Archie Comics 2020
Written by Eliot Rahal
Illustrated by Julius Ohta
Coloured by Matt Herms
Lettered by Jack Morelli
The Queen of Hell has had enough playing second fiddle to the Devil himself and is ready to take matters into her own hands! Will Madam Satan prove herself to be the most powerful being of the Underworld? Find out in this terrifying one-shot tale!
With the show being as well done as it is and the horror line being as spectacular as can be I knew that this would be a book I had to read. It doesn’t disappoint either. I mean I wondered what the events were that led up to her being in Greendale and why she has such a massive hard-on for Sabrina and while I wasn’t expecting to have all my questions answered I felt there would be some. Oh Eliot my friend thank you for this too because this is everything I could have hoped it would be and so much more! I’d love to see him do a limited series featuring Madam in all her glory as a between the scenes of the show because this is utterly amazing.
I love the way that this is being told. How the story & plot development moves ever forward through how we see the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. There is never a dull moment here and regardless if you like action stories or character driven stories this is going to have a universal appeal. It has all the intrigue and unexpected moments that generate an emotional response from the reader. The character development is utterly amazing! I mean I hadn’t expected to learn this much about her and what kind of drives her so suddenly she’s incredibly more interesting and fascinating which also makes me want to see more. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way you realise this is a portrait study of an amazing woman.
The way the book is structured and how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is magnificent. I hate to say this but in many ways Madam Satan reminds me of Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter and my obsession has officially begun lol. Seriously though this is one of the best books I have seen in the Archie Horror line to date.
I am loving the interiors here. The crisp clean and the strength behind the linework is impeccably rendered. How we see the varying weights utilised to bring out the detail work that we see is extraordinary! This is some bloody brilliant work and when we hit page two and see Satan, oh dayum! The way that we see backgrounds utilised is nicely done though I would like to see more but the way that the interiors are structured makes everything look so good. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a marvellously talented eye for storytelling. The colour work that we see here is equally as impressive. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows real knowledge of how colour is supposed to work. Plus the moments that glow yeah I am a sucker for those.
What this is and how it incorporates itself into the Sabrina universe is so stunning to see. Whether it’s simply for the comics or if it is tying into the show doesn’t even matter because this is such a strong story in and of itself. If you don’t have this you’d better find it before no one has any and you’ll be feeling blue because you missed it.