Comics
David Dastmalchian’s ‘Count Crowley’ Comic To Make a Return in 2022
Actor David Dastmalchian‘s comic book mini-series Count Crowley is one big ole love letter to the days of the horror host, centered on the “reluctant midnight monster hunter” Jerri Bartman and her adventures as both horror host and monster slayer.
Lucky for us, Jerri is set to make her return this spring with a new comic.
THR reports that Count Crowley: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter will arrive on March 23, 2022, from Dark Horse Comics. It sounds like Jerri’s received a monster hunting job promotion since the last comic’s Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter, which our own Jason Jenkins called “one of the best damned comics currently haunting your local comic shop.”
“The 1980s-set series centers on Jerri Bartman, a once-rising TV journalist who moves back to her hometown in the Midwest after washing out of her career due to struggle with alcohol. After taking over as the host of a midnight monster show, she learns that monsters are real. Now she must take a crash course in monster hunting to protect those she loves from a vampire who is coming to town.”
“With no promise of more Crowleys, I still wrote Jerri’s story and took her further into her quest to defeat the ‘bad’ monsters while defending the ‘good’ ones,” says Dastmalchian. “Writing about her internal struggles, her family stresses, her battle to find her true, authentic, and actualized self all helped me navigate the strain of the lockdown and my depression throughout the pandemic.”
Fresh off his breakout role as Polka-Dot Man in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Dastmalchian promised a more “stumbling, fumbling, courageous” monster hunter in Jerri’s upcoming adventures.
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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