Summary

• Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have announced a new horror project exploring the 1980s “Satanic Panic”.
• Houses of the Unholy follows an FBI agent and a woman linked to the Satanic Panic in a terrifying hunt.
• Brubaker and Phillips aim for a big and weird departure from their previous work, which has set the gold standard in crime comics.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips recently announced their latest comics project, as their original graphic novel Houses of the Unholy makes its debut this summer from Image Comics. A horror tale exploring the “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s, Houses of the Unholy will be released on August 13, 2024, and writer Ed Brubaker recently shared the first official preview art from the project.

Released via his newsletter, Ed Brubaker describes the project as “something I've been toying with for a long time in my notebooks.” Coming from the creative team of writer Ed Brubaker, artist Sean Phillips and colorist Jacob Phillips, check out the preview below:

The official synopsis of Houses of the Unholy states that the book is about “an FBI agent from the cult crime beat and a woman with a past linked to the Satanic Panic.” The two soon find themselves “drawn into a terrifying hunt for an insane killer hiding in the shadows of the underworld.”

Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips: the Gold Standard of Crime Comics

“I've been thinking about the main character of this book, Natalie Burns, for some time now,” Brubaker writes, explaining how he wanted his and Phillips’ next book to be a departure from their last: “Coming off something as small and intimate, and expansive as Where The Body Was, I wanted our swerve to be big and weird this time, and more of a pulp thriller.” Brubaker goes on to further describe the tone of the new book, writing, “In some ways Unholy is more in line with the Reckless books, by way of a horror story, I guess. But I've probably already said too much.”

First teaming together on 2001’s Batman: Gotham Noir, Brubaker and Phillips have gone on to collaborate on several more comics in the decades since. With projects like Criminal, Fatale, and The Fade Out under their belts, the pair could easily be described as the “gold standard” of crime comic creators. After years of producing monthly comics, Brubaker and Phillips switched things up by moving into the original graphic novel market, releasing their comics as long-form hardcover books. The duo put out five graphic novels in their Reckless series in quick succession, before following that up with the standalone Night Fever and their most recent OGN, Where the Body Was.

Houses of the Unholy Explores the “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s

With literal decades of work to their name, Brubaker and Phillips look to further stretch themselves by telling a full-on horror story. The “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s started with the publication of Michelle Remembers, the book seen in Phillips’ black and white preview page. Later debunked, the tell-all book purported to reveal the secrets of Satanic ritual abuse that eventually led to a moral panic that demonized everything from heavy metal music to Dungeons & Dragons. With ample room for the creative team to craft a thrilling crime tale with a spooky edge, Image Comics’ Houses of the Unholy will hopefully be another win for Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Houses of the Unholy will be available on August 13 from Image Comics.

Source: Ed Brubaker