Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are back with HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY, a story that jumps between modern day and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. The story follows Natalie Burns, a woman who along with several others, testified in the late 80s that their camp counsellors had been performing demonic rituals upon them. Now, a deranged murderer is knocking them off one-by-one and it’s up to Natalie and an FBI agent to save who is left and put an end to the killing spree.

While I am beyond happy to have been able to get my hands on a Phillips/Brubaker collaboration ahead of its planned release next week (August 14th), it pains me to say that this doesn’t feel as up-to-snuff as the duo’s prior work. That’s not to say it’s “bad”, but if we’re grading their work on a curve, then it suffers just a bit from pretty lofty expectations on my part. The art is gorgeous, as usual, so no complaints there (I loved when the story jumped back and forth in time and the flashbacks stuck with reddish and yellow hues), but it just felt a bit rushed and likely could have benefited from being twice as long to be given a bit more room to breathe. It could have given the twists that happen later in the story a fair bit more weight.

I would love to see the two delve more into horror though as they had with FATALE. I’ll take as many crime novels as they can throw my way, but the wicked and weird can use a bigger space in the pair’s portfolio.