Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: dc comics, house of secrets, shelly bond, steven t seagle, teddy kristiansen, vertigo

The Return Of DC/Vertigo House Of Secrets – Just Not From DC

Published Thu, 15 Dec 2022 12:58:13 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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The DC Vertigo version of House of Secrets was an occult and horror-themed comic by Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen, with occasional assistance by Christian Højgaard, Guy Davis, Duncan Fegredo and the Pander Brothers. It debuted in October 1996, reviving the DC trademark, and ran for 25 issues until the end of 1998, followed by a two-issue miniseries called House of Secrets: Facade in 2001. It tells the story of interminable liar Rain Harper who comes to Seattle and stays with a young woman Traci, who offers to let Rain stay in a derelict house with her. The house turns out to be the Reichuss Mansion, a haunted house in Seattle, there to judge souls. The first five issues of the series were collected in a trade paperback. No subsequent collections were published until the release of a DC Omnibus volume in April 2013.

And now, it's back. No longer called House Of Secrets, and no longer being published by Vertigo – an imprint that no longer exists – but not even by DC. Instead Rain Harper will return in Shelly Bond's new Kickstarted book, Fast Times In Comic Book Editing.

Steven T Seagle tells me "Since we last heard from Rain Harper – a gallery tour of oddities in the back of her HOUSE OF SECRETS OMNIBUS from DC/Vertigo – a lot has changed. Most notably, the cessation of Vertigo, and, after a lengthy process, the rights for the series FKA HOUSE OF SECRETS fully reverting to creators Teddy Kristiansen and Steven T. Seagle for everything except the title of the series. While Seagle and Kristiansen hash out a new title and plot the future of the franchise in all media, Rain and her prime adversary on the Court of Secrets, Pfaultz, are making their first, unshackled comic book appearance in a new six-page meta-story by the original creators for Shelly Bond's new Kickstarter FAST TIMES IN COMIC BOOK EDITING. The exclusive images are the first look at new material featuring Rain since the early 2000s."

Fast Times In Comic Book Editing

Fast Times In Comic Book Editing is intended to be published in March next year about the time in her life that Shelly Bond spent as editor working for DC. "In December of 1992, an editorial ingénue disappeared into a forest of comic book pages in the heart of New York City, while working at a major publishing house. Thirty years later, her lost tales are brought to life via the ultimate art form A collection of stories and comics that chart the rise and fall and rise of a career-driven editor working in New York City in the '90s, who's in over her head as she tries to secure a place in the male-dominated comic book industry."

Shelly Bond explains "The most exhilarating time was during the formative years of my 20s, when I experienced the precarious climb up the corporate ladder at an exciting cultural precipice—navigating the power, corruption, and drama that a career in comics demands. I was the last editorial hire at VERTIGO, a subversive new horror and dark fantasy imprint, poised to set the industry ablaze. It was an opportunity to work among talented colleagues at the forefront of a true British invasion—when pop art provocateurs and wordsmiths who resembled rock stars ignited a comics revolution. And, for a late-bloomer, it was the most epic "coming-of-age" in one of the coolest cities on earth, NYC…. FAST TIMES IN COMIC BOOK EDITING is told through a series of short comics, photo/visual montage timelines, prose, and experimental art including a satirical TTRPG "How to Climb The Corporate Ladder From Hell." Guest writers and artists including Neil Gaiman, Jill Thompson, Paul Pope, Michael Allred, Steven T. Seagle, Mike Carey, and Peter Gross provide brief encounters along the way."

"At its core, FAST TIMES celebrates the hustle of monthly comics and the rustle of feathers and heart chambers—the universal love for story and longing to connect through words and pictures. I gave my sweat and service to the office by day, but weekends were solo, devoted to urban exploration. I'd embark on a music and sartorial crawl on the Lower East Side through St. Mark's Place—from the sale section in the back of Trash & Vaudeville to an A to Z flip through vinyl at Sounds, to a late lunch at Dojos for cheap soba. And then, on to my final destination: St. Mark's Comics until midnight—going through the racks and dusty stacks to find new artists and writers who could help me change the world—one comic book panel at a time. Bond says, "If FILTH & GRAMMAR is 80% how to make comics from an editor's POV and 20% short comics about my so-called edit life, FAST TIMES is the opposite ratio: 20% editing tips and 80% comics & prose. It's both a standalone volume and a chaotic companion to F&G: A 160-page tribute to the most exciting time to be alive and making comics—amid the glamour and decadence of '90s New York City—with a Britpop soundtrack."

Artists include Nanna Venter, Sofie Dodgson, Tess Fowler, Chris Weston, Imogen Mangle, David Zacharis, Laura Hole, Chynna Clugston Flores, Pidge, Amalia DeGirolamo, Dilraj Mann, A.D. Puchalski, Rachael Smith and Mark Stafford, (who has his own amazing crowdfunder too).