evil house
writer: Ed Brubaker
artist: Sean Phillips
Colorist: Jacob Phillips
Publisher: Image comics
Publication date: August 2024
This has been a big year for Satanic Panic in the media world. In the movie we had long legs, Spend the night with the devil, flawless, first omen and Maxine Just to name a few. Perhaps the slow decline of a shared, stable reality forces us to focus on isolated narratives that provide rhyme or justification for unspeakable pain and trauma. Perhaps the collective assessment of Satan’s influence is a benchmark for how close we are to the end. Or, on the other hand, it could just be the imagery and fear that make the journey interesting.
All-star comic duo Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, along with the colorful Jacob Phillips, return this year with another original graphic novel, evil house. The book follows the investigation of FBI agent West and a woman named Natalie Burns as they track a group of people who were used as children to spread devil worship and Satanist conspiracy theories . The book alternates between present-day investigations and flashbacks to Natalie’s childhood, which help establish the occult and demonic activity in question.
This book sets the tone before the story even begins. As soon as you open the cover, the interior of the book begins to show a very 80s-style wallpaper pattern. Floral arrangements and garish shades of yellow then move into “House of Evil,” with a font that resembles bloodstains on the wall and a few flecks of red near the bottom of the page. It’s a promising start, consistent with the tone of the rest of the story. As you move between chapters, a pentagram slowly drips blood and moves toward the bottom of the page. The entire demo turns slow decay into horror.
These stylistic choices serve the book well, with Jacob Phillips’ color choices making the most of the excess of gore and the ’80s aesthetic. The alternating flashback chapters are all washed in red, giving people an ominous feeling. You’re already nervous when you see little kids talking about being led into dark halls and touched by demons. But when the entire world turns red, the evil lurking at the heart of the story gets an extra boost.
But then this book disappointed me.
Ever since pulpBrubaker and Phillips have turned to the original graphic novel format. For a book like this recklesswhich actually worked, replacing the monthly floppies with better-looking hardcovers and the full story available at launch. But a lifelong habit of writing comics every month is not something anyone can easily break, and Brubaker’s script feels like it was designed to fit into a regular comic book release format. The beginning of the book where we meet Natalie has two major beats: her having a baby in the trunk, and her being arrested and meeting Agent West. The fact that she’s a PI and that she’s searching for a missing child are essentially red herrings, familiar pitfalls in Brubaker’s playbook when the true nature of the mystery is formed. will be subverted. It’s just that the events were cut short so that these moments didn’t have the proper impact. I think this magazine should be a full 22 pages. The structure of the book also supports this, as each current scene and its corresponding flashback form a natural question or chapter break.
As I read, I started thinking about all the elements that I imagined Brubaker would end up with in some way at the end, but much of the book felt like it was rushed to the end without giving you the proper time to understand each part the true meaning of. Natal’s brother, for example, just feels like he’s been thrust into the story at a random moment, and his sense of presence doesn’t improve all that much. After the midway point, the twists and turns become more complex, but we never live in the emotion of the scene.
At its heart, this is a story about Satanism as a cultural byproduct of political unrest and evolving technology. The abyss of conspiracy theories online and the religious narratives that bind communities together feed the desire to believe in some kind of monster or evil incarnation. Many of these ideas represent interesting subversions of Satanic fiction. It’s not so much the devil we take for granted, but the monkey’s paw supernatural karma of our evil desires. Rather, it is how our response to an unjust world fuels the desire for such faith in the first place. evil house It is unique in that it treats the historical connection between interest in Satanism in the late 1980s and the birth of the Internet as co-constitutive forces. One drive drives another into a vicious cycle that is sadder than evil. I wish the book had the proper space to explore this idea, but it feels underdeveloped.
Sean Phillips, while good at mystery-style art and horror, also felt like he wasn’t cut out for the material. The book is never particularly scary, nor does it use its artistic real estate to create any sense of dread. very similar where is the bodya story that clearly strives for a certain genre and tone beyond what we usually see from pay-per-view, but the art choices, paneling, and character designs don’t stand out in a way that complements the narrative. Phillips is a seasoned pro who excels at keeping his movements crisp and his rhythm tight. But as fears mount, these images almost too clearas if the camera was idle when the event occurred, rather than moving with the viewpoint in the scene.
evil house It’s been a fun journey filled with interesting ideas. Jacob Phillips contributed solid color work that is key to the tone of the book. But the script feels like it’s rushed to the end, without much time to entertain the ideas Brubaker wants to discuss. While Sean Phillips is an accomplished artist, there simply isn’t any proper horror or scares in the book. very similar where is the bodyanother experiment from the comic duo, but it didn’t quite hit the mark.
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