Satania

The team behind the acclaimed Beautiful Darkness upends readers’ expectations with subversive force. Things start off as a jaunty hollow-earth adventure tale, with shades of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne. An arrogant scientist and a gruff village priest are joined by a flame-haired young woman, Charlie, in exploring underground caverns to find her beloved brother, Christopher, who has gone missing trying to prove his outré theories about the world below. While the priest and scientist bicker over the intersection of theology and science, the team descends ever closer to an unbelievable inferno, uncovering one deadly wonder after another. Kerascoet’s art transitions from the wide-eyed cartoonishness of young adult graphic novels to a more intricate, gruesomely beautiful style as the ever-smaller expedition comes closer to discovering not only Christopher’s fate but possibly the secret of the afterlife and hell itself. Vehlmann’s writing is refreshingly willing to tangle with philosophical subjects in a highly NSFW manner. This bruising, antiromantic odyssey to the heart of darkness still manages to locate a glimmer of light amidst all the hellishness. (Nov.)