Jay Stephens has crafted such a creepy little universe in Dwellings.

This collection centers on the town of Elwich front and center. In this town, a terrible darkness abounds. Possessions, terrifying acts of cruelty, and horrendous accidents are all entwined. Each story builds an increasing and compounding amount of dread.

Dwellings is such a surprising read! I did not know exactly what I was getting into when I started this cartoon collection, but this was incredible. I never would have thought that this style of illustration could be so gruesome and graphic, but it was and it is such a great read. I enjoyed how dark this was, I also enjoyed the cute little snippets and "ads" that were throughout this story. They added such cute little evil details to track and provided little Easter Eggs to hunt for.

You should absolutely read this collection because master of the craft Jay Stephens really put everything into this and I know that readers are going to love it.

This was a really well executed graphic novel. While I engaged more with some stories than others, I flew through the entire book in one sitting. The style of artwork is so amazing with the content; the cute retro images are at such odds with the unsettling content that it sometimes took a second to click with what I way looking at. I really enjoyed it!

Murder is in the sky and on the ground here in Elwich! I have never given a graphic novel or comic 5 star rating until this year and this is the second one I’ve done so in a month! I will start with owning up to my personal bias as a Canadian and say I deeply enjoyed reading about a Canadian town that was not know for being too friendly or welcoming. Rather, this town is a place you can visit and play with crows but don’t expect to come home in one piece because Elwich is a town know for death.
Jay created this amazing homage to vintage horror comic strips , including the classified and ads that used to be included. The imagery is beautiful and well thought out. The artwork alone is enough to tell the story convincingly. The words are perfect, dark, twisted but always humorous. The stories all seem to have a different feel and pace to them but flow from one comic story to the next quote seemlessly. A common theme is crows! Great for adults and y/a way to dark for kids. Got the arc off netgalley because the cover was screaming to me” you must read this”.

Thank you, Jay Stephens and NetGalley, for the ARC. I leave this review voluntarily and happily. Also, thank you publishers for your hard work!

I'm so glad I was able to read this. I haven't read anything like this... it's unlike anything I've seen before, and it's fantastic! It's a horror comic! I used to read Manga when I was younger, but I just haven't really been into that sort of read. This was definitely worth the read. Though I'll be honest, it's not something I'm into anymore. The details, color, and art were phenomenal and just lept off the page, and the ads were hilarious.

The gore and details were what stood out to me the most. You certainly don't want younger kids to be reading this. Reading this, I didn't really have a favorite story leap at me, but I truly enjoyed them all! They are all spooky and definitely sinister to the very core.

Thank you so much for letting me have the chance to enjoy this.

My thanks to both NetGalley and to Oni Press for an advance copy of this graphic novel horror anthology that's bright and colourful art hides a lot of evil, a lot of words of curse, and even more lots and lots and lots of blood.

The town of Elwich looks like an illustration on an old postcard, or even better an old comic book, one with light hearted adventures told in full-color, with fun stories. Entering the town things just seem brighter, more childlike in some ways. There is a rich past, with a few spooky things, perfect for tourists. There seems to be a lot of police sirens, but everyone seems nice. There are a lot of birds, crows especially flying over one section of town, but everyone seems real nice. There are a few people missing, and something is happening in the woods by the hospital, buy again, everyone seems really nice. Until they are not. Dwellings by writer, illustrator and crazed imaginator Jay Stephens is the story of a sleepy little town, and the evil that exists in even the most wholesome looking places.

Dwellings is an anthology graphic novel with some characters who appear in other stories. We begin one a bright day, with a walk interrupted. Something happens, which only the crows in the woods seem to observe clearly. Something the crows seem to enjoy and want more of. More things begin to happen in town, and only one cop with a troubled conscience seems to see how all these things are interrelated. Another young person is distraught to find a loved one missing from the hospital, with only a doll left behind. The person escapes to the woods, with the doll, who starts to speak to her in a familiar way, and things get even odder. In between the stories, and there are more, is a panel strip of a man trying his best to avoid the devil, and usually making the devil rue their encounters. These stories are in black and white, which work well with the wonderful color of the earlier stories.

