Comics
Review: ‘Hellraiser: The Road Below’ #1
Hellraiser: The Road Below #1 is highly recommended to readers, especially to fans of Clive Barker’s famous creation. With the spotlight on Kirsty Cotton as the new Pinhead, the series takes on an entirely new and different approach. Full of creative ideas, Brandon Seifert and Haemi Jang show readers that there is still life within the “Hellraiser” franchise without Elliot Spencer in the title role. Readers should expect plenty of scares and clever plot twists with this issue.
WRITTEN BY: Brandon Seifert
ART BY: Haemi Jang
PUBLISHER: Boom! Studios
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: November 7th, 2012
Seeking revenge after his last defeat, Pinhead manipulated Kirsty Cotton into taking his place at Hell’s throne. In order to escape from Hell, Pinhead needed a replacement to serve in his place. Hoping to save her friends and family, Kirsty sacrificed herself and took over the role inhabited by Captain Elliot Spencer. With Spencer gone and free, Kirsty now reigns in Hell as the Cenobites’ new Priestess. Outside the realm of Hell, a young mother discovers a killer is on the hunt for her daughter. Whose side will Kirsty choose, the helpless mother or the vicious killer?
With the focus on Kirsty, Seifert takes the “Hellraiser” mythology to a whole new level. In Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser ” issue #13, Kirsty has already served her role for some time, but readers never found out what actually happened in-between. Seifert develops a new tale that examines that missing gap of Kirsty’s life as the new Pinhead. Just like Spencer, Kirsty bases her decisions from her lost humanity. There is an awkwardness and confusion about what she is supposed to do in Hell, which is an interesting metaphor for “your first day on the new job.”
The injection of black humor is quite surprising and stands out if you have seen the previous “Hellraiser” sequels. This isn’t laugh-out loud humor, nor is it slapstick horror comedy. Seifert’s dry humor comes from the characters, as seen in the confrontation between Rhea and Kirsty. Evenly matched, Rhea and Kirsty share feisty attitudes as they won’t back down from a fight. Because she doesn’t have the cold and world-weariness demeanor of Spencer, Kirsty isn’t going to say and do things like her predecessor. Kirsty is till this pure and good soul, who just happens to be trapped in Hell.
Jang centers his illustrations on the mother/daughter relationship between Rhea and Cordele. There is so much detail to their facial features and hairstyles. Readers can tell Rhea and Cordele look like they’re actually related. In the opening pages, Jang reveals how Kirsty is uncomfortable in her new body, as she touches the pins around her face. Jang foreshadows to readers the consequences of Kirsty’s good-hearted intentions and what Hell is going to become.
Jang ‘s illustrations contain some nasty moments. In the climax, Rhea cuts off the arm of a monstrous killer with a sharp knife. The chopped arm drops to the ground while a new one is regenerating. Jang puts in immense detail to distinguish the old and new arm.
A perfect jumping-point for new readers, “Hellraiser: The Road Below #1” puts tremendous effort into setting up the characters and their motivations. Seifert and Jang pull off what the substandard sequels failed to do. They have successfully put in fresh and new ideas into the already established “Hellraiser” franchise.
Rating: 4/5 skulls
Reviewed by Jorge Solis
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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