Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dc, entertainment, house of penance, peter tomasi, superman

From The House Of El To The House Of Penance With Peter Tomasi

Published Fri, 04 Mar 2016 14:00:30 -0600

Last updated Fri, 04 Mar 2016 14:21:43 -0600

Bleeding Cool, as we reported, has been told that Pete Tomasi will be the writer of the ongoing Superman bi-weekly at DC Comics from June onwards.

He's also writing all the Superman, Action Comics, Batman/Superman and Superman/Wonder Woman titles for the two months before the "Great Refresh" hits the DC line and everything but Action Comics and Detective Comics go back to issue 1s.

So, you know, a busy man. Hammering away at plotlines, building on new extensions to the DC Universe and in the case of April and May creating a large staircase of continuity that may well go nowhere, when it all gets "Rebirthed" in June.

Could it be that he has found an outlet to talk about that frustration?

Because he also has a new creator owned book with Ian Bertram coming out from Dark Horse. And, funnily enough, it is also about Truth, Justice and the American Way. Of a sort.

House Of Penance is about the family of the creators of the Winchester rifle. A Poe-like tale of madness, it also taps into current concerns regarding gun control.

But specifically it is set in the Winchester Mystery House, a home lived in by Sarah Winchester, a widow with a fortune made from the family business manufacturing the Winchester rifle. The home is famous in America for the many carpenters, labourers and builders employed to keep construction and reconstruction going on the house, day and night for decades in an attempt to keep away the ghosts of those killed by the Winchester rifles.

Because Sarah, it seems, was not that much of a gun fan and was driven by the guilt of all those many men and women who had died at the barrel of the invention that her family's fortune – and the house she lived in – was built upon. And the sound that could drown it all out – whether in reality or just in her mind. A battle between realities that this comic is keep to play up.

I was first made aware of this peculiar twist of history by an issue of Swamp Thing years ago. That was also a ghost story but, kept short. House Of Penance seems to be a longer, more languid delve into that particular pool… and begins in April.