The Nine Lives of Salem: Tails of Terror

What pet-owner hasn’t wondered what our pets get up to when we aren’t watching? (Sometimes, of course, an open kitchen cupboard and spilled spices make it self-evident.) In recent years, pet POV fiction has been having a renaissance in comics. Image has published two pet-centric horror series, Stray Dogs and Feral (both by Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner). Boom! Studios put out the sci-fi miniseries Man’s Best (by Pornsak Pichetshote and Jesse Lonergan) last year. And now, Archie Comics is back with another one-shot following Sabrina the teenage witch’s talking cat Salem. 

A sequel to 2022’s The Chilling Adventures of Salem, The Nine Lives of Salem reunites writer Cullen Bunn, artist Dan Schoening, inker Ben Galvan, colorist Matt Herms, and letterer Jack Morelli to tell another supernatural horror story from the perspective of Archie Comics’ fiendish feline. Depending on the creative interpretation, Salem may be the witty-but-amoral comic sidekick or a voice of reason for Sabrina. Nine Lives’ Sabrina-less Salem is every bit as sarcastically witty as readers no doubt expect, but probably shouldn’t be offering anyone advice. Unlike the average animal companion, Salem’s mischief goes far beyond spilled spices. 

Nine Lives begins as Chilling Adventures did, with Salem following a bunch of possessed animals to an unfamiliar location. Anyone who hasn’t read Chilling Adventures or doesn’t remember it well needn’t worry, however, as both one-shots are self-contained. While the previous comic focused on a sorcerer kidnapping pets, its sequel sees Salem come face-to-face with his own demons. Imps, technically. As a wicked human mage, before he was cursed to spend one hundred years as a cat, Salem created the imps to do his bidding. Now, they’re out for blood. And there’s a lot of blood. For all its delicious B-movie-esque horror, Bunn’s script is still surprisingly heartfelt and digs its teeth deep into Salem as a character. 

Like its predecessor, Nine Lives’ visual aesthetic and thematic material make reading it feel a bit like coming across a lost 1970s horror treasure in the dollar bin. This is in part thanks to Herms’ integration of newsprint texture, scuff marks, registration misalignment, and an aged patina. Schoening’s designs for the horde of imps are quite varied and memorable, ranging from a grotesque gargoyle to an imp with a Pomeranian’s head on a lizardlike body. And throughout, low-angle compositions in Nine Lives put the reader on Salem’s visual level, giving the comic’s haunted house setting a cramped-yet-cavernous feeling. Fight scenes feel intimate and visceral, with Galvan’s toothy inks and extensive cross-hatching upping the drama even more.