Infidel #1 Review

Neighborhood Bully

Story: Pornsak Pichetshote
Art / Cover: Aaron Campbell, José Villarrubia - See more at: https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/infidel-1-of-5#sthash.0ZteCxFq.dpufWritten by: Pornsak Pichetshote

Art by: Aaron Campbell
Colors: Jose Villarrubia
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewed by: Andrew McAvoy


Oooh boy. I'm gonna spoil my own review by saying this was my book of the week baby. This book just grabbed me by the lapels (well by the collar of my faded t-shirt) and dragged me right into its world. Let's see what all the fun was about.

Well, well, well. I opened this book with a little sigh thinking not another book about race relations in the modern world...boring! Sorry, forgive me but I like my comics set a world apart. I don't mind a dash of real-world dimension though, and this book actually uses a nice blend to keep you intrigued and play against expectations. Its a supernatural story featuring an American Muslim woman who lives in a building which haunts her, seemingly living off the xenophobia from the other tenants in the building.

It's an intriguing set up. The central character Aisha, lives with her husband, her step-daughter, and her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law is shown in scenes with Aisha as being unintentionally offensive to her Muslim daughter in law by making seemingly innocuous references about cooking pork dishes, etc. Her son though reveals his mother's deep seeded hatred of Aisha's faith and is depicted elsewhere as having a much deeper hatred of Aisha in scenes with her granddaughter and son.   

Here's the twist though, this all feeds into a good old-fashioned ghost story where Aisha's mother in law's hatred and the other inhabitants of the mysteriously vacant apartment block feed supernatural visitors of an extremely gruesome sort. Initially invading Aisha's dreams they become more and more present in events until quite a nail-biting finale. 

Bits and pieces

This was a gripping book and I didn't even notice I was reading it until I hit the exciting cliffhanger at the end. The art was excellent and although some of the preview pages are shown above it is the last page above that is most typical of the majority of the book. An issue of some beauty and the street scenes and apartment scenes where no supernatural elements are present are up there with an artistically shot indie movie. A wonderful start to the series and one of the most enjoyable first installments I've read in a while. 

8.9/10

who move into a building haunted by entities that feed off xenophobia. - See more at: https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/infidel-1-of-5#sthash.0ZteCxFq.dpuf

who move into a building haunted by entities that feed off xenophobia. - See more at: https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/infidel-1-of-5#sthash.0ZteCxFq.dpuf

José Villarrubia