HOUSE
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Jim Staton (breakfast)
Enemies: None
Known Relatives: None (see comments)
Aliases: "My old Kentucky home" (as called by Jim Staton)
Base of Operations: A hilltop in the Kentucky wilderness
First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery II#1/2 (October, 1972)
Powers/Abilities: Although appearing to be a normal three-story Colonial Georgian-style house, "House" was actually an immense living organism with an appetite.
History: Nothing is known of the past of "House," but at some point in time it came to be located alone on a hilltop in the Kentucky wilderness.
(Journey Into Mystery II#1) - It was a dark and stormy night when Jim Staton's car broke down. Looking for shelter from the storm, Staton came upon a house. He found no front door, only an open gate much like the portcullis of a castle. Staton found the front of the house completely empty, saw that it was badly designed (no windows in the front room), and badly decorated (a PINK rug on the floor), but he made it his sanctuary for the night and laid on the floor to sleep.
At daybreak, Staton awoke to find the floor and walls covered with slime, which he thought to be mold. As the slime got deeper, he tried to make a run for it out the front doorway, when suddenly the gate slammed down, trapping him inside. Then the pink rug flipped up and pushed him back further into the house. Seeing no place to go but an inner doorway, Staton passed through it and found the same type of slime covering the corridor beyond, and a deep pit that dropped off into darkness at the end of the corridor. Then Staton turned and saw the passage he just came through closing in on him -- he thought of the spiked gate at the front door -- "like teeth," the pink slimy rug -- "like a tongue covered with saliva," and the hallway closing in on him -- "like a throat swallowing."
As Jim Staton disappeared into the house, he screamed "The house is alive--and it's eating me! But why? Why?" -- the house only responded afterwards with a *BURP*.
Comments: Created by Steve Englehart and Ralph Reese.
Nothing was ever revealed about the origins of the house, but I'd say maybe it has some connection to the House of Shadows.
The living house was never given an actual name, only the one-word story title of "House!".
Looking for some decor for your living house? I'd recommend interior decorating by "The Fraudulent Furniture Federation" (see The Chairman).
And a big THANK YOU to Dennis Giansante for scanning this story for me!
Profile by John Kaminski
CLARIFICATIONS:
House has no known connections to:
A hapless traveller driving through Kentucky, his car broke down during a storm. Seeking refuge in a house he wandered up on, he had no idea of the grisly fate in store for him.
--Journey Into Mystery II#1/2
images: (without ads)
Journey Into Mystery II#1, p9, pan1 (main image)
Last updated: 06/27/06
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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