Comics
OMFG: Crossed: Badlands Heading Your Way!
As you should well know by now, the infamous CROSSED is getting it’s own ongoing series beginning this March. The all-star creative team of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows are bringing you one of the most intense, bloody, and insane horror books out there. Each arc will take travel to a new place in the world, following a mass pandemic that turns the population into nutty psychopaths who would make John Wayne Gacy proud. This is not one to miss. Check out a whole lot of details and a sweet preview from Avatar after the break.
Responding to overwhelming fan and retailer support for their wildly successful comic book horror franchise, Avatar Press has announced the launch of a new, ongoing CROSSED comic book series on March 14, 2012, with a bi-weekly release schedule and its first story arc reuniting the creative team of superstar writer Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Punisher) and original series artist Jacen Burrows (NEONOMICON). Concurrent story arcs will be spearheaded by well-established comic book writers such as Jamie Delano (Hellblazer) and David Lapham (Stray Bullets). The worldwide release of CROSSED: BADLANDS will be marked by a special “C-Day” in-store event for comic shop retailers, designed to maximize comic fan awareness and drive sales for area retailers.
Since its debut miniseries in 2008, CROSSED has captured the attention of comic book fans across the world with the high tension and visceral horror of its premise: in moments, a viral contagion spread over the face of the Earth, turning much of the populace into sadistically evil psychopaths. The CROSSED: BADLANDS series will present tales from all over the globe, with each story arc provided by a different creative team. Beginning with issue #1, Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows relate a story of a young Englishman, scrambling to avoid roving bands of the “Crossed,” while simultaneously dealing with the traumatic death of his wife.
The return of Ennis and Burrows to the CROSSED universe has been one long demanded by readers. Regarding his return to script the new CROSSED: BADLANDS series, Ennis says, “It feels cold and bleak and bad and dark, which is exactly how I hoped it would. You don’t write CROSSED with the sun shining in your heart; you write it around midwinter, watching the long night devour the feeble day.”
Artist Jacen Burrows has dedicated several months to the artwork of the first BADLANDS story arc, working ahead to accommodate the bi-weekly publishing schedule. While his most recent sequential artwork was showcased in Alan Moore’s NEONOMICON, a critically-acclaimed Lovecraftian horror series, he has been consistently contributing to CROSSED as a cover artist for every single tie-in comic book (including the FAMILY VALUES and PSYCHOPATH miniseries, as well as the best-selling original graphic novel, CROSSED 3D). His recent body of work has solidified his reputation as a master storyteller of both subtle, atmospheric horror and visceral, bloody gore.
“The horror genre has been through a lot as it has gotten more popular in the mainstream. It’s been abused and defanged by charlatans out for a quick buck, those who make one-dimensional, generic, formulaic product,” says Burrows. “With CROSSED, we want to do real horror that pushes the envelope so we can explore the limits of the human condition. It isn’t about violence so much as showing the stakes the characters are facing, and it is our willingness to go to that edge that makes the world so affecting.”
o promote the launch of CROSSED: BADLANDS, Avatar Press is working with Diamond Comic Distributors and retailers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to celebrate “C-Day,” an in-store event meant to expand readership and drive sales for comic shops. C-Day Survival Kits will be available to retailers, containing promotional goods including posters, counter displays, temporary tattoos, buttons, posters, masks, and rare Bonus Edition comics. As a tool for retailers, Avatar Press will simultaneously release the CROSSED: GET INFECTED C-DAY EDITION comic book, a special reissue of the first-ever CROSSED story that serves as a perfect introduction to the entire series.
All the products and promotional materials needed for a successful C-Day event are available for retailer order through the current, live January Previews catalog. Retailers are also invited to contact Keith Davidsen, Avatar’s dedicated retailer support person, with any questions about the event, or for ideas on how to maximize the promotional opportunity. He can be reached by phone at 217-714-0746, by e-mail at keith@avatarpress.net, and via Twitter at @avatarpress.
As with many of their comic books, Avatar Press will offer several different cover editions of each CROSSED: BADLANDS issue, providing fans with the freedom of choice for which graphic, visceral images they want to collect.
CROSSED: BADLANDS #1 Regular Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120877
CROSSED: BADLANDS #1 Torture Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120878
CROSSED: BADLANDS #1 Wraparound Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120879
CROSSED: BADLANDS #2 Regular Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120883
CROSSED: BADLANDS #2 Torture Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120884
CROSSED: BADLANDS #2 Wraparound Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120885
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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