Speak of the Devil HC

by Gilbert Hernández

There's a peeping tom prowling the neighborhood. Eyewitness reports vary, but one thing is agreed he wears a Devil mask. This is the story of Val Castillo, a promising gymnast with a strange hobby. She is secretly the neighborhood peeping tom. At first she is alone in this, but when a male friend discovers her doings he joins her in a dark journey of spying and making discoveries about their neighbors that may have been better left alone. Especially secrets that threaten all involved, like Val spying on her own father and stepmother in their bedroom. This snowballs into a journey darker than even the most cynical would care to endure.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Horror, Crime, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix

127 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

Gilbert and his brother Jaime Hernández mostly publish their separate storylines together in Love And Rockets and are often referred to as 'Los Bros Hernandez'.

Gilbert Hernandez is an American cartoonist best known for the Palomar and Heartbreak Soup stories in Love and Rockets, the groundbreaking alternative comic series he created with his brothers Jaime and Mario. Raised in Oxnard, California in a lively household shaped by comics, rock music and a strong creative streak, he developed an early fascination with graphic storytelling. His influences ranged from Marvel legends Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko to the humor and clarity of Hank Ketcham and the Archie line, as well as the raw energy of the underground comix that entered his life through his brother Mario.
In 1981 the brothers self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets, which quickly drew the attention of Fantagraphics Books. The series became a defining work of the independent comics movement, notable for its punk spirit, emotional depth and multiracial cast. Gilbert's Palomar stories, centered on the residents of a fictional Latin American village, combined magic realism with soap-opera intimacy and grew into an ambitious narrative cycle admired for its complex characters and bold storytelling. Works like Human Diastrophism helped solidify his reputation as one of the medium's most inventive voices.
Across periods when Love and Rockets was on hiatus, Hernandez built out a parallel body of work, creating titles such as New Love, Luba, and Luba's Comics and Stories, as well as later graphic novels including Sloth and The Troublemakers. He also collaborated with Peter Bagge on the short-lived series Yeah! and continued to explore new directions in Love and Rockets: New Stories.
Celebrated for his portrayal of independent women and for his distinctive blend of realism and myth, Hernandez remains a major figure in contemporary comics and a lasting influence on generations of artists.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hernandez is such a good storyteller, in a variety of genres. Some work better than others. And most reviews trash this one because it is so extreme and ridiculous. This one, circa 2008, is horror, a slash-fest involving a gymnast, Val, who is also the town's peeping Tom in a devil's mask. Almost no one outside of horror fans will like this bloody mess, but it is a good page turner, with lots of noir, Tarantino feel to it. It's basically ALL twists and turns and genre cliches, as it spins out of control in a kind of ridiculous way. But I liked it, anyway. Beto's dialogue is just so good, and his storyline is tight and controlled and his art is really topnotch to match the story. As I said, no one will like this much. And not everything's crystal clear, but Val is a pretty interesting character. It's entertaining! But then, I usually like most things Beto does.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty wild comic book. It starts off pretty normal but slowly goes off the rails into a murder escapade. It's a lot of fun with some solid cartooning. Well worth checking out for fans of Gilbert's work. Thematically I think it fits in with the Fritz B-Movies. In fact the step-mom character looks like the role could have been played by Fritz. This was published by Dark Horse... or I'm betting Gilbert would have used Fritz in the role.

I like the premise. 3-stars just because when things start getting crazy I don't quite buy the characters motivations.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was both hard to read and hard to put down. The concept is simple. A mix of curiosity, jealousy and mental illness. All motivation is pretty much left up to the reader to figure out. This worked great as a short story. A quick stab, twist of the knife and you’re finished.

Warning. Extremely graphic.

[matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the art - but the story is very weak. It starts out with lots of promise, but soon becomes a mess. No believable motivations are explored for the main trio of characters, and some explanation for their unbelievable behaviors is desperately needed.
A waste of a good premise.

[João Teixeira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nem sei bem que classificação dar a este livro... Por um lado, a história começa com uma boa premissa, mas acaba por descambar em violência gratuita e inexplicável... Por outro lado, não há dúvida que Gilbert Hernandez sabe contar muito bem uma história (independentemente de acharmos que o que ele conta faz sentido ou não).
Arredondo para cima, para as 4 estrelas, porque apesar de ser uma história estranha, não deixou de me cativar e de me manter interessado até ao fim.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part teen-exploitation slasher yarn, part high school drama, part psychological horror and part ultra-dark comedy, Speak Of The Devil goes through as many tonal twists and inversions as one of its protagonist's gym routines. Neither for the squeamish or the serious, if you wanted to characterise this as slight and nasty there aren't too many good counter-arguments.

