Comics
Review: ‘Grim Leaper’ #1
The tag line of Image Comics new series, Grim Leaper, is, “A love story to die for.” Needless to say that made me a little hesitant to open up to page 1, especially since the cover was slightly pink and features a dude with a black leather jacket and faux-hawk… But the “i” in “Grim” was dotted with a skull, not a heart, so I gave it a shot. Kurtis J. Wiebe offers something completely different from his normal bag of tricks, with some wild twists and turns throughout. “Grim Leaper” is a very different book, to say the least, and it’s shaping up to be quite the thrill ride.
WRITTEN BY: Kurtis J. Wiebe
ART BY: Aluiso Santos
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.50
Everyone remembers Chaz from Wedding Crashers? Will Ferrel’s character? Well the “Grim Leaper” starts off by paying homage to Chaz. The main character, who remains nameless for the time being, admits to going to thirteen funerals and attempting thirteen times to pick up women, but unfortunately for him, “It’s not like in the movies. They always say people want to feel alive when faced with their mortality. They meet a stranger and then f**k like rabbits. It’s bulls**t.”
Thankfully before I threw down the comic in disgust for being cliche and tasteless the narrator reveals that each funeral he has attended has been his own: he can’t die. This plot twist is immediately followed by proof of the fact the narrator can’t die, or let me rephrase: can die, does die, will die horribly, but each time comes back to life in a different body. This is really where the comic grabbed my attention. Firstly, there was a full page panel of a stray tire decapitating the narrator’s body #13 (maybe he will be luckier at funeral 14?), and secondly, he isn’t just plopped into another body. The narrator finds himself whirling through the cosmos to a hallway full of photographs. As he walks down this hallway towards the only exit with a single photograph hanging on it, he explains his “curse” of not being able to die, of “getting a second chance to… I dunno, do something.” As he says this the face on the photograph begins to morph into a giant monster and he is reborn while screaming, “F**king limboooo!” The beginning of the comic had me pretty concerned, but the cosmic death/rebirth scene was really well done, enough so that I will be reading the next issue.
The love part of the title happens at the end of the comic, where the narrator, whose name is Lou, meets a girl, Ella, who shares his curse. While he watches her narrowly avoid death, and saves her life once or twice, I began to think that this comic is based on the real life situation of two clumsy nerds falling in love and trying to bump uglies while all sorts of exaggerated shenanigans (like death) get in their way. Hopefully whatever the narrator is getting a second chance to do, won’t just be losing his virginity to his similarly cursed love interest after one of their funerals. While I cant decide if that would be hilarious or disturbing, I’m going to keep reading because I can’t see how a comic with this many graphic death scenes, and awesome cosmic death/rebirth via galactic monster scenes, could turn out to not have more awesome plot twists.
3.5/5 skullz
Reviewed by- TheSandMan
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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