The Hidden

Eight desperate people are stranded at a snowbound diner. Their phones can only pick brief and perplexing bits of conversation. The radio is filled with static ― although occasional, broken-up bits of news are heard ― reports of some sort of global catastrophe... A ninth person arrives, hiking to the diner from his stranded car, where he had been listening to his car radio. He informs the others that, yes, from what he was been able to make out, something alarming seems to have happened, a catastrophe on a global scale… Oh, and one more bit of local news he happened to pick up, he says: The previous night an inmate escaped from a nearby hospital for the criminally insane, after killing his doctor and several bystanders. The police warn that he is very, very dangerous.... In The Hidden, as the isolated characters become increasingly unraveled, one character tells of a dream he recently had. Then each of the others tells a dream, a personal anecdote or a story they’ve heard, ranging from the bizarre to the absurd to the truly horrific. Each will be presented as its own chapter. Then there are the games ― a selection of (fully illustrated) card games and board games found in the diner. Are these merely children’s games ― or something more sinister?

Details

"’Gothic humor’ sounds like an oxymoron. That’s probably why so few comics creators ― Charles Addams, Edward Gorey ― have pulled it off. You can now add Richard Sala to that short list."

Jenna Brager, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Sala’s new book, The Hidden, does not wholly depart from the campy fascination with the morbid that marks his previous work, but is even darker in tone, despite the vibrant watercolor work. The visual markers of Sala’s humor are present ― the affected font, the twisted faces ― but there is arguably something more serious and disturbing at play here."

David Berry, National Post

"The Hidden feels like a Poe short story, but Richard Sala actually reaches further back into gothic literature for information, filtering Frankenstein through a zombie apocalypse. Just like Poe, the fun here is all in the telling, and Sala’s campfire-ghost-story illustration is blunt enough to be cynically hilarious and cruelly gory, often at the same time. The allegory is the same as from Shelley’s original, but like the best gothic writing, the fun comes from putting the pieces ― all the pieces ― together at the end."

Publishers Weekly

"Sala’s work is like a fusion of Hergé and Charles Addams, yielding a simple, cartoon-like style that makes his moments of gothic horror all the more disturbing. ...[The Hidden] is a beautifully pulpy and incredibly imaginative book that gives a fresh spin on a well-used set-up."

Francisca Goldsmith, School Library Journal

"In this outing, [Sala] combines motifs of a postapocalyptic landscape, wanderers, some vampiric businessmen, and, ultimately, Dr. Frankenstein. The stew works perfectly... and it is only at story’s end that the opening pages become horrifyingly clear. Sala works with a full palette of beautiful, gemlike hues held in generous panels."

Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

"The Hidden isn’t just an entertaining riff on well-worn horror concepts. Taking his cues from Mary Shelley, Sala explores human vanity and arrogance as a way of showing how everything can go so wrong so fast."

Dan Nadel, The Comics Journal

"...I have to pay homage to Richard Sala’s incredible and overlooked book, The Hidden ... Sala’s kind of a pro himself, turning out at least a book a year (much like another visionary, Gilbert Hernandez), and this twist on Frankenstein reads, not unlike that gothic romance, as an allegory for artistic ambition gone wrong...."

Hayley Campbell, The Comics Journal

"The Hidden is ridiculously good, silly fun... and Richard Sala’s absurd humour bleeds through the lot like red ink on a crisp white collar.... It is, to hammer it home with a bloody mallet, an absolute demented joy."

The Onion

"At a time when many alternative comics seem to be impulsively created page by page, Sala’s epic, tightly woven narrative is especially commendable."

John Seven, North Adams Transcript

"Graphic novelist Richard Sala cures the zombie apocalypse malaise with a new book that takes the basic set-up of those tales and turns it into an artsy, comical, downright weird exercise in terror that brings together several slices of the horror genre... into something modern and surprising. …The Hidden [is] a modernist horror tale that acts like the zombies it evokes, cannibalizing the genres from which it sprang and spewing out something new from those entrails."

Johnny Bacardi, Popdose

"It helps if you can illustrate your fever dreams as well as Sala can… [The Hidden] is beautiful to look at, and as usual, he gives us memorable grotesques and lovely girls in equal measure…. His best since he wrapped up Evil Eye a few years ago."

Carol Borden, The Cultural Gutter

"The world is ending in madness and blood, as a bearded man flees to the countryside. But what does he know about the end and why is it mostly nubile young women who are being killed? Another tale of mayhem, mystery and mad science from Richard Sala."

John Mueller, ComicImpact

"Imagine your unease if all the ghouls and ghosts of the Halloweens of your forgotten youth were suddenly made real, ... Oh, and don’t bother running to the neighbor’s because the monsters have stopped there first. That’s what reading The Hidden is like and that’s ... what makes it...one of Sala’s best works period."

Tim Reinert, Four Colours & the Truth

"...[P]robably the best pure horror comic I read this year... Sala’s expressionist art style might not be the most obvious choice for telling blood­curdling horror stories, but its innocent cartoony quality somehow makes a perfect (and terrible) fit with the horrible, almost nihilistic story that Sala is telling."

I'm Reading Comeeks

"The art is gruesome and absolutely the best, ...[and] everything lends itself to the gothic and disturbing feel of the book. And the ending! The ending!!! ...[It] sends an absolute chill down your spine. For fans of creepy stories, Emily Carroll and just weird but awesome art."

Grovel

"Post-apocalyptic stories tend to be grim, but The Hidden is very dark indeed.... The book feels like a modern-day gothic horror. The survivors are metaphors for humanity, with a heroic few battling an onslaught of monsters, human or otherwise.... Sala’s illustration is compelling... 4 stars [out of 5]"

Win Wiacek, Now Read This!

"Clever, compelling and staggeringly engaging, this fabulous full-colour hardback is a wonderfully nostalgic escape hatch back to those days when unruly children scared themselves silly under the bedcovers at night…"

Rob McMonigal, Panel Patter

"...[E]asily... one of my favorite horror comics and one of my contenders for my Best of 2011 list.... There is an excellent story of slow-building despair to be found in its pages, with gorgeous depictions and coloring and a horror story that shocks, surprises, and entertains."

Greg McElhatton, Read About Comics

"...[W]hat Sala does well, he does very well indeed. There’s quite a lot to love in The Hidden, with some scenes in particular that will stick with the reader for a long time."

Stephen L. Holland, Page 45

"This is Sala’s second book in colour, rich in red and orange, but it’s the first, I believe, to dispense with all hope and humour ― apart from the man with the Marty Feldman eyes. He’s taken the Edward out of Gorey and the tongue from his cheek, replacing it there with shovels, hatchets and stakes!"

About the Author

Richard Sala (1954–2020) grew up in Chicago. He had an MFA from Mills College, created over a dozen graphic novels, collaborated with Lemony Snicket, and illustrated a Jack Kerouac script. He spent most of his adult life in Berkeley, CA.

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