Review: Infidel #1 (of 5)

There are a couple of truisms when it comes to buyingÂ or living in a property; location, location, locationÂ is key and the second is you don’t want neighbours from hell!Â In this mini series from Image Comics, both rules are ignored, if you count the fact that one of the neighbours is a demon from hell itself!

From the cover and through the first act, theÂ setup of this bookÂ pretty much guarantees a level of horror or a lack of anything good happening. It is the comic bookÂ version ofÂ those movies where they start with ominous music which gets darker andÂ darker as theÂ audience waits for the other shoe, or axe even,Â to fall.

Aisha, her partnerÂ Tom and his child , Kris are living with Tom’s mom in Â a building where a bunch of murders were committed.Â Due to its past, rent is cheap which brings in all types of people into the confines of the horror, which seems to focus on Aisha.Â The obvious reason for this is Aisha is an American Muslim, which garners a lot of negative attention.Â It’s this attention that gives the demon life, or is it the demon that helps create the tension?Â Either way, sleepless nights are the norm for Aisha as she tries to draw a line in the sand of her life with an enough is enough attitude.

Pornsak Pichetshote, best know for his editorial work on Swamp Thing, is making his writing debut with this book and quite a debut it is.Â Using the current real life tensions between religions in the States,Â mixed with a touch of defensiveness as seen in Tom, the story feels heavy.Â Pichetshote, maybe aware of this, sprinkles in the type of believable kidÂ with a love for a certain saga based in a galaxy far fay away.Â It’s over Kris that the book brings a smile to the reader, setting them up for type of horror that expertly rears its demonic head later.

Aaron Campbell provides the art with a scratchy style in places that screams downtrodden neighbourhood and difficult life.Â Still, life is what you make it and in Campbell, Aisha is the sympathetic heroine, who just wants to be happy and get along with everybody.Â As such, Campbell does extremely well to draw her in that manner.Â In a book like this, the characters are driven by their emotions and the art totally encapsulates this, from Kris’s joy at the Sarlacc cake to Tom’s anger and frustration all the way to Grandma’s forgetfulness.Â Or course the art does take a dark turn, which you’d expect and again, Campbell is more than up to the task.Â Award winning coloristÂ JosÃ© Villarrubia definitely adds to the eeriness with a color scheme that is more than match for anything that Hollywood can cook up.Â Letterer JeffÂ Powell keeps an easy-going font, which act as a bit of visual break for the reader.

Horror books can be a tricky proposition to attempt, especially as the genre is going through a bit of a lull in the most accessible media at the moment.Â Coupled with theÂ contrasts of belief, religion in any already fractious world, gives all involved a bit a ofÂ minefield to cover.Â Still, I am pleased to say that the creators involved in Infidel, have made a believer of me.

Writing – 5 Stars
Art – 5 Stars
Colors – 5 Stars

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Written by; Pornsak Pichetshote
Art by; Aaron Campbell
Colors by; JosÃ© Villarrubia
Letters by; Jeff Powell
Published by; Image Comics

In Shops: Mar 14, 2018
JAN180610

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network