Lilith, Vol. 1
Writer/Artist: Corin Howell
Colorist: Warnia Sahadewa
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Vault Comics
Publication Date: October 2025
When I was younger, I was always envious of the movies that my older cousins got to watch, the clothes that they wore, and the music they got enjoy during their college years. And I was reminded of this recently when I was reading Lilith, Vol. 1, a fun new book that feels indebted to the culture of about 20 years ago.
Lilith is a debut solo series from Corin Howell, published through Vault Comics, and starring the titular character Lilith — a femme fatale demon. She’s trapped in the mortal realm for reasons unknown. For the time being, she models for goth/alt clothing lines that have her in all types of scantily clad outfits.
The story heaps platter after platter of cheesecake, which is very welcome for a sapphic book. I love a squeaky clean, soft sapphic romance as much as the next person, but I also like to be reminded that queer women screw and like women carnally.
The art is very tight, the pages composed, and a limited color palette is used to good effect. I am particularly in love with the facial expressions. Howell is not afraid to make Lilith look silly. Also, the priest antagonist in the back half of the book has this Guy Fawkes mask by way of Batman: The Animated Series look going on with him that I really loved.
I also want to give special mention to the fight scene composition. Fight scene composition is easy to learn but hard to master. It relies on knowledge of foreshortening, perspective, positive and negative space, as well as storytelling (because fight scenes are stories inside of other stories). I could go on for another 200 words or so about fight scenes, how they work, and what does and doesn’t work, but this little aside is enough for this review. Just know, the fights are good in Lilith.
I can tell that this story reheats the nachos of a lot of late ’90s or early ’00s supernatural shows like Buffy and Angel. Some of the lessons — like open queerness among the main cast — are learned and used, but some are not. The story is cheesy, and I love a fair amount of cheese when it comes to stories, especially when it collides with the “Rule of Cool.” Demons are cool, especially when they employ body horror-adjacent transformations.
However, sometimes the silliness threatened to take me out of the story. One of the characters — Penelope, a specialty bookshop owner — displays such a lack of self-preservation that it flies past being cute and becomes a plot contrivance for the reason why demons show up. I can understand that it’s using old tropes, but there are tropes, and then there are clichés. That’s true even if the cliché is lampshaded by the main character.
Lilith has potential, and does what a first volume is supposed to do. It’s solid work throughout and gives me enough questions and intrigue to get me interested in the next volume. Only time will tell whether it can do something unique with the tropes and the influences it wears on its sleeve.
Lilith Vol. 1 is available at book retailers now
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