The mythical team formed by And broker, Sean Phillips y Jacob Phillips It brings us a dark story about conspiracies and seven with the houses of the wicked, a volume published by Editorial Norma
Few creative teams in the world of current comic work with the precision and consistency of And broker (script), Sean Phillips (drawing) e Jacob Phillips (color), attached in recent years. They showed it in titles like Criminal, kill or be killed or Recklessand they do it again with an almost offensive solvency in The houses of the wicked. The work, published in Spain by Editorial standardIt is a new sample of absolute domain that this trio has on the codes of the NoirPsychological narrative and existential thriller.
The crime, the hidden and the flight to the abyss
AND thriller He has a smell of sin, severely buried secrets and that elegant violence that his authors dominate so much. Here we are presented to Natalie BurnsA young woman in whose childhood we find a dark event in which a sect of worshipers of demons, very fashionable in the 80s, we already use other colleagues from the school to perform patients satanic rituals. Through flashback We will discover the truth about this tragic event that shocked the country and the effect it has had over the years in its protagonists.
In the present we will see how Natalie works to let the children capture the children by the claws of his charismatic leaders, but soon the past took place in the form of an FBI agent who asks for his help to solve a case in which his former classmates seem to be involved. This will be the trigger for a spiral of violence, unanswered questions and buried obsessions. The story moves between the visible and the insinuated, the criminal and the supernatural, the real and the symbolic.
Who have read (have fun) Fatal They will find inside The houses of the wicked A certain Eco family. Not because tentacles or seven appear Lovecraftianas (Even if it could happen), but because we will see some common elements and because it is probably the only work of this team apart from this that enters a certain extent in the field of terror. As happened in Fatale, here the truly terrifying is not what is shown, but what is out of flat: the rites that are not seen, the reasons that are not included and the forces operating from the shade. Brubaker is not so interested in explaining the supernatural and exploring how the people who touch him strikes.
Him Dream teams comic
Talking about brubaker and Phillips speaks of a team that works like a perfectly greasy machine. Brubaker writes with the security of those who perfectly know their tools: the tension is built without haste, the dialogues breathe and each script lap is measured millimeter to always disturb and not please.
In the meantime, Sean Phillips remains an emotional chiaroscuro master. His stroke, dirty but precise, captures the fragility of the characters and the rot hidden under the most elegant facades as few. And Jacob Phillips, to color, continues to consolidate a visual identity that is no longer only complement, but a narrative language in itself that nourishes from palettes, of dark atmospheres and sick tones that make the newspaper something threatening.
Inspired by real events?
Although it does not openly declare it, the houses of the wicked resonates with a very contemporary real series of real and cultural paranoia. It is easy to think of cases such as sects in the United States or even the darkest imagination surrounding theories on sexual exploitation networks and abuse between the elites. Perhaps there is no direct case with which to establish parallelism, but probably lovers of real cases of this type see some reminiscences with an event of the last decades.
One of the most intelligent (and frustrating) decisions of the comic is its end. Without entering SpoilerIt must be said that Brubaker avoids the trap of comfortable closure. There is no complete redemption, absolute justice or explanations that solve everything. What remains is a feeling of vertigo, a half truth that hurts the complete lie more.
This is not a defect, but a narrative choice deeply consistent with the tone of work. In the universe of Brubaker and Phillips, the darkness does not disappear with the dawn, but is hiding better. And the characters do not cure, they simply learn to live with the open wound.
This Escición Presented by Editorial standard It is available in a rigid coverage format without jacket with a size of 18 x 27.5 cm. and contains the translation of the original edition of Houses of the Empi. The volume contains 144 pages color. The recommended sale price is € 27 And it was on sale in April 2025.
Review of evil houses
The new job of the thriller teachers in comics
The houses of the wicked It is an exciting journey in a world of terror at the hands of successful authors And broker y Sean PhillipsThe creative team winner of the prize behind Criminal, Reckless, The fading, Night fever y Where I saw the body.
An FBI agent specialized in sect crimes and a woman with a past linked to collective hysteria by the satanic in the 80s was dragged on the hunt for a crazy killer who chased the shadow of hidden underworlds. Natalie Burns believed in the occasion he managed to escape his past, but … and if all your wrong decisions were nothing more ghosts that await you in the dark?
Authors: And broker, Sean Phillips y Jacob Phillips