It’s another light week, as comics goes through a relatively quiet January after a torrid close (and first day) of the year. Let’s look at what’s coming our way in The Pull, my look at my buys, recommendations and curiosities from the week of comics.

Book of the Week: Dollhouse Family #3

I just recently caught up with this Mike Carey and Peter Gross joint, as my reading pile had stacked up and I knew this would be great so I just let it stack up a bit. Sure enough, it is in fact great, and perhaps even better than I expected, as Carey and Gross have paired up for a David Mitchell-esque story that explores one family’s tie to a rather horrific dollhouse and the Black Room at the core of it.

Carey and Gross, thanks to The Unwritten, The Highest House and Lucifer, have proven themselves to be one of the finest teams in comics, and that carries on here. This is a both frightening read and a deeply engaging one, as they’ve created a character-driven story you can’t help but be invested in even as the bad things start to happen and never seemingly stop. Gross is working with Vince Locke here, with the former providing layouts and the latter finishes, and it’s a nice combination that emphasizes storytelling above all. They’re a lovely complement, even if they are using their art to bring terror into this world. Everyone involved here is killing it, and I’m very, very impressed by their latest effort.

Also: please know when I say David Mitchell-esque, that’s about as high of a compliment as I can give a story. Mitchell is my favorite author, and Dollhouse Family has some real Slade House feel. That novella tackles some similar ideas, but both feel very much their own and manage to punch us in the gut in their own ways.