From writer Sabir Pirzada and artist Michael Walsh comes a story of ancient evils taking vengeance against humanity in The Sacred Damned #1. Featuring additional color art by Toni Marie Griffin and lettering from Becca Carey, this comic makes for a stellar horror pilot, and my personal favorite of the Horizon Experiment issues thus far. With a fun, gruesome script and grossly atmospheric visual work, this is a blast of a first issue that deserves to have its full story told.
“Celebrated TV writer SABIR PIRZADA (MS. MARVEL, MOON KNIGHT, DANDELION) and Eisner-winning creator MICHAEL WALSH (THE SILVER COIN) present INAYAH JIBRIL, a “Muslim John Constantine” — a new type of exorcist re-examining modern horror for fans of THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH and KILLADELPHIA.”
Writing & Plot
Sabir Pirzada takes readers along on a journey of twisted Middle Eastern mythology and ancient anger with his script for The Sacred Damned #1. A rising young football star begins to have some strange bouts of sleepwalking – and sleep eating. His problems become worse and worse until Inayah Jibril, an occult specialist a la John Constantine, arrives to help him with his case. Pirzada’s script feels like a mix of The Twilight Zone and a classic Tales From the Crypt story. There’s a kind of twisted humor to what happens to the young athlete that will definitely be a hit among fans of that sort of ironic, gallows humor/horror. The dialogue and interactions around what is happening are also kind of stilted in an intentionally peculiar way, with no one reacting to the athlete’s actions and bodily changes in any kind of sensible manner. The issue feels like a sort of uncanny nightmare until Jibril comes in. Structurally, this comic plays out like any other possession story seen or read since Blatty/Friedkin’s The Exorcist. This doesn’t keep Sacred Damned from being any less fun, however. While the final pages of the issue are bogged down a bit by backstory exposition, the script as a whole is a satisfying possession romp that deserves the chance to breathe with a proper long-form series.
Art Direction
Arguably more than any other genre, horror comics are made or broken on their visual style. The Sacred Damned is blessed with the talents of Michael Walsh to deliver the story’s atmospheric experience. The Silver Coin artist’s unique use of heavy hatching and thick pencil lines give the entire comic an unsettling feeling – even when there’s nothing horror-related on the page. Walsh’s sequential direction carries the comic along at a careful, suspenseful pace, with an interesting mix of classically “cinematic” panels and interesting POV shots. Walsh actually cuts in and out of POV fur several sequences, where each part ends with some new, twisted climax to what is happening to the athlete. The color art, with help from Toni Marie Griffin, pulls readers into this comic’s atmosphere. Each page has its own palette that often looks like it’s being lit by neon or RGB lighting. Even the direct sunlight somehow feels oppressive due to the use of shadows in each panel. When the body and demonic horror hit, they do so in an almost cartoonish manner that still fits with the comic. Becca Carey’s lettering adds to this creepy reading experience with a sort of harsh, scratchy lettering style. There are pages where an entity will be speaking, almost as if to the reader, and the words show up in the dead space of a panel in a striking font that looks like it’s been carved with a knife. This team manages to create a visual experience that is unsettling and fits with a very classic-feeling kind of comics horror. Hopefully, we get to see them craft more of The Sacred Damned like this.
Verdict
The Horizon Experiment: The Sacred Damned #1 is a fun horror romp that deserves a chance to full breathe as a complete long run. Sabir Pirzada’s script takes some classic tropes and mixes them with a sort of Tales From the Crypt-style approach mixed with Middle Eastern mythology to create a story that is very familiar but still a blast to read. Michal Walsh and Toni Marie Griffin’s visual work is creepy and atmospheric, combining a sort of pre-comics code art style with modern techniques to make a comic that is lovably gross as it is enjoyable. Be sure to grab this new release when it hits shelves on October 23rd!