What the book does have is atmosphere - particularly in the first two issues before the action starts ramping up - simply but sharply drawn characters, and inevitably with a Gilbert Hernandez comic a whole bunch of beautiful, unfussy panels that stick with you, from the horrible to the mysterious to the just plain enjoyable to look at - the way a single shot of a gymnast in mid turn can conjure a world of athleticism and effort, for instance. Hernandez' spareness as a cartoonist and his baroque tendencies as a storyteller have had better meetings, but Speak Of The Devil approaches its schlock with craft and wicked delight.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hallucinatory, random, and violent. Characters display that odd passivity you sometimes see in Gilbert's work - facial expressions are distant or blank, gestures are kind of boneless. Sometimes this works really well for him - Luba is a great example of an inscrutable but fascinating Gilbert character whose next move I am always waiting to see - but in this book... the problem with depicting mindless violence is that it's mindless. No depth, not much story, just the idiot face of the psychopath. So - maybe the book is genius. But it feels like Natural Born Killers without the charisma, or the soundtrack.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's interesting that I completely agree with Ursula's one star review below, but I'm giving the book four stars for the same reasons. Not because I love gore, but because I think this book's resistance to any simple interpretation is its greatest strength.

The art is strong and wonderfully cinematic.

Personally? I would have liked more depth of character. But that doesn't mean Hernandez has to give it to me.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing dementia from Beto about the neighborhood peeping tom who jumps rooftops in a monster mask, only it's not the town nerd, but the beautiful teenage champion gymnast from the local high school. She forms a thrill killer trinity with her emo boyfriend and her stepmother, and it just gets sicker and sicker. This one will blow your mind!

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hablando del diablo comienza como una historia costumbrista con un toque peculiar, una joven estudiante y prometedora gimnasta comienza a hacer excursiones nocturnas merodeando el barrio vestida de negro, con una máscara de diablo, para espiar los hogares y las vidas de sus vecinos y compañeros de clase.

El problema es que lo que empieza como una premisa interesante que puede dar mucho juego termina convirtiéndose en un despliegue de violencia y autodestrucción con bastante poco sentido, el dibujo no me parece especialmente conseguido, no tengo problemas con el estilo de Beto hernández, pero cuando sale de las relaciones personales y se mete en acciones dinámica deja bastante que desear, al menos en este cómic.

Demasiado obvio e intrascendente, un entretenimiento rápido que a mi al menos no me llena para nada

[Zack! Empire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doesn't go the way I thought it would at all! I was really surprised when this book took a VERY sharp turn about halfway through. You just don't see it coming. There was also a part of the story that literally had me saying, "Jesus".
It's a Gilbert book, so you know the artwork is beautiful.

[Eddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out ok with an interesting plot then got crazy sociopathic weird. The ending was meh. The one realistic aspect portrayed with the characters (essentially quasi serial killers) is that they were on the lgbt spectrum (most serial killers ain't heter0).

Crazy bizarre love/sex quadrangle at play here. LOL the nutty violence. I guess I wasn't bored or anything. This could have been better though.

[Rach · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one started out intriguing, but quickly turned aggressively and inexplicably violent. I still don't understand the character progressions. Walk through this with me. Val hates her life and is mad at her father and step-mother, Linda, so she puts on a devil mask and black clothes and stalks through the neighborhood, spying on people in their homes. She spends a lot of time watching her father and Linda have sex. Linda knows the peeping tom (who she doesn't know is Val) is watching, and enjoys putting on a show for them. Val is in love with Paul, who is kind of her boyfriend, but doesn't want to have sex until he sees Val is the peeping tom. Then they do it in the cemetery. This continues. Paul eventually puts on Val's peeping tom costume and goes to her house and has sex with Linda, who assumes he's the peeping tom she'd been seeing. They have a lot of sex. Until Val comes home unexpectedly and catches them, and proceeds to try and murder them with a knife.

