SERIES REVIEW: The Demon Archives

Story: Daniel Sharp
Art: Sebastian Piriz
Publisher: www.DemonArchives.com/Nickolas Sharp

The Demon Archives is an indie web-comic series from the creative team of Daniel Sharp & Sebastian Piriz. Best described as a post-apocalyptic military saga, the story follows a highly trained strike force called “Keleres” and their leader, Tenzin Dorje. All team members are outfitted with high-tech battle armor suits (think Halo’s Master Chief). As captain of the team, Tenzin’s suit is more advanced and features a built-in AI named Jane (think Iron Man & Jarvis) that guides he and the team when in battle.

The series opens with the Keleres being assigned to escort a group of engineers to a town they have received a distress signal from. As Tenzin and his team prepare to depart, we are provided some background on the mission, and get a glimpse of Tenzin’s mindset through his conversations with Jane and the team. Upon arriving at the town the distress call was received from, the Keleres find the town deserted, and immediately realize something is not right. As soon as the first resident is located, all hell breaks loose and the team is immediately thrust into conflict. The entire next two issues of the series cover the conflict Tenzin and the other Keleres have walked into.

The amateur art and inconsistent storytelling often found in indie comics can derail a book before it gets its legs under it. The Demon Archives does not suffer from these problems. Both the writing and art presented in this series is above average for an independently published comic series. Military stories can be tricky to pull off if you don’t know what you are talking about but Daniel Sharp has obviously done his research. The script Sharp crafts for Tenzin sounds like it was ripped directly out of a real life military firefight. When the team is thrust into battle, you immediately feel like you are right there with them. As entertaining as the story is, the art matches it panel for panel. From his line work and colors to his proper use of perspectives, Sebastian Piriz is on top of his game.

Having said all of that, there were a few things that I thought could have used improvement. The series starts of really slow. The beginning of the first issues uses about 5 pages of odd banter between Tenzin & the supporting characters. Not much is learned here, but there is one seed planted that seems like it will be important to the story so it’s forgivable. Plus once the action starts, you will quickly forget about the slow start. Also, the writer goes out of his way to avoid using profanity in the script. I’m not against that, I just don’t understand why that approach was taken. When things go south for the Keleres, they really get bad. It’s hard to imagine a team in such a desperate scenario would be watching their language. In addition, people are getting blown up and shot in the face left & right. I feel like if you’re going to present that to your readers, its probably OK to drop an F-bomb every now and then.

Final Verdict: Overall, the creative team behind The Demon Archives has crafted a very intriguing story. If you give it a try, i’m sure you will appreciate the effort and research that has been put into their creation. Indulge in a quality indie comic over at www.DemonArchives.com.