Sons Of The Devil 1

From New York Times Bestselling writer Brian Buccellato and artist Toni Infante comes a psychological horror story about Travis, an average guy trying to get by, who discovers that he has familial ties to a deadly cult. Told across three decades, Sons of the Devil is an exploration of cults, family, and the dark side of human nature. It’s True Detective and Orphan Black meets Helter Skelter.

This story opens with the main character, Travis being kidnapped as a baby, ostensibly by members of a cult.  Flash forward to present day, Travis is a young man with a lazy dog that prefers to be carried around.  The young man stops to help a lost boy find his parents, and gets suspended by his boss.  A violent altercation ensues that leaves his boss with a bloodied nose, and Travis with court mandated anger management classes.  Klay, a previous foster parent finds a picture of a man with the same kind of miss matched eyes as Travis.  Initially, Travis is resistant to Klay’s help, but eventually decides with the help of his girlfriend that it couldn’t hurt.  He finds Klay murdered, and is quickly knocked out by the pipe wielding assailant.

This series is a bit schizophrenic in the writing, so it’s a good thing that it follows a satanic cult.  I found the dialogue to be somewhat sketchy.  Most of the conversations could be found in any 70’s or 80’s B horror movie.  Travis is your typical moody orphaned young man with few real surprises.  The story shows some promise, but as of the end of the first issue is all too predictable.  With any luck it will show a bit more promise as the story develops.  I also found the art to be a little rough.  Although this seems to go with the plot, it is often difficult to tell the difference between characters except in close ups.  The colors look great in darker or nighttime scenes but seem lacking in well list panels.  All in all not a bad first outing, but not a great one either.  Fans of slow boil, horror novels will appreciate this series.

For more about Sons of the Devil or other great titles from Image, please visit Image Comics.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.