Image Comics announced writer Sabir Pirzada is teaming with Michael Walsh and Becca Carey to create The Sacred Damned, the second installment from The Horizon Experiment one-shot series.
The Horizon Experiment: The Sacred Damned introduces the world to Inayah Jibril, Professor of Ethnography and the Occult—a “Muslim John Constantine” demon-hunting female exorcist. Arriving just in time for Halloween season, the comic is a love letter to classic horror stories, from Dracula to The Exorcist, reimagining horror tropes through an Islamic lens. Like the other titles in The Horizon Experiment, this one-shot serves as the equivalent of a pilot for a creator-owned series, with the potential of continuing should there be demand for more. Along with an original cover by Walsh, the issue also features variant covers by Eisner Award-winning artist Tula Lotay, part of a connecting series across all five of the one-shots.
“I took sadistic pleasure in delving into the stuff of Muslim nightmares for The Sacred Damned. People think of Islamic culture as a monolith, but the opposite couldn’t be more true: it’s varied, rich, and rarely given the spotlight in western narratives despite representing a massive global population,” said Pirzada in a press release from Image comics. “When Pornsak challenged me to take us to new places in horror where no one has ever gone before, I knew that could only be accomplished with Michael Walsh, the greatest horror artist of our generation. It was a distinct thrill to have industry titan editors Will Dennis and Pornsak Pichetshote along for the ride as we introduce the world to a bold new antihero in Inayah Jibril.”
The Horizon Experiment: The Sacred Damned 31 arrives on October 23, 2024.