Here's where it gets weird. I know what you're thinking, "It hadn't gotten weird yet?" Trust me. Val stabs Paul but doesn't kill him. He runs off. Eventually, though, the 3 somehow make up and come together to kill Paul's abusive father and mother. The 3 then run away together after staging Val's house to look like they were abducted. They go on a killing road trip, the girls taking turns having sex with Paul. It seems like Val does most of the killing, and has an obsessing with gouging eyes out. Linda eventually leaves the younger two and goes home to her husband, claiming to have "escaped" from their abductors, who are actually very kind and treated them nicely.

Suddenly and quickly, everyone starts being killed. Val kills Paul. She goes to her mother's house to hide and when her mother tries to kill her, Val violently beats her to death. She heads back home, kills her father, and frames it on Linda, who is devastated to find out the real peeping tom was Val. Linda stabs herself in the throat as the police are about to storm the house. Val's best friend Patty, who had been devastated by her disappearance, sees the murders through the window. Val tells her everything. Then Patty kills Val, out of "self defense" she says. The last frame is the most confusing: random gymnastics friend of Patty's that likes her is going to see her and has the mask peaking out of her bag.

Even after I write it all out, it makes no sense. So here is what I'm going to take away from this one:

1) Don't spy on people.
2) Don't wear devil masks, because they are evil-inducing.
3) Don't have sex in a cemetery.
4) Don't go on murder sprees.
5) Don't kill anyone in general, especially your parents.
6) Don't read this book again.

[Arminzerella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Teenage slasher gymnast takes up a creepy devil's mask, becomes a peeping tom, breaks with reality, and goes on a killing spree with her stepmom and guy friend. Jealousy, revenge, killer instinct, pure crazy? Not sure exactly what combination of stuff is motivating her. The female characters all have huge powerful thighs and wispy waists (there's a tendency toward buxom, too - but this varies from panel to panel depending on who's stuffed into the devil suit; bosoms magically disappear!). Don't like a particular character? No worries. Almost everyone dies. Violence for the sake of violence.

[Marissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's kind of mind-blowing how much I prefer Jaime Hernandez's books over Gilbert's, which Speak of the Devil and Chance in Hell both just further confirm. I don't know, maybe I just don't get it. A lot of Speak of the Devil seems shocking for the sake of being shocking and none of the characters are relatable or even remotely realistic. It's kind of like a Hernandez version of Story of the Eye by Bataille, which I didn't like either. For as awesome as his art style is, I just don't like the writing.

[Xisix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black comedy sexy murder romp by one of the Hernandez power duo behind Love and Rockets. Did not feel much empathy for characters but perhaps that was part of the point. Towards ending of graphic novel it felt bit like a John Waters movie drenched in bloody mayhem. Entertaining though not great or terrible.

[The Local Spooky Hermit · Rating 2 out of 5]

so i don't know what point its trying to make. If there is one... its bleak. *shrug*

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book better than Loverboys, and I'm glad I got it.,

I think I started with the wrong Hernandez work. The brothers' best works are with Fantagraphics. Gilbert started a small line of graphic novels with Dark Horse. Unfortunately, the first one I read from that line was the aforementioned Loverboys. I came to think that this line only contained the dregs from Hernandez' long storied career in creating comics. Speak of the Devil proved me wrong.

This book was definitely more exciting. It's a dark and sexy thriller that started with a little voyeurism that snowballed to mass murder.

This was the kind of book when I see the name Gilbert Hernandez on the cover. A mature story unlike what I usually read from Marvel or DC. I get tired of superheroes too.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty fun despite the rather jumbled storytelling. The story follows a young girl named Val who despite being fairly popular at school exhibits some antisocial tendencies. Her biggest secret is that she prowls the neighborhood at night and peeps through windows with a strange mask on. The story is both very dark and highly absurd, but Beto manages to balance the tone well in this stylish noir story. Speak of the Devil reminds me a lot of his "Blood of Palomar" tale which involves a serial killers stalking the streets of Palomar, though undeniably the latter shows a greater degree of subtlety and nuance. Speak of the Devil has a bit of a slasher vibe to it that leads to some pretty silly moments, but overall I was pretty entertained by this. Beto is a master of atmospheric storytelling, and all else considered, this comic has that going for it in spades.

