A small-town horror – review of the comic book “Outcast: Possession”, vol. 5 “Invasion”

The exorcist is a great work. The same cannot be said for the multitude of average (and worse) later productions on similar themes (such as “someone there and someone there” exorcisms ), which a few years ago rolled through small and large screens. Where the movies do not demand, there is an opportunity for the comic. And Outcast. The Possessed makes full use of it, enriching the ossified formula by mixing it with another horror classic – Invasion of the Body Snatchers .

I am a fan of Kirkman and I am not ashamed of it. The Walking Dead is one of my favorite comics, even despite its tapewormity. Marvel Zombies are great fun with superhero tracks. Oblivion song , a story with an alternative dimension, is quite a pleasant read. The scriptwriter has a penchant for moral stories, which is by no means a disadvantage for me, especially since human dramas are usually dressed in a fantastic staffage, thanks to which they take on a unique dimension. It’s the same with Outcast .

„Yin i yang”

The previous volumes told the history of the town of Rome, West Virginia, whose inhabitants were targeted by the invasion of mysterious forces. Demons (are you sure?) Each day gaining control over more and more people, taking over their bodies (as in the work by Jack Finney mentioned in the introduction and his film adaptations). The main character of the story is Kyle Barnes, the Outcast), who goes from being injured and hounded to actively trying to understand the situation and stop the attack of the dark creatures between the volumes. In the fifth volume, it also turns out that the protagonist is not the only one with the power to cast out demons (or rather to beat them to a sour apple until the evil powers spit out). His mentor becomes a missing father with whom he has never had contact before. As in the movies from the 80s and 90s, the protagonist undergoes training under his father’s supervision, learns new techniques and finally, on the passive side, he begins to actively participate in the conflict.

Angels and Demons

Outcast is far from the pace of the Walking Dead , in which the heroes were constantly on the move and where the reader was constantly surprised by twists. Here, on a similar number of pages, the story unfolds very slowly – despite the fact that Invasioncombines the fifth and sixth volumes of the original edition, all of this seems to be just an introduction to a greater conflict, which perhaps would not be such an obstacle, were it not for the fact that the title is created in the USA at the rate of one volume per year. With this publishing mode, the comic started much too late. Fortunately, Kirkman finally reveals a bit of a mystery, showing the genesis and motivation of the other side, which was something that measured me in the previous installments. It turns out that in a parallel reality there was a fight between beings from darkness and those from light. Of course, the strangers belong to the first group, and they were drawn to our world by the need for the physical. From the beginning of history, an open question was to what extent possessions had a religious dimension and this and no other decision does not solve the problem at all. Well I do not hide

Fear has thick outlines

A comic book horror movie needs an appropriately atmospheric graphic design. And this is what Paul Azaceta provides here, who often and densely uses black both in the contours and in the fills of the frames. I must admit that I particularly liked one Azaceta patent – each page has at least one additional square-shaped frame. This type of “stamps” are used, inter alia, in for additional shots of faces and are so characteristic that I do not associate a similar theme with other artists. At the same time, it is a pity that the layout of frames and pages is very classic. It lacks the madness and ingenuity that I liked so much about the spiritually and stylistically similar Gideon Falls .

The names of Kirkman and Azaceta proudly echo on the cover, which is why it is even more damaging to miss the third heroine, which is equally important for the whole. Elizabeth Breitweiser did a great job filling the cartoonist’s blackness with appropriately muted colors. The colorist was even nominated for the Eisner Award (and rightly so) for her work.

Invasion of the body oppressors

The comic book should appeal to both Kirkmaniak and those looking for a horror movie with a social flair. The invasion started in April 2019, which is eons ago. I hope that Mucha Comics has not abandoned this title and the current downtime is due to waiting for the eighth volume of the original release (premiere in January 2021) to re-issue a double issue. And there will be the finale of the story and answers to a few open questions that Kirkman still hasn’t revealed.