Powerful.
I’m just going to let that word sit there for a little while unhindered. Outcast #1 is a brand new series from a writer that is renowned not only in comic circles, but in television circles as well. Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) takes us out of the world of zombies and survival and instead drops us into the strange and just as compelling world of demons. His ability to underpin all the violence in his works with the basest of human desires and needs once agin shines through here in Outcast #1.
Unlike many other tales that slowly build up the tension and action elements, Outcast instead spends little less than a page with the usual pleasantries, throwing gore at us like a runaway freight-train. I’m a casual fan of The Walking Dead television show, only being exposed to bits and pieces of the comic book series, feeling overwhelmed at jumping in some 100 issues in. So, having something like Outcast that has the same signature style is an utter pleasure as a reader.
What is even more amazing about Outcast #1 is that it doesn’t pull any punches. Not only do we get to witness a dark twisted world that isn’t afraid to put anyone in the way of danger, Image Comics have also sparred nothing to make sure people understand just how special they think this project really is. What’s even better is that Outcast #1 is priced at $2.99 (The average price of a basic 20 or so page book), but instead of going the traditional route gives us instead a huge nearly 50 page offering. Even coming in at such a hefty book, the pages literally fly by and by the end (we actually get a complete story here) we are still left wanting more, much more.
While the writing and pacing are top-notch, the art of Paul Azaceta beautifully captures the ups and downs we feel during the comic. His distinct styling blends realism with a tinge of classic comic hero influences giving us something really special. Even more so than both of these two amazing talents, the coloring work of Elizabeth Breitweiser is beyond stunning. Her use of color makes scenes pop not only visually, but also help the narrative build and build. Her use of the color red throughout the entirety of the book to highlight scene structure in amazing ways is fantastic and it servea to make those panels that rely on dark colors all the more ominous.
Without spoiling anything (you really want to experience all the little details this first-hand) the story follows the exploits of Kyle, a man who has all but given up on life and for good reason. As a youth he was subjected to a savage and unprovoked beating from his mother, only escaping with death thanks to some unknown forces unknown to him at the time. We come to learn quickly that his mother was possessed by a demon, one that specifically targeted poor Kyle. As time progressed and he was separated from his mother and he eventually grew to adulthood, but his problems were far from over.
Outcast works wonders as Kirkman gives us little tastes of Kyle’s past without the heavy reliance on flashbacks, giving us, the reader, the chance to create our own story for him, in a way playing detective within the narrative. We come to find that he was once a happily married man and that something terrible happened that separated him from his young daughter. It’s a gut-wrenching realization for the reader when, and in the way that this happens to Kyle. We feel for the man and come to quickly understand the pain and despair he showed earlier in the books story.
Later still, we come to find out, through the aid of a local Reverend, that Kyle is special. It isn’t made clear in just what that way may be, as neither the Reverend or Kyle understand, but whatever it is about him it gives him the ability to e exercise demons in the most violent of ways. We aren’t talking like magic or battling spirits like in a hero book, but doing so with a demon possessed body much in the fashion of The Exorcist. Watching Kyle learn about his gifts while engaging in physical altercation with a small child is both disturbing and rewarding at the same time.
A great many pages of the book deal with the exorcism that Kyle helps with and Kirkman shows that this there isn’t some special words you can say, or special wand to way to make things better. It is a slow, arduous, and demanding process that will make the reader cringe in its sheer brutality.
If you are a fan of Kirkman and the work he has done with The Walking Dead then you are going to want to defiantly want to pick this book up. The way in which the book handles demons in a very real way that many of us can actually understand, even by the faintest of margins, makes Outcast #1 from Image Comics a must own.
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