A different kind of horror comic where the art not only is the star, but sets the expectations of what is going to happen, and pulls the rug out from under the reader. Or hits the reader upside the head with a hammer. Both phrases work. The art is bright shiny, a Harvey comic featuring Richie Rich or a Sad Sack kind of story, all clean, and family friendly. Than the characters begin to speak, and there is a lot of cursing, and adult themes and blood. And fire, and more blood. The stories are good, the first story with the crows and the third, a possession story are really good. Stephens has done a good job of developing a mythology for his town of Elwich, one that is both historic and malevolent, and gives Stephens much to draw on. I enjoyed the stories and pacing was really good, though one or two stories could have been a little shorter. I enjoyed this and spent a lot of time thinking who I could share this with. I know a lot of odd people, and I know they would eat this up.

Recommended for horror fans. The stories are good, spooky, scary, bloody, violent and unsettling. The art is really good, and will constantly make one feel worse for enjoying the stories. Like watching Casper the Friendly Ghost, become the Crow or even Faust: Love of the Damned. I will have to look for more by Jay Stephens.

The illustration has a vintage feel to it. It looks cute but really, it has gore and violence. It's a collection of weird stories & I had fun reading them. It's something to try if you want something new.

A weird, gory, and super creepy graphic novel that will appeal to people of certain tastes...and if you're not sure it's for you, it probably isn't! Don't let the vintage "cutesy" style fool you; this is absolutely not for kids or the easily offended! An essential title for fans of horror comics.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for access to this collection of Jay Stephens Dwelling.

Absolutely loved the art style throughout the six stories, it looks so cute and fun then you actually focus in on the details and they pop! Especially loved the plant hand in “Undergrowth” 😉

Dwellings is a collections of stories in the shared environment of Elwich, a place that wasn’t meant to be settled and haunted by a mix of spirits and ghouls.

The six tales start off with such a strong kick in the form of “They Know”, corvids know, they remember, and they watch… Magnificent really enjoyed the unwinding of the story and the level of gore in such a cutesy cartoon was brilliant.

Each of the other five tales wove around the town of Elwich, growing a unique mythology and often referencing other stories within this collection. Each has a wonderful tale to tell and each drags you further into the town and populace in such a macabre way.

I could have read another several stories from Jay set in Elwich with absolutely no problem and will be revisiting often to pick up on things I missed first time around.

Really want to get this onto the shelves and into people’s hands.

raucous, gory fun with a vintage bend. each of these stand alone stories was a fun, blood-stained ride, fast-paced and subversive. i also really enjoyed the faux ads separating sections--they were so campy and a great addition to an already striking collection of tales.

What? What did I just read?
This might be THE weirdest graphic novel ever.
It might also be the weirdest horror story collection ever.
The art is weird. The stories are weird. The plot is weird. The characters are weird. Even the colors are weird. And then there are… fake ad pages, and those are EXTRA weird.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around what I read just now. Ok, and inspired by some of the stories, the thing of “wrapping my head around something” looks quite graphic and literal in my mind now. And I have no clue how to describe it all.
It was WEIRD, did I say it was weird? It was SO WEIRD.
And then there was lots of swearing, which actually made it fun.
Or, should I just say the book was unique? It was uniquely weird, and it was weirdly unique.
And, I live for weird reads. And, I live for disturbing reads. And, I love art. This book has it all, weird, disturbing, and then art too. I guess it’s a winner then? Yup, it’s a winner.

I really need to read more things like this! It was drawn in a manner that I thought was kinda cute that had a story that was really messed up. The crows, all the murder, the silliness was all perfect. I also thought it was cool how it was set up like an older comic book with the ads for items .. can i get any of those for real lol. I am not a comic pro but i really did enjoy this.

Dwellings is a very uniquely styled comic that looks like it would be for kids….but it’s absolutely NOT for kids and I loved it! Loved the very creepy and original stories it contains. Highly recommend it for all fans of horror graphic novels and movies like Creepshow.

Thanks to the author and publisher for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for an advanced copy of this graphic novel.

This was super fun! The graphics were cute and colorful, and reminded me of the Sunday comic strips like Peanuts. The difference is that these were very violent, gory, and contained foul language. Dwellings was a compilation of several stories in a haunted town, and I liked how each one either had characters or other elements from some of the other stories, which was a clever connection between them all. Each one was a completely different story of something macabre within the little town. Very fun and entertaining for a quick read, but this is definitely not for everyone.