"Masonry of the Body" is an ongoing gothic horror/romance webcomic started in 2022, written and illustrated by Harper Crane.
A young woman named Ada runs away from her wedding into the snowy wilderness. She collapses just as she is found by Inge, the masked servant of a nearby castle. The Master of the castle allows her to stay until spring, and shows no further kindness. Ada is surprised to learn that the three of them plus the Master's sickly wife (who only he may attend to) are the only residents of such a large castle. Even more surprising, the walls grow eyes, blood and gore drip from the ceiling, and wails echo through the halls. At least Ada and Inge have each other for company...but the winter is going to be very, very long.
The webcomic can be found on the artist’s website
; as well as at mirrors on Tumblr and ComicFury.
Masonry of the Body contains examples of
- Arranged Marriage: Ada ran away from a marriage that was arranged by her parents after she was caught having a sexual encounter with another woman.
- Art Shift: In Chapter 8, Inge's memories and fantasies of spring are colored with a warmer palette with hints of green in the cooler colors, giving the pages a more vibrant feel than the icier blues that the entirety of Winter is colored with.
- Comforting Comforter: Inge drapes their jacket over Ada's shoulders when she's seemingly fallen asleep at the table.
- Evil Is Visceral: The Master’s inhumane experiments to keep his wife alive has caused uncontrollable flesh to grow throughout the castle’s infrastructure, and all of it is hostile to Ada’s presence.
- Fantastic Science: The Master studies a niche of alchemy he calls "flesh sculpting," turning dirt into meat.
- Gothic Horror: An old castle literally rotting away, a secret passageway hidden behind a bookshelf, forbidden knowledge, romance with the monstrous… The story is even set during the year Frankenstein was written.
- Romantic Spoonfeeding: Inge fantasizes of hand-feeding berries to Ada in the spring.
- Spring Is Late: The comic is set in the winter of 1816; also known as "The year without a summer."
- Textile Work Is Feminine: Ada wears period-appropriate dresses and embroiders strawberries onto Inge’s sleeves. Somewhat subverted though, as her sexuality and her view of herself make her far from a traditional woman.
- Too Many Mouths: The flesh in the castle walls contains entirely too many body parts, including wailing mouths with razor-sharp teeth. Inge’s got some extra eyes and mouths to spare too, including a Belly Mouth.
- The Walls Have Eyes: During Ada’s first night in the castle, stonework in the fireplace crumbles away to maliciously watch her and Inge walk through the halls. And that’s far from the last one to pop up…
- Winter of Starvation: The story is set in 1816, which was known for being the Year Without a Summer when winter lasted much longer than it normally should due to climate abnormalities. This unusually long winter makes finding food to keep everyone fed difficult for Inge, to the point that they remorsefully shoot a wolf to lessen the competition.