Gideon Falls (Image Comics) – Comic Series Review

Norton Sinclair is a troubled soul. He is driven by forces he does not understand, with a compulsion to find objects which are calling out to him. What kind of objects? Small pieces of debris typically, that are found all over the small town of Gideon Falls. He digs through garbage, and finds the splintered wood shards, nails, screws and pieces that compel his attention. He brings them back to his apartment and places them in jars with a date and description. Why is he doing this?

Father Wilfred Quinn (or Father Fred) is a troubled Catholic priest. He is sent by Bishop Burke to Gideon Falls to find something productive in the quiet town, as the former long-time priest has just passed away. Maybe a nip from the flask he keeps will help him settle into this new place.

Norton seeks help for his obsessive behavior from his therapist, Dr. Angie Xu. She warns him that digging through garbage for “pieces” of whatever it is that is calling him is a disease talking to him, and he needs to move past this behavior once and for all. Norton can’t shake it. This time is different. the city’s trash is really showing him things… At his apartment he looks at them for connections, clues and patterns.

Angie doesn’t believe the compulsion is at all healthy, nor does she agree that a devil is the one behind Norton’s drive, as he himself wonders. Her main goal is to keep Norton out of a mental hospital, which he has spent time in during his past. She wants him in control of his actions, and not looking to force meaning into every object he discovers on the street.

Father Fred begins to get used to his new setting, that is until the deceased former priest, Father Tom, appears to him in the middle of the night. As he chases him into a field outside, he catches a glimpse of something else otherworldly: The Black Barn. He doesn’t know what it means, but knows it is bad. Could this somehow be related to Norton’s obsession? Is Norton somehow finding pieces of this strange structure all over the city?!

As the characters continue down their paths, and more enter the fray, the story becomes a horrific beast of a tale which intertwines all sorts of insanely interesting concepts. Norton digs into his own past, of which he cannot remember all of it. Fred follows his visions, but local police assure him there is no such barn where he saw his vision. Just what is going on?! As the twists and turns begin to play out, more and more horrors are introduced.

Gideon Falls is a flat-out banger. Its core story and characters are all very well realized and feature interesting and hard to anticipate turns in the journey. The dialogue is natural and the setting feels realistic, even when turned on its head and hit with high-concept story shifts. It leads to a feeling of familiarity on top of existential dread.

The creative layouts add to the story’s nausea type feeling of evil and a descent into madness. The mystery elements drive us to turn the page just as the characters inside the pages are obligated to see it through themselves. As answers are revealed, more questions are asked, and new concepts are introduced. Thankfully they all naturally blend together and the story remains firmly on the rails, despite all the insanity presented within its pages.

Where the story goes is likely not something that most readers will guess, which leads to the fun of reading it. There are multiple moments which will make you go “whoa,” and all sorts of villainy that may make you recoil. It does take full attention to appreciate the weaves of the story, and overall is a complex tale. This is a fun and chilling mystery tale that is worth the time all around.