This week, Image Comics released The Manchurian, the first one-shot in the Pornsak Pichetshote-led The Horizon Experiment project. So, what comes after that multi-layered spy thriller? Why a a whole lotta horror in the form of The Sacred Damned.
Here, writer Sabir Pirzada and artist Michael Walsh join forces for story about a “Muslim John Constantine.” And that’s not just a damn good tagline, but also rather telling about this specific tale. One, you can expect some extra gripping horror, and few know the genre with as much passion and intensity as Walsh. But also expect lots of suspense and drama as Pirzada marries both his comics and TV work (see offerings like Ms. Marvel and Cult of Carnage: Misery) to create big characters, unsettling scenarios, and a rich sense of history and lore. The Sacred Damned is, in short, every bit the promise of its “concept” and so much more still.
Just as we spoke with Pichetshote and Dodson about The Manchurian, so too are we speaking with Pirzada and Walsh (with a special cameo by Pichetshote to boot). The pair tackle everything regarding The Sacred Damned, including their collaborative process, how TV writing informs this book, and crafting stories with Muslim leads.
The Sacred Damned #1 is due out October 23. (The FOC is Monday, September 30.)
Variant cover by Tula Lotay. Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: What does Sacred Damned represent emotionally, aesthetically, narratively, etc. for the larger Horizon Experiment “project”?
Pornsak Pichetshote: The guiding philosophy behind The Horizon Experiment is a simple one: new perspectives make the genres we love better. The Sacred Damned is the best distillation of that philosophy. It’s a series that follows a Muslim exorcist. Simple, right? But upon hearing that simple concept, people have already started realizing out loud that all possession stories we follow in Western pop culture center around Catholicism, even though demonology and possession are global concepts. Which means there are tons of these stories we’ve never heard. It makes you realize there are Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu takes on ghosts, demons and possession stories that horror fans in the West haven’t really heard, just waiting for us to explore.
But then on top of that, you have two creators of the pedigree of Sabir Pirzada and Michael Walsh doing it: Sabir, a hotly sought after screenwriter who’s worked for Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, hungry to stretch into comics with his Image graphic novel Dandelion and hand-selected to co-write Ms. Marvel with the MCU’s own Ms. Marvel, Iman Vellani. And Michael, the best horror cartoonist working right now as can be seen by his gorgeous and disturbing work on The Silver Coin and Universal Monsters: Frankenstein.
AIPT: Michael and Sabir, how has the collaborative process been across this story?
Sabir Pirzada: It’s been an absolute dream! I knew going into the process that Michael’s a brilliant horror heavyweight, so I deliberately held myself back from being overly descriptive about panel layouts and details because I knew Michael’s instincts would safely lead us to maximum horror. The biggest surprise was that Michael and I developed a short-hand when it came to character designs and tonal references because we like a lot of the same comics and movies.
Michael Walsh: I had a blast working on The Sacred Damned. When I first read Sabir’s script, my mind immediately started racing, thinking about different creature designs and ways I could effectively capture the inherent horror of so many of the pages. Sabir writes with an excellent economy, and his trust in me has allowed me to do some of my best work to date. He has such a great sense of pacing and character. I’d work with Sabir again in a heartbeat.
AIPT: Sabir: You come from TV and have made your way into comics. How does something like The Sacred Damned benefit from that perspective?
SP: Because so much of writing TV is writing for actors who will definitely be tracking their own characters’ emotional arcs so they can calibrate their performances accordingly, I took the same discipline into tracking that emotionality in the characters in The Sacred Damned, and paid close attention to the expressions that Michael illustrated because that serves as the “performance.” It turned out to be a pivotal element for setting up the scares.
A sketch of main character Inayah. Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Inayah is described as a “Muslim John Constantine.” What about that beloved character, and archetype, is so appealing and something worth playing around with?
SP: When you’re dealing with characters who represent minorities, there’s a tendency to portray them delicately because you’ve got the fear that audiences will associate the character’s flaws with that of the entire minority group they represent. That’s why a version of “John Constantine” was so intriguing, because he’s got a chip on his shoulder, and he’s certainly not loved by everyone he meets. Being such a big fan of that character made me motivated to throw caution to the wind and see what I can do about making Inayah rough around the edges — which hopefully makes her all the more intriguing.
MW: Inayah is such a great character. For her design, I wanted to capture something that felt rugged and heavy-duty, for when she needs to get her hands dirty, but also a bit fashionable and iconic. The Scarf was something that Sabir had written into her character. A recognition of her character. The brighter blue design was meant to be a pop of colour and contrast against the darkness of her clothes.
AIPT: This story also made me think of Tales from the Crypt — unpredictable, extra edgy, socially conscious. Were there any specific influences shaping this story?
SP: Some of my favorite episodes of The X-Files and Fringe have more of a horror bent, and they were definitely an influence here. I think it will surprise no one that I’m a Stephen King fan. The idea of “a long-gestating evil who preys upon you in a personal manner when your life already feels out of control” is a general approach I took from his work.
