Allison heard Kyle speaking to her in Arabic in the middle of the night. Evidently had asked her if she wanted a cookie. Kind of a strange thing to say in Arabic in the middle of the night, but things are only going to get stranger for Kyle in The Sacred  Damned #1. Writer Sabir Pirzada and artist Michael Walsh develop a compelling horror action adventure from the rather intriguing idea of a Muslim John Constantine. The deeper emotional horror of demonic possession makes its way across the page in a very well-articulated and rather intricate, little one-shot plot. 

Kyle had been in a very good place in life. He was born with the right genetics to make him a star football player in college. He had a scout from the NFL introduce himself to him. He was in a serious relationship with a woman who loved him. Everything seemed to be going quite well. There was, however, the small matter of a djinn that had worked its way into him. Incidents started to happen. He started to gain weight. Before long it was apparent that the NFL just wasn’t in the cards for him. His life was falling apart. Then his girlfriend died in bed with him. He needed help. Help would come in the form of a paranormal investigator by the name of Dr. Inayah Jibril.

Pirzada introduces Dr. Jibril in a tight, little adventure that has her coming face-to-face with a sinister demon inhabiting the body of a former athlete. Pirzada’s script juggles quite a few characters in a very narrow one-shot. It’s remarkable how much life the author is able to breathe into even minor supporting characters like Allison as the story marches forward in and around the edges of a plot that only has a limited amount of space to move. From introduction of conflict to rising action, resolution of conflict and falling action...the pacing of the script is more or less perfect. 

Walsh’s delivery of the visuals is striking. There’s some chilling horror that makes its way to the page that is amplified by just how well the artist is bringing every day emotion to the page. Allison comes across as being deeply well-realized even though she only shows-up alive in a few panels. The horror of her fate becomes all the more intense in light of the connection she’d been able to make in the first few pages of the story. Dr. Jibril is suitably heroic without being flashy about it. There’s a steely confidence in he posture...even in the presence of great otherworldly power. 

The Horizon Experiment in one-shot issues continues to show quite a bit of promise. Image is going a really good job of twisting the expectations on traditional comic book genres by simply switching the leads to be something other than white guys.. There’s a lot of room to explore new ideas from cultures that aren’t always given the center of page and screen. 

Grade: B+