the nice house on the lake tynion bueno

Get ready to visit The Nice House on the Lake — but be prepared to be terrified.

The last 12 months have really been the Year of James Tynion IV. From taking over the writing reins of Batman, and introducing the hot character Punchline to the molten debut of The Department of Truth, to the continued success of Something is Killing the Children,  to launching his own publishing imprint and horror anthology, Razorblades — to say he’s leveled up to boss is an understatement.

And now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, he’s getting his own creator-owned title at DC, something quite rare since Vertigo shuttered.

The Nice House on the Lake will be a 12-issue series under Black Label, the mature audience line at DC.  The series will be drawn by Álvaro Martínez Bueno, with colors by Jordie Bellaire and lettering by Deron Bennett; it launches in June.

As the friendly yet ominous title indicates, this is a horror story — one born as a concept years ago, Tynion says, but made even more chilling in the pandemic era.

The story sees a group of mostly 30-somethings invited to a sylvan lake house by a friend named Walter. Some have known him since childhood, some from college, some from a party a few months ago. He’s a little odd, but after a year that everyone has had – while not mentioning the pandemic, the comic feels very current with its temperature checks and social media connectivity — people are ready for an escape. Once there however, the group learns the world has fallen into terrifying chaos and that they may never be able to leave. Oh, and Walter is so not who they thought he was.

Tynion is using a personal take on horror for the book, he told THR. “Horror is a genre that is all about taking about societal fears and personal fears. And this is me taking apart those fears in this book.”

DC editor Chris Conroy acquired the series. “As the editor charged with sourcing new content for DC’s creator-owned projects, I would never have let James take it to another publisher,” he says.

Tynion and Bueno previously collaborated on Justice League Dark, and the preview page certainly looks tantalizing.

While DC has been rocked by many corporate changes, they do seem to be on a bit of a creative roll of late, and the return of creator-driven comics is another positive sign.TNHOTL_1_18_19_450-EMBED-2021-1615489668-compressed.jpeg

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