Comics
Review: ‘R.I.P.D.: City of the Damned’ #1
With Dark Horse Entertainment’s motion picture release of “R.I.P.D.” hitting theaters next summer, the publisher has decided to team up with writer Jeremy Barlow, and artist Tony Parker, to bring back Peter M. Lenkov’s original characters for a 4-issue mini-series. R.I.P.D.: City of the Damned functions as a prequel to the upcoming feature film, and acquaints readers with the intrinsic and indispensable properties that characterize Lenkov’s world.
WRITTEN BY: Jeremy Barlow
ART BY: Tony Parker
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: November 28th
For all you R.I.P.D. virgins, the basic story centers around a slain U.S. Marshall named Roy Pulsipher, an equally dead Chicago cop named Nick Walker, and their journey as undead police officers working for the Rest In Peace Department; a divine law establishment which serves the Almighty by protecting the living world from evil and ensuring the dead move on into the afterlife. It’s a remarkably fun concept, which might sound familiar if you watched MTV’s “Death Valley”, or if you read Chap Taylor and Peter Johnson’s “Haunted City” from Aspen Comics.
Issue #1 opens with a single panel dedicated to the exterior of Rest In Peace Department Headquarters, which Parker models after the Roman Colosseum and, apparently, the Burj Khalifa, as he portrays a timeless and strong structure that appears to stand as tall as the sky. It’s a very telling first page, as the majority of the story takes place a century ago to chronicle Roy’s journey through his recruitment to the R.I.P.D.
The issue mainly takes you into the interior of R.I.P.D. Headquarters where Parker’s artistic vision explodes into an arrangement of chronologically inconsistent events, cultures, objects and people from different historical eras. In one panel, you can spy an iron bridge from Victorian France, traditional Chinese lanterns, a futuristic administrative assistant who looks like she belongs in “The Fifth Element” but is working inside a Japanese temple, which just happens to be beside a Mayan tomb. Let me just reiterate that this anachronistic Charlie Foxtrot is featured in one panel.
The rest of the issue follows our sarcastically cranky protagonist, Roy Pulsipher, a fantastically old western styled cowboy, and his Puritan partner, Crispin Mather, as they embark on an R.I.P.D. assignment, in hopes of defeating a mysterious evil and finding answers to the circumstances surrounding Roy’s death.
It’s a solid first issue which delves into the origins of how Roy comes to work for R.I.P.D.; it’s a great starting point for new readers who are interested in the Film. Parker’s renderings add to the script, and bring Barlow’s vision alive with his superb visual storytelling. Even though it feels like the background story is compressed into insufficient space, the premise is still refreshing, and I’m looking forward to the next installment.
3.5/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – ShadowJayd
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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