Comics Review: "Outcast" #1

- by Señor Editor, 18 July 2014

“Outcast” is the new comic by Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta, featuring demonic possessions, exorcisms and people throwing up into other people’s mouths. It’s a horror comic and the first issue came out 3 weeks ago, but I know you’ve all been waiting for ME to talk about it. And how could I ever say “no” to you, Sugarcakes?

Love him or hate him, Kirkman writes some entertaining comics. I know a lot of people who criticize his writing, his dialogues or the pacing of his story arcs. Me? I pretty much like his stuff a lot. It’s not without flaws, it’s not always GREAT, it’s not trying to revolutionize the genre by any means, but it’s almost always solid, dependable, interesting and immensely readable. And when he’s in top form and sticks to his strengths, his stuff is pretty awesome.

“The Walking Dead”, while featuring zombies, is not a horror comic. It’s more about the behavior of the people thrown into an apocalyptic scenario, and the way they interact with each other. “Outcast” however is supposed to be a realistic horror comic about demonic possession – the type you saw in “The Exorcist”.

The protagonist of the book is one Kyle Barnes. Kyle knows a little something about demonic possession because it happened both to his mother and then to his wife. So it’s almost like the demons have something against the poor guy.

After it happened to his mom, he was adopted and his adoptive sister (that is the biological daughter of the family that adopted him, in case you weren't getting that) still cares about him, despite him doing his best to be a loner and isolate himself from everybody. The sister’s husband (who is a cop) does not like him one bit, though. It probably has something to do with what happened with Kyle’s mom and then his wife, but the details of all that have not yet been explained.

Kyle and Anderson visit Joshua.

Anyway, one day, when Kyle and his sister were out and about, they bumped into Reverend Anderson, the man that exorcised Kyle’s mom years ago. Turns out the old man has a new case of possession, a young boy named Joshua, and he could sure use Kyle’s help with the kid (cause if anybody knows about demons it’s Kyle, I guess?). When they head over to Joshua’s house, the demon in the kid recognizes Kyle and THINGS HAPPEN. Things that involve levitating and puking into Kyle’s mouth and some other horrible scenes. That’s about all I can say about the plot without spoiling too much!

This is a very good first issue and it helps, that it’s over 40 pages-long. That’s certainly enough to really get to know all the key characters and show what kind of book this will be, and for the reader it’s time well-spent. I wouldn’t say this issue is very scary, but it’s definitely appropriately creepy and it manages to show the whole exorcisms deal in a somewhat realistic fashion.

Even the quiet moments in this book look beautiful.

The other good thing about this comic is the artist – Paul Azaceta. This man is a perfect fit for the book. He does “realistic” very well, but he’s also great at the creepy stuff, like, say the expression on little possessed Joshua’s face, or the puking into mouth thing. Azaceta is helped by brilliant colors, done by Elizabeth Breitwaiser. This is a beautiful book to look at, and the first issue is packed with great artwork.

Great color work by Elizabeth Breitwaiser.

I hear this book is already selling really well and that’s good, as it’s a very interesting addition to the Skybound line of titles. I am very much looking forward to the second issue (which should be out real soon, I guess) and am interested to see what new takes on the exorcist genre of horror Kirkman and Azaceta can give us. It’s also nice how the whole religion side of exorcisms is handled – Kyle isn’t really religious and Jesus certainly doesn’t seem to be the answer to all the creepy problems people in this book have.

I think there’s plenty of potential in this title, and if the first issue is anything to go by, it’s gonna be good stuff. Pick that sucker up.


It's been out for a while, so have you read "Outcast" yet? How did you like it? Don't keep us waiting, let us know in the comments!

Tagged: comics, Reviews.

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