MW: On the art side of things, I can’t help but think of Mignola when I modernize larger-than-life demons and monsters and folktales. I was also very inspired by early depictions of demons from Islamic art, like the illustrations in The Book of Wonders. I tried to be reverential to these early depictions while still putting my own modern stamp on them.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Sabir, there’s a really great essay from you at the end of the issue about the supernatural and being a practicing Muslim. Can you give us a little preview of that — how did these ideas inform Sacred Damned specifically?
SP: I went to Islamic school for much of my childhood in Ohio, where this story is set, and in California. Along the way, I heard many campfire stories from my fellow Muslims, usually stories heard second-hand that happened to a cousin’s cousin in Morocco, Iran, or Pakistan concerning the supernatural side of Islam. I mined the commonalities in them as I started to shape what this story of The Sacred Damned would be.
AIPT: Sabir, I love the idea of showing the wonders of Muslim stories/culture/etc via horror. Was there a conscious thought of, “Openness and sharing doesn’t have to look like one thing/always be warm and joyous?”
SP: Having spent a couple of years of my life working on the Ms. Marvel TV adaptation as well as the Ms. Marvel comics, I can say we had a lot of scrutiny on that character and rightly so—it’s Disney owned, it’s a part of the larger Marvel Universe, and we knew that eight-year-old girls were going to dress up as Ms. Marvel for Halloween. That was absolutely the right place to ensure we were celebrating Pakistani culture and Muslim communities, and keep things warm and open so that every Muslim watching it felt seen and represented.
We had no such pressure to shade Inayah similarly in The Sacred Damned, so we didn’t. Because this is in the horror genre and it’s for a mature audience, we could instead explore Muslim fears and Muslim nightmares, and if there’s friction between cultures and gaps in understanding, that only makes the horror more frightening. There’s a trust I have in older readership that alleviates the pressure of needing to over-explain and simplify things. The potential pitfalls in Ms. Marvel ended up being a point of intrigue in The Sacred Damned.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Similarly, I feel like this story is strong in its presence, and if you can’t engage a different perspective, then it’s OK if folks skip out. Do you think that’s an important function of Horizon — people need to meet stories where they are and not vice versa?
PP: All stories are met where they are. All stories come with opt-in and opt-out clauses. And there’s no better example of that than in horror. There are tons of intelligent people who will never sit through horror, because it’s too dark or gory or disturbing. And that’s fine, because it means those of us who like all that can really lean into the stuff that really goes for it. That really takes us somewhere we’re not used to going. The goal of The Horizon Experiment is broadening where those stories are coming from.
SP: Speaking personally, I always start by making sure whatever I’m writing is something that I would enjoy even if I had no involvement with it. I don’t know if anyone will meet us where we are, but I hope they do, because my own taste has always been my compass for what audiences might be hungry for, and hopefully that’s the trick—give them what they didn’t realize they want.
AIPT: Michael, what was your experience in engaging with Djinn and Muslim stories for developing the creatures/monsters here?
MW: I did a lot of research into early folk art and designs of demons, but I also wanted to play with the things I find scary in modern comics. I used light and shadow to insinuate a lot of the details and shapes of the demons to try and give them a more modern horror feel while still maintaining what makes these characters so interesting visually.
AIPT: Inayah is so tough and strong here. How much is her whole presence as much a commentary about the trappings/practices of modern horror?
SP: I have to give editor Will Dennis credit on that one — he kept pushing me to make sure Inayah doesn’t come across as a cliche savior, but to do something different, and to give her a specific attitude that would surprise readers compared to the demon-hunters they usually find in other modern horror.
MW: Inayah feels like a different kind of “hero” than the ones in other horror comics. She is ruthless in her character, which I love. She is charming and witty, but I wouldn’t want to mess with her.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Could there be a future for Sacred Damned? What might that look like storyline-wise if it did happen?
SP: Definitely. I’ve got story ideas ready to go. We created some threads in this one-shot that I’m dying to expand on, with specific references to Inayah’s past and how she came to be an expert in the field of the supernatural, as well as hints of a villain who’s been working behind the scenes. There’s a whole world to explore with The Sacred Damned.
MW: I hope I get to design more of this world. It’s incredibly rich, with many more stories to tell.
AIPT: Why should anyone read The Sacred Damned?
SP: I asked myself that question a year ago, when we were halfway through the WGA writers strike of 2023. Money was tight. All but one of my TV projects had been canceled. My family, like all the others, was living on dwindling savings. With no certainty as to how long the strike would last, the thought of making The Sacred Damned was daunting. Was it wise to put so much time, effort, and yes, financial capital into making something we had no idea people would actually read? Then Michael Walsh came up with the first character design for Inayah, which I promptly sent to my three sisters for a gut check. I wanted to make sure we got the scarf right and didn’t turn a symbol of modesty into a caricatured accessory.
My sisters got excited seeing just that one image. They instantly saw the potential. We weren’t the oppressed victims this time, nor were we one-dimensional villains, as we’ve become accustomed to seeing in most fiction. If one image got such a response, what would the whole one-shot receive? That was when I realized that we were working on something bigger than ourselves, and that we had to see it through.
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