The Sacred Damned #1 Review

 

Writer: Sabir Pirzada

Artist: Michael Walsh

Colorist: Toni Marie Giffin & Michael Walsh

Letterer & Designer: Becca Carey

Cover Artists: Michael Walsh & Tula Lotay

Editors: Will Dennis & Pornsak Pichetshote

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 23, 2024

 

Kyle is a college football star. He excels in his classes, and his girlfriend adores him. Then Allison hears Kyle speaking a foreign language while he sleeps. Another evening, Kyle’s roommate awakens him in the kitchen. How did Kyle become fluent in Arabic? And why is he devouring an entire cake in his sleep? Let’s slip on our sacred amulets, leap into The Sacred Damned #1, and find out!

 

Story

NFL scouts approach Kyle. His professors brag about him. But as he garners good grades and touchdowns, Kyle seeks medical help. Why can't the doctors prevent him from sleepwalking and dumpster diving for table scraps? Kyle’s horror grows when he awakens in the woods over a fresh kill. Then, he does something that will haunt him forever.

 

When Western medicine has no answers, a college professor introduces Kyle to Dr Inayah Jibril. Based on her knowledge of customs and the supernatural, Inayah believes a djinn inhabits Kyle.

As the Ethnography and Occult professor grabs the spotlight in The Sacred Damned #1, Kyle hopes she can rescue him. But is Inayah a hero, a villain, or (to coin a phrase) a bit of both? Inayah did her homework on Kyle and learned secrets few others know. She claims her interest in djinn is academic. Yet Inayah's childhood diary tells a different story.

 

While Inayah proves the central Human character in The Sacred Damned #1, the djinns also emerge as sympathetic figures. They predated Humans. Yet most Humans who believe in them shun them. Western civilization has banished ancient spirits to the realms of folklore. So, the djinns subsist like illegal aliens or Native American tribes not granted a reservation. Humans live far shorter lives than their predecessors. Yet the ever-growing human population has caused rising global temperatures, the extinction of plant and animal species, and the gradual eradication of the djinns’ forest homes.

 

Humans have ruined the djinn’s lives. So, a djinn ruined Kyle’s life. Yet the djinns have also ruined Inayah’s. She fought back by learning how to defeat them while the djinns plotted to overthrow Humanity. No one wins in Sabir Pirzada’s story. Unless, that is, you define winners as those who live to fight another day.

 

 

 

Art

While Allison's smile glows, Kyle looks haunted. An exploding football and a photo of burned hands on a phone precede Kyle's descent into gluttony. Five panels stretching horizontally across the page evoke Richard Bachman's (or, if you prefer, Stephen King's) novel Thinner in reverse. Another lineup of three panels shows sympathetic leaders seated beside an American flag. Dr Inayah Jibril wears a black shirt, army surplus pants, and black lace-up boots. The only person who smiles in the second half of The Sacred Damned #1 is someone Inayah loves.

 

Red and blue haunt an evening that should have brought joy. Reds, blues, greens, and yellows dominate Toni Marie Giffin & Michael Walsh’s art. The djinn’s presence often bleaches colors from Kyle's surroundings. An orange and yellow fire rages between Kyle and Inayah as blues, greens, and purples illuminate the heavily inked forest.

 

Giant colored letters haunt dark panels, while black uppercase letters embolden for intonation in white dialogue balloons. After black letters in yellow narrative boxes chart Kyle's downward spiral, a child's large handwritten pink letters link Inayah and Kyle’s childhoods. As wobbly white letters in black boxes convey the djinns’ complaints in The Sacred Damned #1, Becca Carey’s sound effects heighten a brutal clash between the factions competing for control of the planet Earth. Thanks to Image Comics for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

When Humans stop believing in the supernatural, they stoke the flames of their desires regardless of how it burns the planet. With the usurpers despoiling their home, the supernatural refugees initiate guerrilla warfare in The Sacred Damned #1. Humanity's best hope for survival might be a woman who admires the “evil” spirits.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.