[Peter Baran · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is my written and drawn by the same person Read Harder book, and I have to say I have never read that much Los Bros Hernandez stuff. Love And Rockets had always seemed a little to light soapy for me, and the artwork sometimes too broad. Here I completely get it. Speak Of The Devil is a nasty little tale of voyeurism which takes an unpredictable turn mid story and becomes something else. But the art and the writing are opaque enough to let the tale wend naturally, whilst also doing all it needs to evoke its small town setting and suburban tedium which leads to more. A nice crime tale, a quick but impactful read, and not without pleanty of impact. Maybe I should mark away a weekend for Love And Rockets after all...

[Marc Bosch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si Beto Hernández se compromete a hablar del diablo, no me cabe ninguna duda de que lo hará y de que lo hará a su manera, avisados estamos desde el mismo título de la obra. Al igual que en Palomar, sus personajes actúan de forma impulsiva, ajenos a cualquier convención social y libres de corsés de tipo moral. La realidad no funciona así, ya lo sabemos; pero por eso mismo se agradece tanto que un autor como Beto logre convertir los impulsos que se esconden bajo la máscara de hombre o mujer corriente en personajes de una novela gráfica como esta.

[Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so confused. I think I like it. Then again, it's such a whacky story. Starts out crazy to begin with - our protagonist is a masked "peeping tom" who spies on her father and stepmother for some reason - but then it evolves into something completely left-field. I mean, Gilbert Hernandez has such a special way of writing that a plausible plot seems almost unnecessary for storytelling. Is that the point?

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This went in some completely unexpected directions, from a seeming study in suburban quirk to a homicidal tale of destruction. When people start getting stabbed directly in the eye you know this is not a conventional peeping tom tale.

The fact that it is not conventional is enjoyable, but it gets so extreme that it feels like it is removed from reality, and any comment on suburbia is probably already made before the knives in eyes.

[Zachary King · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a weird one. It’s not Palomar, not quite, but it is a sleepy small town with secrets. Val is a gymnast whose nightly peeping tom activities lead to revelation with her boyfriend and her stepmother. The book descends into horror fairly rapidly, but Beto never tells us what it all means. Like most reviewers on here, I found this book oddly compelling but also slightly repulsive. Perhaps that is the point.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course, I love the Hernandez Brothers, and this book is no exception. It starts off dealing with disaffected youth, a young girl running around the neighborhood wearing a devil mask and peeping into houses, specifically on her stepmother. It then morphs into a serial killer thing, with the girl, her boyfriend and the stepmother going on a rampage. Very odd and surreal, quite dark, but very intense and powerful. I definitely want to read it again fairly soon.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A darker side of GH that you occasionally glimpse in his other stories, but shines full force in this abyssal tale of Val, a school aged gymnast who has an interesting hobby. At night, she puts on a devil mask and goes peeping. Her favorite people to peep on are her father, and his sexy new wife, Val's new step mother. Things go from creepy, to downright icky when her crush discovers her secret and decides to join in. Murder quickly ensues. Darkest dark darkness. Also, totally awesome.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have been meaning to check out the substantial and influential catalog of work from Los Bros Hernandez. So when this came my way, I jumped on it and was eager to check out what the hubbub has been about - especially recently now that Love & Rockets has turned 30. But this? This was a mess. This just took weird leaps that did not work for me, and not only did I get the strong feeling that this is simply not my kind of book, L&R might not be, either. Shame, that.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was unexpectedly dark and disturbing! I've not read Hernandez before, and according to the reviews this isn't exactly typical of his stories, if still representative of his artwork.
A small-town underbelly of voyeurism, sexual fetishism, domestic violence and a graphically-violent killing spree. Like a cross between David Lynch and David Lynch with a bloody kitchen knife. Blue Velvet x Wild at Heart, perhaps?

[Corby Plumb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great quick horror comic! Very thrilling, couldnt stop reading til I reached the very end. Very grindhouse but also subtle in its rhythm and storytelling, an erotic thriller meets goretastic slasher where voyeurism quickly turns to bloodlust. Very Charles Burns in places but with that unmistakable Hernandez vibe.

[Ladie · Rating 2 out of 5]

bro what???? this started off with such an interesting premise not to mention the art is bonechilling and captivating.

but the actual plot quickly unraveled into a mess. not even hints of motives, unrealistic murders... graphic just for shock value. really the best part was the art, which i hated because it had good promise