JEFF LEMIRE – writer

ANDREA SORRENTINO – artist

DAVE STEWART – colors

STEVE WANDS – lettering & design

RAUL ALLEN – variant cover

Synopsis in a Sentence: The Bishop sends Fred and Angie on a mission from God while Norton/Danny and his father escape the hospital to go on a mission of their own.

The issue kicks off in the bloody hospital room with Clara questioning her dad about the dead guy he presumably killed. She gets called away to view some camera footage that shows the true culprit was a nurse. Meanwhile dad and Danny bond over the knowledge that the Smiling Man is real, and they’ve both seen him. While Clara goes to search for the nurse, these two sneak out to seek out the Ploughmen, a name we haven’t heard in quite awhile.

Meanwhile, the Bishop is giving Father Fred, Dr Xu, and the readers some much needed exposition about just what the hell is going on. Apparently the OG Norton Sinclair from 1900 built a machine in the black barn that not only caused a dimensional rift, creating multiple Gideon Falls (Falls’? Fallses? Whatever.) over different times, it also unleashed a hungering evil.

This was another solid issue of a consistently great horror comic. Jeff Lemire knows when to throw the readers an informational bone, and Andrea Sorrentino’s moody art is as complimentary as ever. There are some gruesome horror moments to be had, but the full page spreads (4 in this issue), while cool, really eat up the page count. There’s a Wizard of Oz moment from the Bishop that made me roll my eyes, but overall I enjoyed Gideon Falls #18.

8.9/10