Comics
[OMFG] Alan Moore, Ben Templesmith, And Steve Niles Help Launch Black Mask Comics!!
So this is big! THR reports that Black Mask Studios is a recently formed publishing company founded by Steve Niles, Matt Pizzolo, and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitzhas, and they’ve recruited the biggest names in comics for their lineup launch. Among the writers contributing are Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Art Spiegelman, Charlie Adlard, Mike Allred, Ben Templesmith, J.M. DeMatteis, Molly Crabapple (Shell Game), as well as RZA and Ghostface Killah. Worthy of note is the fact that there are no superhero books in their lineup. Check out details below.
From THR:
“The way we put together the slate is with wanting to push the boundaries of what can be done in comics,” said Pizzolo, “to create you must destroy” and “Inspire, never meddle.” “One of the chief goals is to expand the audience of comics. We are trying to do that by bringing in different sensibilities, like Wu-Tang, like hard sci-fi and futurism, and with madcap energy. Remember books like Transmetropolitan? You don’t see much of that today.”
The first book, to hit stores May 1, will be Occupy Comics Anthology, a three-issue miniseries whose first issue reunites Moore with Lloyd for the first time since V for Vendetta.
12 Reasons to Die comes from RZA and Ghostface Killah, described as “a brutal tale of gangsters, betrayal, and one vengeful soul hunting the 12 most powerful crimelords in the world,” it’ll be drawn by rotating artists incluing Riley Rossmo and Tim Seeley and hits shelves on May 29.
June 19 will see the release of Liberator, from writer and real-life dog rescuer Matt Miner and artist Joel Gomez (Detective Comics) — a vigilante series about two young heroes who avenge the torture of animals. Thirty percent of the book’s profits from the four issue mini-series will go animal rescue efforts.
Finally, Transmetropolitan and The Boys co-creator Darick Robertson and indie filmmaker Adam Egypt Mortimer will release Ballistic — a psychedelic and bizarre buddy adventure about an air conditioner repairman with master criminal dreams and his best friend, a drug-addicted, genetically-modified, foul-mouthed firearm — on June 26.
Even though Niles has Hollywood experience — his comic 30 Days of Night was turned into a Sam Raimi-produced studio picture, while Pizzolo has a lot of indie film credit with Halo 8 — they are in not the business of hoarding IP or parsing it out while stiffing creators, which has happened in the past.
“We are not looking at these things as treatments for movies but we do want to engage in transmedia worldbuilding,” said Pizzolo.
The company is convinced that there is an audience beyond the loyal core of superhero readers that dominate the marketplace and Pizzolo points to books like The Walking Dead and Niles’ own 30 Days franchise which have had sales numbers rivaling the comics of Marvel and DC.
“Comics has a long history of doing all sorts of genres and we want to expand into new territories and into genres that haven’t gotten the attention we think they deserve,” he said.
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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