Comics
Exclusive Behind The Scenes Look At ‘Last Mortal’
You are in for a treat! Filip Sablik and John Mahoney, the minds behind Last Mortal, offered BD exclusive in-depth commentary, bringing you behind the scenes of their series. The co-writers take you through the entire creative process from plotting to layouts to finished inked pages. Below you will find their annotations plus Thomas Nachlik’s stellar artwork from Last Mortal issue #4.
Last Mortal follows the story of Alec, a low life thief who is fed up with his crappy existence. After an attempt to take his own life, he discovers that he cannot die. With his new power, his life takes an unexpected turn. The Last Mortal hardcover collected edition drops today, March 14th, in comic shops everywhere, don’t miss it! Read on for the skinny…
Beginning with issue #2, we decided to use start each issue with a striking splash page image of Alec from a key moment later in the issue and then flashback to the present. For issue #2 and #3, this focused on Alec seemingly in deep, deep trouble, but with issue 4 we wanted to highlight him in a position (for once) of power.
Alec’s t-shirt reads “The Passion of Lovers”, a reference to the 70’s goth punk bank, Bauhaus’s song, “The Passion of Lovers is for Death”. We peppered the entire series with references to bands and music, we thought Alec would listen to and also had some poetic relevance to the story itself.
Artist Thomas Nachlik did a great job with the layout and really captured the iconic image we were looking for with the gun pointed directly at the viewer. Thomas works largely digitally, so he goes from a layout directly to inking on his tablet in the computer. His first pass of the page turned out great, but after considering it for some time, we all decided that Alec’s posture and expression was a bit too cocky for our hero. Fortunately, Thomas was more than willing to redraw the figure to more effectively communicate the moment. Alec ended up more serious, but also a bit beaten down.
This was a particularly tricky page, because we needed to communicate a lot of critical information in relatively few pages. It’s a flashback scene, so as he did throughout the series, Thomas depicted it using a different “pencil” rendering style. We thought this was an incredibly clever way to illustrate something was happening in the past in a black and white book, where typically that would be indicated through use of (or lack of) color.
Thomas also built and used models for backgrounds and scenes that he constructed in Google Sketchup, a tool that has become increasingly popular with comic artists. You can see some of the early versions of the layout. Thomas is also responsible for the Placebo “Without You I’m Nothing” poster in the dorm, which sums up Brian and Alec’s relationship perfectly.
In the final version, Thomas changed the Dean’s position, so that the effect was that the Dean was speaking to us, the reader. This scene was meant to show off Alec’s poor decision making skills and how even with the best of intentions he sabotages himself repeatedly.
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.
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