The Devil

“Sons of the Devil” #1 is the sort of comic where the less you know about it beforehand, the better. There are plenty of interviews with creators Brian Buccellato and Toni Infante that detail the basic thrust behind the series, information that puts the events of this first comic into an interesting light. However, if you just begin your experience by reading “Sons of the Devil” #1 (and this review will avoid material not contained within this first issue), what you’ll find is a twisty, creepy little comic that offers up just enough questions to make you want to come back for more. Buccellato sets up the world of “Sons of the Devil” well. After a four-page introduction set in the past and involving a violent attempt to spirit a child away from a seemingly dangerous situation, we meet Travis, a mechanic at an auto body shop in Venice Beach, California. Buccellato paints a vivid picture of his protagonist; Travis is a man who will show up late for work in an effort to help a lost child

Joshua Hale Fialkov and Matt Triano’s “The Devilers” #1 opens with a text-heavy rundown of a trio of demonic events being debunked by the issue’s main character, Father Malcolm O’Rourke. In the midst of an interview, O’Rourke is interrupted with a most urgent request to respond to a disaster that has set the Vatican aflame. Fialkov keeps the interviewer, Lieb, from becoming the point of view character of “The Devilers” #1, choosing to stay independent from any one character. That allows the writer to take the scenes depicted through a television broadcast and transport the reader to the Vatican to witness the holy hell firsthand and then bounce back to Lieb’s conversation with O’Rourke without ever losing any details or drama. As the interview occurs, Cardinal David Michael Reed, the chief exorcist for the Catholic Church appears, begging O’Rourke to answer his plea. Fialkov rounds out the comic book with a further sampling of the horrors set lose in the Vatican and the gathering of

If you’ve been reading the “B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth” titles, you’ll know that there are two different “tracks” of comics, for lack of a better description. One track contains all the various one-offs and side-stories that are a lot of fun and often quite excellent, but don’t tie into the main narrative. Then there’s the other track, where books like “B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Devil’s Engine” reside. It’s there that Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Tyler Crook wrap up Devon and Fenix’s ill-fated train ride to bring Fenix to B.P.R.D. HQ and where the next big storyline is brewing nicely. By teaming up Devon and Fenix, Mignola and Arcudi have found the perfect duo for this comic. Not only are they both newcomers to being main characters in the “B.P.R.D.” comics in general, but they share a common theme: Devon doesn’t trust Abe Sapien, and in a surprise move last year, Fenix shot Abe. We start getting to the bottom of why Fenix shot Abe, as well as being given some more clarification on ju

With all of the extra “B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth” mini-series and one-shots lately, the one downside has been that some characters have gotten lost in the shuffle, patiently waiting their turn to take center stage. In the case of the one-time-skeptic agent Andrew Devon and the vagabond psychic Fenix, the wait feels like it’s been quite a while. Fortunately, they’re taking the spotlight in “B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Devil’s Engine.” Mike Mignola and John Arcudi place the pair on a train ride out of New Mexico, with airplanes steering clear of the region thanks to the ash and worse in the air from the belching volcanos. It’s a logical reason to put them on the slower, more precarious form of transport and it doesn’t feel forced. Maybe it’s the great visuals from Tyler Crook, but from the very first page there’s an unease in the air, too; the clouds of ash and soot in the air, the muddy red/brown hue of the sky and the way that Fenix is getting more and more jittery with each passing mom

If only more comics were like “Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest.” This two issue horror dalliance is a brilliant short punch of chills, thrills, and some spectacularly gooey spills. The writing is tight, the art is expressive and perfectly matched to the tone and genre, and the result is a book any level of reader can enjoy. I’m not a massive “Hellboy” reader — I certainly haven’t read much “B.P.R.D.” — and yet I slipped straight into this story and loved every bit. In an age where comics stretch everything to emulate either novel series or television seasons, this story is all about being a short story. For all those readers who grew up on the works of Lovecraft or Matheson or King, this one goes out to you. The first issue set Abe Sapien up into a very dark corner and this issue explores that corner in ghastly detail. There’s a stack of back story dropped in, though not laboriously pored over, and the result is a narrative that sticks to the dynamic elements. It’s not trying to

One of the things I’ve appreciated about the “B.P.R.D.” comics is that Mike Mignola and John Arcudi aren’t afraid to periodically stop and jump into the past for an “untold tale” of one of the characters. For instance, we all know that Abe Sapien makes it to the present day, so for most writers the idea of telling a flashback set in 1985 would never happen. Where’s the tension, right? Well, I’ll tell you where the tension is. It’s in “Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest” #1. Mignola and Arcudi are smart, because they’ve structured this comic in a way that never lets you stop and think for very long. We get a brief set-up, Abe goes with the new character to the old abandoned house in search of a man who’s been missing for 50 years, and then… all hell breaks loose. From that moment on, Mignola and Arcudi kick the comic into high gear, with one outbreak of horror after another in rapid succession. In other words, it’s what good old fashioned horror movies did, only it’s on the page ins

John Byrne plays this like an old horror movie. The issue proceeds without hide nor hair (the beasties are dinosaurs, so of course there’s no hair!) of the big bad for most of the issue, choosing to focus on the unspeakable horror of fifteen head of cattle butchered across five acres of the Franklin Ranch in the middle of the American southwest. The cattle slaughter causes Eddie Franklin to send his son after the sheriff, Will Tobias. From here, it becomes Tobias’ story, as the mystery deepens and the range of mystery widens. Byrne treats the entire issue as a series of widescreen panels running four down each page with each panel filling the entire width of the page. It serves the story well, giving it a widescreen feel and playing to the big sky landscapes this story occurs within. The payoff when it finally occurs is all the more visually stunning due in part to the widescreen setup and also to the mystery dripped throughout this story. Byrne really brings his very best to draw t