deep so a lot of mistakes were made.

The predator/prey theme was very strong in this story. Every character with the exception of the librarian was one or the other.

I’m leaning toward the later. She broke the ropes and strangled Mr. Flemming. It is unclear though which makes you think about it hard.

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:joy::joy::rofl::rofl::rofl: oh man that got me. Yeah, I like stories where the reader can draw his/her (choose your pronoun) opinions on what’s actually happening in it.

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During this time period seances were really popular.

I just listened to a really interesting episode of the Criminal podcast today about seances. Apparently Harry Houdini was really exposing fraud psychics in the 1920s. The episode also talked about how seances usually get really popular around events of mass death (like wars and stuff). I wonder if we’re seeing an uptick in seances these days since we’ve seen so much death with the pandemic.

Anyways, the episode was really interesting and made me want to read more about this stuff. Weird how timely it was haha. Here’s the link if anyone’s interested: Criminal Episode 175: Ghost Racket Crusade

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That is amazing timing!! I was sucked down a rabbit hole of articles about how Mary Todd Lincoln would have seances in the White House so she could speak to her child. Then she was known to have them later in life to speak to her other child and husband.

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Wow thanks for bringing this perspective in, I had no idea so this symbology went right over my head. I feel like the writers could have been more effective with that as a symbol. Makes me wonder if there were any others that I just didn’t get…

Thinking about in one of the earlier issues where Daphne wakes up and gets her period for the first time. I was thinking maybe they’d go a little deeper into that as a symbol or bring it back in some way, but it kind of got brushed over. Feels like there were some metaphors and parallels that the writers tried to tie in but they just end up feeling loose and not thought through all the way.

Either way, love this bit you pointed out about the trilobites @capo-mage

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I had that feeling as well. Actually, about the very instance that you brought up. Like it happened and then nothing. I think it was to help blur the lines between reality and her dreams/spirit world. I can see the trauma in it but it sort of fell flat for me.

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Ty, I felt like such a geek cuz I was so excited to finish reading it & drop that tidbit lol. The other Hill House books were better, imho, but they were so good it’s easy to say that. Daphne was definitely my least favorite out of the ones on here so far. But, I still loved it & will reread it at some point.

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