Chaplain by Brad Sun and Reverend Wesley Sun, art by Raúlo Cáceres, colors by Ryan Winn, letters by Marshall Dillon, edited by Sandy King 

Storm King Comics, 2026 

ISBN: 979-89928116503 

Available: paperback 

Charlie, an aging hospital chaplain, grapples with mortality through his role in addressing patients’ spiritual needs amid chaotic and unpredictable days. His new chaplain intern, Maria, a half Filipina, nonbinary, and non-Christian, seeks guidance as they navigate their role. Unlike the jaded and expressionless Charlie, Maria is vibrant and eager to help. Struggling with imposter syndrome, Maria aims to connect with both her mentor and the patients they encounter. A nightmarish entity encroaches in their professional space, and they find themselves confronting a terrifying creature they never expected.  

There is so much going on in this graphic novel, and the horror at the beginning is found in the real-world events of a hospital. The reader is immediately thrown into the chaos as the story begins with two orderlies wrestling to detain a patient, angry and struggling against them. Charlie emerges from the washroom, and the woman calms down as she recognizes him as the chaplain. He presents his badge to her when she asks for it, and he watches helplessly as she violently consumes it and reenters previous state of physical rage once more. From here, he begins navigating his spiritual care visits as Maria starts her own appointments. Charlie visits Ms. Shaw, a 63-year-old dementia patient who feels well-treated and believes her children are present despite their glaring absence. Meanwhile, Maria does not fare well with their first visit of the day. As they attempt to explain durable power of attorney to a man suffering with ASL, Charlie happens to pass by the room as the patient loses his temper with the young intern. The chaplain steps in, smooths over the situation and, before they can have a conversation, a panicked Black man is wheeled into the hospital past them, the environment erupting in chaos. All of this happens in the first few pages, throwing the reader into the hectic and confusing hospital environment. There is no room to breathe.  

Along the way, we follow the chaplain and the intern through various spiritual care visits, and conversations with Maria and Simone, the head nurse. Charlie and Maria in particular have discussions throughout the book regarding assumed authority, patient perception, chaplaincy responsibilities, imposter syndrome, and more. After every meeting, they exit Charlie’s office or the hospital chapel back into the madness of the hospital. With each page turn, there is an underlying tension that keeps building, like a spring slowly being wound. 

Another key character to Chaplain is Simone, a powerhouse at the nurses’ station. A conversation between Charlie and Simone reveals the former’s exhaustion, and that he is contemplating retirement. Instead of addressing the decision as a supportive colleague, Simone suggests promoting him to senior consultant, prompting Charlie to leave in frustration and tend to the patients in the psych ward.  Throughout the book, their conversations add to the tension. 

After a discussion in the chapel, Charlie expresses concern about the patients not being served well and is particularly worried about the aswang, a creature Maria has intertwined in stories she tells the patients in an attempt to connect with them in a meaningful way. When Maria reveals it is already present in the chapel, everything that follows could easily fall into the splatterpunk subgenre. Charlie comes face to face with the entity hovering over him, and the tension that was building through the first half of the book finally erupts. The horrors he must face as he navigates the twisting, and twisted, environment become too much for the man, and Maria is the only one who might be able to help him as he grapples with his identity as the chaplain, facing bizarre occurrences and self-doubt.  

Brad Sun has been writing and illustrating comics for over a decade. Rev. Wesley Sun has worked as a chaplain in hospitals, jails, and homeless shelters for two decades, and is a Certified Educator with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. He trains chaplain interns at a Level 1 Trauma Center in Chicago. Together, they formed Sun Bros Studios and create comics and graphic novels together, including Chinatown and Monkey Fist. Chaplain is their first graphic novel outside Sun Bros Studios.

Brad adapted firsthand accounts of Wesley’s chaplaincy work into the story, blending them with horror and Filipino folklore. 

Raulo Cáceres’ artwork for Chaplain is phenomenal. The amount of detail on each page draws the reader’s eye to nearly every section of the panels. There are some double-page spreads that are chaotic in their rendering. Add Ryan Winn’s intense and vibrant colors, and the combination is beautifully gory, drippy, and atmospheric. Every part of the artwork feels deliberate, adding to the bedlam of Brad and Wesley’s story. 

Chaplain is published under Storm King Comics John Carpenter’s Night Terrors imprint. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker