There are many who would say that silent horror went out with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and they'd be right. Wordless horror comics have even less of a lineage. A singular exception to this rule is Josh Simmons's malefic and wordless House, coming from Fantagraphics in August. In this black-and-white work, a trio of teenagers meet to explore a massive, crumbling old mansion. The building’s best days are behind it, the forest is creeping in to take over and long corridors and dusty ballrooms stretch into the distance. In one chamber hangs the portrait of what appears to be the long-dead owner, bearded and glowering in a high-collared 19th-century military uniform. The house is no mere ruined building; instead, it contains multitudes of worlds within itself, vast and deep lakes and a staircase running down into the unknown where dangers may lurk for the careless adolescents.

House is Simmons’s first full-length graphic novel, and throughout the book he conveys deep shivers of dread without resorting to a single line of dialogue. PWCW spoke with the author about graduating to the full-length form and the sources of his inspiration.

PW Comics Week: How long have you been drawing comics

Josh Simmons: Since I was around 14, so about 15 years.

PWCW: You've been working on mini-comic series like Happy and Jessica Farm for several years now. What are your favorites?

JS: I'm probably fondest of Jessica Farm. A lot of the work from a few years on back is very uncomfortable for me to look at. Jessica Farm, though, has some similarities to House, the exploration of old buildings and fantastic settings that I'm getting a kick out of lately.

PWCW: What prompted the jump from mini-comics to a full-length graphic novel?

JS: Originally, House was going to be a 32-page comic, but after penciling it all out, I realized it needed to be longer if it was going to be effective at all. It was such a thrill to create a world that you can get immersed in for a spell that all my work since House has been lengthy.

PWCW: Did any particular buildings inspire the falling-down wrecks in House, or are these straight out of your imagination?

JS: There is a building which served as the basis for the structure in House, although I added much to it. It's a deserted, boarded-up, late-1800s sanitarium in Northampton, Mass. I explored it about 10 years ago with some friends and just loved the building, and knew I had to do something with or about it at some point.

PWCW: The level of detail in these pages is very exacting. How long did it take you to draw it?

JS: About three years.

PWCW: Did you initially envision this as a wordless comics project, or did that evolve later on?

JS: Wordless from the get go. This came about in part because many of my early strips were oppressively wordy, which I think got kind of tedious.

PWCW: Is there a deeper meaning to House past what is on the page? Is it a commentary on lost American youth, just a scary story or something else entirely?

JS: I hope it can work first as a horror story, albeit a somewhat sideways one. There was plenty I was chewing over as I worked on this book: great bizarre horror movies from the 1970s—The Brood, [the Canadian] Deathdream and Black Christmas, to name a few. I like the feel of these where it's almost an impressionistic approach to telling a horror story. There aren't a lot of easy victims or explanations like a lot of shitty horror wherein Jason comes back from hell because Satan wills it or whatever. [Also on my mind were] taking risks, going on adventures, friends who died young or in a spectacularly melodramatic fashion; depressive tendencies; the bit with the half-submerged houses I was inking when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans—this image was no doubt planted in my brainscape from having lived in New Orleans for five years previous to the storm, and hearing about the likelihood of such a scenario every time a large storm rolled through town Failed relationships.

PWCW: Do you have any future projects in the works?

JS: A sort of companion story to House I did for [the art comics anthology] Kramers Ergot 7 called "Night of the Jibblers." The White Rhinoceros, a book about race, which Shaun Partridge is writing. [There’s also] an epic apocalyptic, mystical science fiction book starring myself and ABBA. Also I’m working on a short story called "JESUS CHRIST."

PWCW: Apparently you've also done a Batman bootleg comic. What would you think if another cartoonist did a bootleg version of one of your series? Would you see it as a compliment?

JS: Definitely.