Comics
Review: ‘The Strain’ #9
The Strain #9 is full of feverish imagination as the pages come alive with pulse-pounding action and nail-biting suspense. “The Strain” puts a fresh and modern spin on vampirism, treating it as a parasitic virus that breaks down the body, altering the host in its process. Highly entertaining, “The Strain” #9 continues the quick-pace and high action.
WRITTEN BY: David Lapham
ART BY: Mike Huddleston
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: December 12, 2012
In his adaptation, David Lapham stays true to the suspenseful tone and the characterizations originally created by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. In the world of adults, Ephraim’s son, Zack, has a better understanding of what’s really going on. Because he is just a child, his attempts to warn are shrugged off because none of the adults even consider paying attention to him. Even though his ideas are far-fetched and straight out of horror movies, Zack knows what to do to defend himself.
What I really like is the introduction of the toughest and meanest exterminator you have ever seen, Vasiliy Fet. Built like a football quarterback, Vasiliy, manages to take on the vampires with his bare hands. Vasiliy isn’t even afraid of the bloodsuckers because he mistakenly thinks they are giant rodents. Ephraim’s wife, Kelly, is a teacher and she doesn’t have a lesson planned because half of her students are absent.
Mike Huddleston’s artwork brings in such stunning and shocking visuals. During the narrative, Vasiliy explains how the vampires are driving the rats out from their lairs. What I find creepy is how Huddleston focuses on the group of rats, their snarling fangs, and their beady red eyes. In a close-up, Huddleston uses a fisheye lens and distorts a reflection of Abraham in the rat’s eyeball.
The vampires are illustrated with wildly s-shaped stingers, which are reminiscent of the Reapers from Blade 2. In his slightly cartoonish character design, Vasiliy has a bulky body with a small head. It makes sense Huddleston to draw him this way because Vasiliy is more of an action hero. Towards the climax, there is a memorable action sequence between Vasiliy and a gang of bloodsuckers. He just grabs a vampire and throws him into the sunlight. In a hilarious turn, the vampires start running away from Vasiliy after one of them is burning from the sun’s rays.
“The Strain” #9 moves at breakneck speed as the narration jumps from one protagonist to another. Even if you have read the novel, Lapham’s adaptation offers enough differences to keep you intrigued. With just two issues left, all the threads are tying together nicely.
4.5/5 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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