That's a rather literal Usher-house fall.

You can see why Hans wasn't in that story; the Fall of the House of Pfall would be rejected by publishers. As for the adventure, Wikipedia has an interesting entry:

"The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in the June 1835 issue of the monthly magazine Southern Literary Messenger, and intended by Poe to be a hoax.

Poe planned to continue the hoax in further installments, but was upstaged by the famous Great Moon Hoax which started in the August 25, 1835 issue of the New York Sun daily newspaper. Poe later wrote that the flippant tone of the story made it easy for educated readers to see through the supposed hoax.

As for the Moon Hoax, that's another story. And one far more interesting than this comic.