BOOM! Studios has announced When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee, an exorcist thriller by writer Gus Moreno (This Thing Between Us) and artist Jakub Rebelka (Judas). Debuting January 1, 2025, the book follows a disgraced priest, who’s reassigned to study under an exorcist in South America, as he untangles a series of possessions among his new flock.
Father Barrera is a disgraced priest, haunted by his part in the tragic death of an innocent child. As penance, he is exiled to the remote South American town of Puerto Cristina to apprentice under the enigmatic Father Stygian, the preeminent, if not controversial, exorcist. It is a joyless assignment. Exorcists are normally trained in the Vatican, but Stygian has his own way of handling demons… methods that predate even the Church. And unfortunately for Barrera, Stygian’s last apprentice committed suicide not too long ago.
As Barrera seeks to unlock the mysteries of Stygian’s strange practices, he finds himself amidst an island rife with the forces of evil… What do these constant streams of possessions mean? And how are they connected to a comatose hospital patient, one who’s been in that condition for half a century without aging a single day…
The book marks the first comic by Gus Moreno, and the follow-up to his debut novel, This Thing Between Us. Released in 2021, This Thing Between Us was an existential horror novel about a widower mourning his murdered wife, and received numerous accolades, including being named Book of the Year by NPR, and a starred recommendation from Kirkus Reviews.
Moreno says of his book, “On an island at the edge of the world, where exorcists are also detectives, demonic possession is only half the story. When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee combines the gritty police procedural with the iconography of religious horror, where nothing is what it seems, and what you think you know may end up putting your soul in peril.”
When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee #1 will be released on New Year’s Day with a main cover by Rebelka, plus variants by Jacob Phillips, InHyuk Lee, and Jae Lee & June Chung. You can check those out below, as well as an interior preview, although be warned: you might find the content within upsetting for shockingly realistic reasons.
English (US) · 