Sacrifice #1 is a comic written by Laurent Valles Jr. with illustrations by Uj Chen and colors by Ichsan Ansori. A woman finds herself dragged into the world of the supernatural and receives assistance from someone there. This is a very supernatural comic with religious influences and violence. The leading lady for this tale is Mei, a linguistics major whose love of a challenge puts her in a dangerous situation. The main for this tale is Damien; he is a young man of great importance who solves supernatural problems. There are a number of otherworldly creatures who they’ll run across in the course of this story. Things here begin at a university library where Mei and her friends are studying before launching into something more sinister. There are plenty of surprises but even more questions. This is takes place in our modern world but with a layer of the magical and paranormal. The action here is hard-hitting and bloody with light gore. The pacing is steady with a tone that shifts from lighthearted to serious. There are intense moments with calm in-between. The dialogue is mostly spoken with a couple of the pages on the cusp of being word-heavy. This is a debut comic that gives us backstory and present day plot and provides us with two strong characters that seem primed for adventure.
The art here is drawn in the modern style with a slight cartoonish element and it has a good amount of detail. The range of colors here is both wide and realistic when appropriate. The scenery is mostly other buildings and bare, scarce trees as this takes place in the city and it is snowing. The main location is the library with its many shelves of books but some scenes do take place in a church. The backgrounds tend to show parts of the scene in them which is great in a comic with high amount of panels per page. The expression level here is slightly below average as showing emotion seems to be difficult for these characters. The range isn’t large as we mostly see anger and shock with some fear thrown in. The detail in the faces varies and they can seem stiff and cartoonish more often than not which can be jarring. The monsters look grotesque with some appearing to be a combination of more than two different creatures. The mystical effects here shine bright or have a smoky look. The violence is very physical with blood, light gore, and rough-looking attacks. The action scenes are broken down well and are easy to follow.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is what you like.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural stories starring a man and a woman that deal with monsters, high stakes, and being hunted then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, gore, subject matter.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“If something happens, I’ll deal with it.”
Digital Link: https://adicous.gumroad.com/l/pFDKp?layout=profile
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adicous/sacrifice-issue-1/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 28
Violent Pages: 14, for 50% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 4
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 3
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 3
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 1
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
