Comics
Exclusive Behind The Scenes Look At ‘Skullkickers’
Skullkickers has been causing quite a ruckus at Image comics over the past year with relentless fast-paced action, ridiculous characters, and brilliantly colored pages. This book takes from every fantastical genre you could imagine and combines them into one outrageous book filled with goblins, undead corpses, and werewolves. Writer Jim Zub has given BD an exclusive behind the scenes look into his brutally hilarious series, and the epic 4-page spread is truly something magnificent to behold.
After the jump, Zubkavich takes you through the entire creative process, from full scripted pages, to layouts, to final lettered pages, plus some insightful commentary that you won’t find anywhere else. For anyone interested in breaking into the comics field, this is some very insightful and inspiring stuff. Skullkickers Treasure Trove Vol 1 is available in stores as of today, and it comes highly recommended.
After 2 issues of action and banter, issue #3 opens up with our two merceneary monster mashers chilling out a bit. I wanted to start opening up broader concepts about the world, hinting at some of the larger ridiculous themes that I thought about exploring if the mini-series was extended past our initial 5 issues romp. Thankfully, we did just that and are currently on our third story arc, pushing the Skullkickers onwards to bigger and crazier adventures each time.
The dwarf has procured a pot of poisoned stew. His dwarven constitution will help him survive its effects, but it will also leave him with a peyote-esque dream of something which may or may not be real.
Unlike a lot of our other issues where the momentum is constant, this scene builds up the strangeness as the stew starts to take effect. I love the moment-to-moment transitions as the dwarf realizes something just isn’t right with that night sky.
The 4 page spread of the visions (printed in the issue as two 2 pagers, but here in all its glory) was such a weird and wild rambling script
that Edwin actually asked me to help him figure it out compositionally. I doodled a couple quick sketches of the overall sweeping look and added a quick breakdown of the elements so it would all make sense.
The cover to issue #3 was simple in its approach. I asked Chris to draw the boys overwhelmed by zombie-skeletons, fighting their way through the mass. As expected, he delivered it in spades.
Comics
‘You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive’ – IDW Dark’s Next Horror Comic Will Make You Question Reality
Five friends. Four houses. One perfect life. Bloody Disgusting is excited to exclusively announce You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive, a brand new horror comic from IDW Dark.
From Eisner-Nominated writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, and rising horror artist Heather Vaughan, You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive is described as a “paranoia-laced, socially-conscious, horror mystery that will leave you questioning reality, and reveal that this crafted world is more of a nightmare than the idealistic dream they were expecting.”
Phoebe Joplin has never questioned the world her parents built: a secluded community where she and her friends were raised to be smarter, stronger, and better than anyone else. No distractions. No dangers. No secrets. Until the night of their graduation.
When one of them dies under impossible circumstances, Phee starts to pull at the edges of her perfect life—and what she finds is something far more terrifying than she ever imagined.
Because this place isn’t a sanctuary. It’s a cage. And no one who discovers the truth ever leaves it alive.
Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing (Batman – One Bad Day: Clayface, Star Trek: The Last Starship) co-write the upcoming IDW Dark horror comic, featuring art by Heather Vaughan.
Jackson Lanzing said in a statement to Bloody Disgusting, “You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive is in many ways a spiritual successor to our last creator-owned horror, The Principles of Necromancy – a dive into the promise and consequence of playing god with the blood of innocents. But the Hivemind book this reminds me of most is Clayface: One Bad Day. This is a deeply human story with intensely raw emotions – five best friends and their five mysterious parents, tearing one another apart for the promise of some impossible glory that’s waiting just beyond their darkest actions. We’re thrilled to be bringing this story to life with our long-time partner in crime, editor Heather Antos, at IDW Dark – and we’re particularly excited to give our Clayface fans a new, brutal and emotional horror made just for them.”
Adds Collin Kelly, “We’re deconstructing a feeling that seems universal these days; our elders have a death grip on their power, without any intention of giving it up to the generations that come next. YNLTPA is about growing up with the limitless potential of the future… and realizing how much it’s a lie we’ve been fed to keep us under the yoke of the past. Bringing this brutal experience to life is our artist and co-creator, Heather Vaughan, who brings an incredible amount of humanity to our cast. But it’s in our youthful leads that Heather’s art really shines – you are going to fall in love with these young people, even as they go through the worst experience of their lives. What we’ve all crafted together is going to be tragic, painful, but above all else, sincere – with a future so uncertain, there’s only one thing we can trust: you’ll never leave this place alive.”
“Some horror stories are about monsters in the dark. YNLTPA is about realizing the monsters raised you,” previews Senior Group Editor Heather Antos. “Working with Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly on this series has been a dream in the darkest possible way. They’ve built a story that’s layered, brutal, and deeply emotional, and every issue gives artist Heather Vaughan opportunities to push the art into places that feel both haunting and deeply personal. Some horror comics will keep you up at night…this is one that will stick with you for years to come.”
The first issue of You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive goes on sale October 14, 2026! Make sure to pre-order at your local comic shop by September to guarantee a copy.
Exclusively check out the various covers for Issue #1 down below.
IDW Publishing’s horror imprint IDW DARK features comics like A Quiet Place: Storm Warning, Smile: For the Camera, The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, The Twilight Zone, Event Horizon: Dark Descent & Event Horizon: Inferno, and more.
You must be logged in to post a comment.