Robert Kirkman can sometimes be long-winded in his characterizations and plotting, but he nailed everything just right with this first issue. You immediately care about the characters. You want to learn more of their back stories that are slowly peeled back with each page. There is so much mystery that it's going to be thrilling AND excruciating to see how everything unfolds.
Paul Azaceta's style is the perfect choice to bring this world to life. Or is that afterlife? His dark and brooding tone sets the stage for each ominous event. The twisted facial features on each of the possessed gives you the heebie-jeebies. And Bettie Breitweiser does a phenomenal job at creating the dark recesses of not only the world these characters live in, but also their souls with her coloring. It's a perfect blend that these artists craft together.
I also want to give a shout out to an unsung part of the creative process: letterer Rus Wooton. Letterers usually get overlooked because a reader will normally just read the words, not putting too much emphasis or anything to the words they see. I, on the other hand, LOVE to add accents or fill in the &!@# blanks with cuss words to really make each comic feel real. Rus does a great job at giving life to the words with some unique fonts.
Overall, Outcast is probably Kirkman's best new book since the Irredeemable Ant-Man. It'll be interesting to see if it will have the staying power that Invincible and The Walking Dead have. Demonic possessions can only go so far, I'd assume, but so can the zombie apocalypse, and 10 years later, it's still going on strong. One thing's for certain, I'm along for the ride. The deep, dark, sinister ride.
On a side note, if you pick up the first issue because of all the hype of this being "the next Walking Dead" and you think this'll make you a hundredaire, do yourself a favor and READ THE BOOK. These people put a lot of hard work into these comics so you'll enjoy them, not so you'll bag & board them and put them in a box for 10 years hoping a tv show will be made of it. The book deserves to be READ. Why not give it a shot before you sleeve it? You might find out a shocking revelation...that comics can be GREAT. And this is one of those comics.
