Comics
Pick Of The Week: ‘Creepy’ #7
I’m so f*cking sick of hearing “horror is dead”. Do people honestly believe this? I know not everyone is quite so querulous, but to those people who believe that horror is a dying breed, you are either completely ignorant, or you have some impossibly high standards set for creators, and you should probably just write something yourself. Do you even pay attention to the books/movies that are being released? Every week I am overwhelmed by the incredible amount of horror stories out there, and to choose only one for my Pick of the Week becomes more and more difficult. I’m not saying that every horror title written is worth a read that would be a lie. Some are unintelligible, trite, nonsensical, but maybe instead of whining you should expose yourself to the incredible modern horror works that are out there. Rant over. Here is my pick of the week.
WRITTEN BY: Joe R. Lansdale, Keith Lansdale, Bill Morrison, Dan Braun
ILLUSTRATED BY: Sanjulian
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $4.99
“Hope your New Year’s resolution was to be terrified, because Creepy is back to start 2012 with a scream! Featuring the latest from bone-chilling scribes Joe and Keith Lansdale, Christopher Taylor, and Dan Braun, this installment of the abominable anthology is sure to leave you shivering in the corner until next year.”
To put it simply, if you’re not reading Creepy, you’re not reading horror comics properly. The team has the anthology recipe down, and each issue of this books keeps getting better and better. The nice thing about it being a non-continuous story is that you can jump into any of the tales without having prior background knowledge of previous issues. Unfortunately, Creepy is only released on a quarterly basis, and there is an extreme lack of great horror anthologies today.
Sometimes anthologies suffer due to the bad stories that pop up in between the good ones, as the saying goes, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. However, Creepy is able to rise above the cliché. While some stories are worse than others, they all have their own charm when taken for what they are, tributes to the past. The wide variety of subgenres included in the anthology offers something for everyone. You never get the feeling with this series that writers are using it as a platform to promote other books they have, or to launch a new series. Every writer seems to really care about horror comics, they are all true fans of the genre and they write the stories they want to read. No story feels forced, they are all genuine, and even the “bad” ones have some great concepts beneath the surface.
What is absolutely best about this book is the mix between classic horror and new horror. If I knew nothing about this book and somebody handed Creepy to me telling me it was from the mid 60s, I would believe them without question. On the other hand, after reading over the stories a few times, it’s easy to see that the creators also want to bring their own unique touch in order to captivate the modern horror crowd.
The best story in this issue follows a young couple who are down in the dumps, but their luck begins to change as they stumble upon an ancient tapestry with a demonic face stained onto it. Though the stories are only 8-14 pages long, it’s incredible how much the writers are able to develop the characters. Alongside the new stories are two re-prints of classic horror tales, “The Ultimate High” from Creepy #44 and “Deep Ruby” from Eerie #6. Both are essential reads for any horror fan. Not only does Creepy provide new terror, but it also pays it’s respects to the past, and by including these stories it encourages readers to seek out the original source material.
The black and white artwork in Creepy could not be better. It’s scary, it’s simple, it’s dark, and really allows you to focus your attention on the details without being distracted by all sorts of flashy colors. Some of the pages are just awe inducing in every sense of the term. The crisp quality and the simple black and white contrast is just not something you get in most modern books, and it’s a pleasure to see that Dark Horse has the guts to leave this book in the hands of the artists. Since this book only comes out every few months, it’s able to completely avoid the rushed art look. Every single story is perfectly drawn.
Though it would be nice to have a book like Creepy come out every month, it may result in “too much of a good thing”. The nostalgia this book evokes is incredible, especially considering I wasn’t even alive during the era it evokes. Dark Horse has something wonderful on their hands, and every single one of you should be reading this book.
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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