Comics
An Open Letter To DC Comics: Keep Lobo Metal
I’ve seen you’ve been pretty busy with all the New 52 stuff and and I gotta say, I have a love/hate relationship with most of your titles. But that’s neither here nor there, I have a different thing to discuss with you, and that is the matter of Lobo.
An Editorial by Pablo Arriaga
What you’re doing to him hurts me. I can almost forgive what happened with his first appearance in the New 52 with Rob Liefeld and him ending up looking like a roided-out, Jersey Shore reject. After all, it’s Rob Liefeld. But then you had Villains Month and showed us the images of what he would look like.
Why does Lobo look like a Twilight reject character?
I can’t believe it. You’ve taken away the badass metal Lobo I know and love. I still bought that issue, I figured I might as well give it a chance. It was a gut punch. You told me that everything I knew and loved about this character was a farce. Instead there was this new skinny guy who says “Sorry. Not sorry,” (seriously, he’s not a teenager) to replace him. Now you’re gonna give us the continuation to that story with a cover that hits me right in the metalhead feels.
What are you doing to him?
Why such a drastic change to the character?
I think you’re missing the point of why this character was so loved. It was created right for the metal audience, from the very beginning I could see him rocking out somewhere with KISS, Alice Cooper, or another Shock Rock band. Then you switched his character to represent this overt machismo and complete insanity attitude towards life. He was still a parody, but one that us metalheads could relate to. He was loud, obnoxious, loved to drink and party, and enjoyed a good brawl the same way a metalhead would enjoy a moshpit.
You’re taking all that away from us. And this new image wipes away everything that’s great about the character. I couldn’t see Simon Bisley drawing this version of Lobo. This is not the badass motherfucker who’s banned from both Heaven and Hell. I’m not sure Scott Ian would write a story for this version of Lobo and this isn’t the Lobo who would drag the mighty Hal Jordan on his tailpipe like he was a dirty ragdoll.
And subsequently control a Red Ring from Atrocitus. All our Lobo needs his Spacehog, his Dawg (whenever he feel like hang out), and his hook. No fancy lasers or trickery; he faces those bastiches front and center, because the more they struggle and fight, the more he enjoys the bounty.
DC, you’re in the business of creating gods, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern. We’re not supposed to relate directly to them, but to aspire to have their innate qualities and unbreakable sense of justice, protection for mankind, and overcoming fear. Lobo is also a parody of that. He’s a relentless anti-hero who stops at nothing to be the best, the “Main Man,” and with this comes his attributes that make him a metal god; love for debauchery and destruction, addiction to ultra-violence, and obviously, the joy of heavy metal.
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Pablo Arriaga has been bringing the gospel of The Slacker Nerd to countless people the world over with Juatcast.com. He also writes the most metal rants on the web and knows a better recipe for tacos than you do. For more writings or to be baptized in the arms of Matthew McConaughey follow Pabby on Twitter and Facebook.
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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