Clay Diggs is a pharmaceutical salesman who truly believes in his products. He’s not greedy, and he doesn’t push bad medicine on unsuspecting clients (or at least, so he thinks). Clay has a calling. He wants to save the world, even if it is only one person at a time. Unbeknownst to him, though, there are dark and evil forces at work in the world, and he plays a part in their plans.

It begins with the disturbing news that his sister has checked herself into a mental asylum. He visits her and finds not the independent sister he knows, but a shell of a woman who is terrified of a dangerous, unnamed man and babbling about death in “paradise.” Thinking her ex-boyfriend is to blame for his sister’s problem, Clay tracks the man down and seeks to exact revenge. But the boyfriend isn’t the problem. An evil figure who only shows up in photographs is. Clay soon learns two things: 1) a cruise ship named Paradisehas just docked with everyone onboard dead; and 2) the evil photographic figure is now following him.
 
Teaming up with the widow of one of the cruise ship’s victims and an exec from the pharmaceutical company Clay works for, Clay seeks to solve the mystery and find out what the ominous signs are pointing toward. Meanwhile, a cult takes decisive action to bring about a demonic presence in the world and more evil events seem to be on the horizon.
 
The Calling is a complete chapter but is also part of an ongoing story. As such, it doesn’t so much come to a conclusion, but it does have a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. It’s also very well told; the mystery (and more important, the chills) kick in immediately and are compelling. The author team doesn’t resort to cheap tricks, either, which is refreshing—in a world of Saw-inspired blood-soaked horror offerings, The Calling takes place more in the haunting recesses of the mind, where dread lurks and can inspire a far more worthwhile reaction.
 
Christopher Possenti’s artwork is a delight. He draws from interesting and odd perspectives; everything is just a little bit off-kilter. The world has gone crazy, and no one quite understands how or why. The artwork, while crisply and nicely rendered, conveys that sense of mystery nicely.