House of Mystery: Room and Boredom by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges, and Luca Rossi.
Title: House of Mystery: Room and Boredom.
Author: Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges.
Artist: Luca Rossi.
Genre: Graphic novels, fiction, horror, fantasy, anthology.
Country: U.S.
Language: English.
Publication Date: January, 2009.
Summary: The story focuses on five characters trapped in a supernatural bar, trying to solve the mystery of how and why they're imprisoned there. Each one has a terrible past they'd like to forget, and with no books, newspapers or TV allowed in the House, they face an eternity of boredom. But stories become the new currency, and fortunately, the House attracts only the finest storytellers.
My rating: 9/10
♥ Life is full of traps. Some we stumble into unwittingly. Others we set for ourselves without realizing it. Or worse, with full knowledge of what we're walking into. And still others we were born into, and we may never even recognize them for what they are.
There is one prison, however, in which we are all inmates. We are, all of us, trapped inside out own skins. I'll never truly know how you see the world, will I? Never know what you really think, how colors look to your eyes, how food tastes in your mouth. It's a subtle prison, and one we only reinforce by building walls around ourselves. And you can suck it up and try to live with it, or you can spend your whole life looking for a way out only to find yourself right back where you started.
Which do you choose?
Okay, so maybe life is full of traps. Maybe every man is an island. Blah blah blah. Life is also full of things to touch and feel and taste. The problem is... Just because you see something doesn't mean you've got the slightest fucking clue what you're looking at. So what you do is you turn away from what you don't understand and you do your best to get cozy where you are. And guess what? You just landed in the next big trap. Lucky you.
Hey, it's not a perfect world, not by any stretch of the imagination. But at least we're all in it together, right? Well, not really. See, whet it comes to confinement, the sad truth is... some of us are more trapped than others.
♥ The moment of epiphany, that slice of time when you stand on the brink of a new life is one of the most magical, terrifying, most intoxicating experiences there is. It is especially so when, on some basic, primal level, you realize that the new world in front of you is somehow the place you were meant to be all along. For a little while, all you can do is gape in wonder. And then, if you are very brave, or very foolish, you take your first step. And at some point you realize -- maybe then, maybe later -- that the person who stepped through the doorway isn't the same person who emerged on the other side.
♥ It's the Longing that ultimately undoes you. When it finds you, it gnaws at your bones and tugs at your chest. It fills you up inside like rot and makes you dream dreams and it drowns you. The Longing keeps you in bed, clutching at your sheets while the world goes on outside. It smells like old leaves and cigarette smoke, mixed with the scents of far-off places you will hear of, but never see. It's the gloss on a lover's lips the moment you realize you will never kiss those lips again. It is the bittersweet, unrequited love of creation and it will break your heart again and again and again.
If you know the Longing the way I do, then these words are redundant. We understand each other perfectly, you and I. And if you've never felt it - well, there's no point explaining. You can count yourself lucky - sweetly, stupidly lucky - and get on with your life.