I think this is my favorite of the Hill House collection, and I'm really hoping for a second run of comics from them, I've enjoyed the initial run. The art by Stuart Immonen was stunning, it sucked me in right away, and Dave Stewart's coloring was *chef's kiss* lovely and atmospheric. The story was good, too, don't get me wrong, but that art- swoon!
The story has a huge tsunami coming after a volcanic eruption underwater that shifts a 40 year old wrecked ship and causes it to surface. Its emergency beacon gets triggered, and a salvage crew is sent out to investigate it, along with a marine biologist and a corporate dude from the company that sent out the ship in the first place, ostensibly to retrieve the bodies of the crew if possible, as the former CEO's son was on board, and to salvage any research materials the crew had. When the salvage crew arrives, all the weird things start to happen at once, and there are some truly creepy moments, including one that made me yell "aahhhh!!!" and startle my husband. Parasitic sea worms, zombie-puppet crew of a decades old wreck, an alien presence, and some kind of magical ingot thingy that makes people obsessed with it if they look at it. The ending and reveal did feel a tad rushed, and a bit '80s horror movie, but still, it was fun spooky good times. There were a lot of loose ends left, and I'm okay with that- life is full of mysteries, science doesn't know how everything works in the universe, sometimes shit just happens and you never find out why. Overall, a very good read!

#PlungeHillHouseComics #NetGalley

*Received via NatGalley for review*

This seems right down my alley - a deep sea horror graphic novel. But the art style is not pleasing to me, and it's incredibly talk-y. A let down :(

A salvage crew is sent to try and salvage a ship that has been lost at sea for 40 years. It has started sending out a weak signal and an oil company has decided they want to recover it. Along with a salvage crew (who sells dildos for some reason?) a representative from the oil crew goes after the ship with a biologist and her friend in tow. When they reach the island they find a dead body, perhaps a body from the wreck or even a castaway. But in reality they discover an alien species intent on trying to put a monster onto the earth.

It was definitely interesting. The concept was strange but it left far too many unanswered questions. What was wrong with the fish in the tank at the beginning, did it have to do with the weird aliens? What was really the purpose of trying to salvage the ship? What was on it that the Russians wanted it too? Why leave a cliff hanger ending? Was it just to increase the amount of horror, because it seems like a sequel was being set up when it really isn't necessary.

Hill bit off maybe a little more than a 6 issue series was capable of handling. I loved the premise and the first issue had me hooked, but past that there seemed to be a few too many things going on. I still enjoyed it, but it's definitely down the list in my theoretical rankings of the Hill House Comics.

A creepy comic collection by horror writer Joe Hill, known for the Locke & Key comic series and numerous novels, including Heart Shaped Box and Horns. Plunge has Lovecraftian elements reminiscent of At the Mountains if Madness, but modernizes the story by featuring a strong female hero. Parasitic worms, zombies, and apocalyptic alien invasion are more than Moriah, a marine biologist, and Captain Carpenter and his crew expected to deal with when hired to salvage a sunken ship. Hill House Comics is rumored to be discontinued, so fans should grab this title and others while they are still in print.

I received an ARC through NetGalley from DC Entertainment (Hill House Comics). From the mind of Joe Hill who brought us Locke & Key comes an equally dark and engaging graphic novel. Plunge follows Marine Biologist and a salvage team on a recovery mission. When they get to the island near the ship everything turns surreal because the long lost crew of the Derleth is still speaking and moving – the question is what are they? Corporate greed, brotherly love, survival, dark humor – this story has all these things. I was equally transfixed and devastated by the story. The story had remnants of The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers while still being its very own story with a Joe Hill comic feel. Another good tense horror release from Hill House Comics.

In "Plunge", a salvage team--accompanied by the company man who hired them and a marine biologist--is sent on a mission to recover data and assets from a missing ship whose distress beacon has been recently activated after forty years. They not only locate the ship, but its missing crew as well, seemingly alive, but not having aged a day and with their eyes all missing. It only gets more shocking and horrifying from there.

I'm honestly not sure what to think of the story. It kept me reading, but it kept getting stranger and stranger (not to mention grosser) as it went. It was obviously inspired by Lovecraft. We never learn much about the characters' backgrounds, but Hill still manages to make them engaging.

The artwork is probably the novel's best quality. Unlike a couple of the previous Hill House graphic novels where the art at times looked either inconsistent, unfinished, or confusing, I don't think I had any complaints about this one.

I have really enjoyed the Hill House novels, and I hope to see more in the future. Special thanks to NetGalley and DC for the free ARC I was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Plunge is so good. I can't wait for more!

A beacon is activated on a ship that been lost for over four decades. A salvage team is sent out to assess the ship and find out what happened to the crew. What happens next is a whirl wind of a great story.

This was a good science fiction story with a slight horror element. It had the Lovecraft aspects that make the story more mystery of the unknowable than scary. The art was realistic and sometimes creepy. I would say older teens is the youngest age group, best for adults.

