Gideon Falls, Vol. 1 Review: Lemire & Sorrentino Horror
Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's mind-bending horror with stunning layouts.
By Web Admin
Every so often a horror comic comes along that doesn’t just tell a scary story — it uses the form of comics itself to unsettle you. Gideon Falls is that comic. Written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino, with colorist Dave Stewart, this Image Comics series launched in 2018 and won the Eisner Award for Best New Series. Volume 1, “The Black Barn,” collects the first six issues and introduces one of the most visually daring, genuinely frightening horror comics of the modern era. Here’s our full review.
What is Gideon Falls?
Gideon Falls is a complete, creator-owned horror series by writer Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Descender, Essex County) and artist Andrea Sorrentino (Green Arrow, Old Man Logan), colored by the great Dave Stewart. Published by Image Comics from 2018 to 2020, it runs 27 issues collected across six trade paperbacks — so it’s a finished story, not an open-ended commitment. Volume 1, “The Black Barn,” gathers the first six issues and sets the central mystery in motion.
The book follows two men in two very different places, apparently connected by an impossible structure: the Black Barn, a shifting, malevolent building that shouldn’t exist and yet keeps appearing across time and space, leaving madness and death in its wake.
Two men, one impossible barn
The story splits between two protagonists. Norton Sinclair is a troubled young man in a big city, obsessive-compulsive and haunted, who compulsively sifts through garbage searching for fragments of a barn he can’t stop seeing, under the care of a psychiatrist, Dr. Angela Xu. Meanwhile, in the rural town of Gideon Falls, Father Fred, a new priest with a checkered past, and the town’s sheriff, Clara Sutton, begin investigating a series of eerie deaths tied to local legend. The two threads circle the same horror from opposite ends, and Lemire slowly, expertly draws them together.
The Black Barn: horror as a place
The Black Barn is a superb horror concept — less a monster than a wrong place, a structure that violates the rules of space and reality. It appears where it shouldn’t, its interior doesn’t match its exterior, and encountering it fractures the mind. Lemire wisely keeps it mostly mysterious in Volume 1, doling out dread rather than answers. It taps into a deep, primal fear: the ordinary building that is subtly, catastrophically wrong.
The art: Andrea Sorrentino breaks the page
This is where Gideon Falls becomes essential. Andrea Sorrentino is one of the most inventive layout artists in comics, and here he treats the page itself as a tool of horror. Panels fracture and rotate; images repeat and shatter; the “camera” spins around a scene in ways that would be impossible in film. He uses inset panels, mirrored compositions, and negative space to make you feel the reality-warping influence of the Barn. Dave Stewart’s coloring — muted and grim, then suddenly punctuated with sickly red — completes the effect. Several sequences genuinely made us stop and study how the page was built. This is comics doing something only comics can do.
The story: dread over shock
Lemire builds his horror through atmosphere and mystery rather than cheap jump-scares. The first volume is a slow, mounting spiral of unease — a mystery-box structure that keeps raising better questions. Because the full series is complete in six volumes, you can trust that the questions do get answers; Lemire and Sorrentino stick the landing across the run. But Volume 1’s job is to hook you with dread, and it does so ruthlessly.
Content warning
This is a horror comic, and it earns the label. Expect graphic violence, gore, body horror, disturbing imagery, and themes of mental illness and trauma. It’s genuinely frightening and firmly for mature readers — not a book for the squeamish or for younger teens.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Some of the most inventive page layouts in modern comics
- A complete, satisfying story in six volumes
- Slow-burn, atmospheric dread over cheap scares
- An excellent horror concept in the Black Barn
Cons
- Deliberately mysterious — Vol. 1 raises more than it answers
- Graphic gore and body horror
- The experimental layouts demand active reading
Lemire, Sorrentino, and their other work
Jeff Lemire is one of the most prolific and versatile creators in comics, moving between quiet indie drama (Essex County), sci-fi (Descender), and the post-apocalyptic Sweet Tooth, now a Netflix series. Sorrentino has drawn acclaimed superhero work, but Gideon Falls is where his experimental instincts run fully free. The pair reunited afterward on Primordial and Bone Orchard, but Gideon Falls remains their signature horror statement — and one of the strongest arguments for Image as the home of ambitious creator-owned comics.
How it compares to other horror comics
If you love horror comics, Gideon Falls sits comfortably alongside modern greats. Where Monstress mixes horror into dense dark fantasy and books like Locke & Key lean into ornate mythology, Gideon Falls is purer, colder, and more formally daring — a mystery-driven cosmic horror that uses the comics page as its scariest weapon. It belongs firmly on any short list of the best horror comics and stands as one of the finest showcases in our best Image comics guide.
Which edition should you buy?
The series is collected in trades, deluxe hardcovers, and a compendium. Here’s how they compare.
| Edition | Collects | Approx. price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vol. 1: The Black Barn | Issues #1–6 | ~US$10 | Trying it out |
| Deluxe Edition hardcovers | Two volumes each | ~US$30 each | Showcasing the art |
| Compendium (complete) | All 27 issues | ~US$60 | Best value binge |
Because Sorrentino’s layouts benefit so much from scale, the oversized Deluxe editions or the complete Compendium are the ideal ways to experience the art.
AmazonCheck price on AmazonIs it a good starting point?
For horror fans, yes — it’s accessible, complete, and instantly gripping. Its experimental layouts even make a great argument for why print comics can do things no other medium can. If you’re brand new to comics and want gentler on-ramps first, browse our best Image comics guide or explore the broader Indie hub before diving into the Black Barn.
The verdict
Gideon Falls is a triumph of horror comics — a genuinely frightening mystery told with some of the boldest page design the medium has produced, and wrapped up in a complete, six-volume story you can actually finish. It’s a fixture on our best horror comics list, and if you have the stomach for it, it’s one of the most rewarding scary reads in comics.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gideon Falls finished?
Yes. It’s a complete story that ran for 27 issues from 2018 to 2020, collected in six trade paperbacks, with a definitive ending. There’s no ongoing series to keep up with.
Is Gideon Falls scary?
Very. It builds dread through atmosphere, mystery, and disturbing imagery rather than cheap jump-scares, and it includes real gore and body horror. It’s one of the more genuinely frightening comics of recent years.
Do I need to read anything else first?
No. Volume 1 is a complete starting point that requires no prior reading. Just begin with “The Black Barn.”
What makes the art so praised?
Andrea Sorrentino uses fractured, rotating, and mirrored panel layouts to make the page itself feel unstable, mirroring the reality-warping horror of the story. It’s some of the most inventive page design in modern comics.
Explore more terrifying reads in our best horror comics guide, or browse creator-owned favorites in the Indie hub.