Joe Hill delivers again! The story grabs you at the start and takes you on a twisting roller coaster ride. Just when the horror and gross factor (ewwww, worms) is about to go over the top, Mr. Hill has one of his characters deliver the perfect line to ease the tension; but then immediately ramps it back up.

Mr. Immonen's artwork is incredible and compliments the story. I read this in one sitting because i couldn't put it down.

Thank you Netgalley for a highly entertaining read on this dark and stormy October night.

Overall I liked the story and thought it was interesting, but was a little let down by the ending. Also wish they would have translated the Russian...I have no idea what those parts said.

Violent, gory, with a splash of aliens - all the stuff Joe Hill is quite good at in graphic novels, really. All the action centers around a small island off the coast of Russia, where a ship sank decades before - and has suddenly started sending out distress signals. Is the crew still alive or is it something else? Well, the explanation is frankly, disgusting, but it's a fun ride while it lasts.

Following an earthquake, a huge tsunami has kicked off quite a series of events. Giant squids have beached themselves, bristle worms are cannibalizing each other, and a ship lost out at sea nearly forty years ago has started emitting a distress signal. Soon, we meet our key players who will deal with these events. Moriah Lamb plays the part of the marine biologist who will try to figure out the science behind it all. The family salvage crew, consisting of the three Carpenter brothers, are brought in to recover what they can from the Derleth, the ship that has suddenly reappeared. We also meet David Lacome, the company man who works for the oil conglomerate that is very much interested in reclaiming the Derleth and figuring out its secrets. Of course, the Derleth’s distress signal is coming from a part of the Arctic Circle the Russians are quite adamant they own. That could be the least of this crew’s concerns, though. Lacome seems to know more than he is letting on about what awaits them at the crash site of the Derleth.

This is the final book (of five) from Joe Hill’s pop-up line of horror comics, Hill House Comics, from the mature readers’ imprint DC Black Label. While all five books have been well-crafted tales and collectively represent a diverse, broad range of stories within the horror genre, the two penned by Hill (Plunge and Basketful of Heads) have undoubtedly been the best. Like his father, Hill is a master of characterization. In Plunge, we actually don’t get a ton of backstory on the characters, yet Hill stealthily gets us to care about them anyway. What really surprised (and delighted) me, though, was Hill’s frequent use of levity. I don’t remember him being this funny before his two books from Hill House Comics, but it is certainly welcome. The humor is juxtaposed with the horror perfectly, never feeling silly or incongruous to the serious stakes of the story. Hill once again proves why he is the one curating this line of comics, leading by example.

Stuart Immonen’s art is excellent. Certain scenes, like the one depicting the beached giant squids, demand sustained pause and admiration before continuing with the story. The art is also incredibly clear and consistent. I cannot recall a single panel where I was confused by what I was looking at or one in which I felt like Immonen was artistically cutting corners to save time.

It is also worth noting that this is a tale of cosmic horror that fans of H.P. Lovecraft will enjoy. It even involves non-Euclidean geometry. If you have an aversion to math or Lovecraft’s dense writing, though, fear not. Hill’s story zips along at a good pace and has no math prerequisites for enjoyment. Still, it’s fun to see how the credits pages of succeeding issues slowly devolve from letters to numbers for the creators’ names. (Check it out when you read the book.) Little design touches like that enrich the experience.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all five books from Hill House Comics and sincerely hope this is not the last from the imprint. Joe Hill and DC Comics brought together an amazing group of creators for these books, and it has been a resounding success. We simply must have more.

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A very well illustrated graphic novel. The story is an interesting twist on the traditional ghost story, with a little science fiction as well. Rather than a haunted house, the center of the story is a ghost ship that has been missing for 40 years. It doesn't take long into the story before it becomes apparent that things are very scary and mysterious.

This was a great story! I had recently read Stranded by Bracken MacLeod, and this seemed like a great companion to that book. I enjoyed the characters who were well-fleshed out. Great wedding of horror and science fiction.

This was absolutely fantastic — easily one of the best releases in this new Hill House line so far. The art took a little time to grow on me, but the characters are so enjoyable and the plot is genuinely unsettling and dreadful, right down to the bone. This is going down as one of my favorite cosmic horror media pieces, no question, not only for the fear factor and the otherworldly appeal of the villains, but for how effortlessly Joe Hill made me love our little cast of misfit heroes, too.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is easily the best of the whole Hill House line and would make for a great movie. Who'd have thought math could be so scary? Excellent combo of such entertainments as The Thing, Alien, and H. P. Lovecraft. When a tsunami uncovers the remains of a ship that went missing 40 years ago, a man representing the corporation that owned the ship contracts with a crew of three brothers to go on a salvage mission into dangerous waters. The ship's distress signal has started transmitting again, placing it in an area that is contested between Russia and the international community, so this salvage trip is not so simple to begin with. Throw in a bunch of extraterrestrial worms and things get so much worse. Excellent artwork throughout this from Stuart Immonen. Strongly recommended.