Comics
Review: ‘Evil Ernie’ #1
In the early 90s, Chaos Comics was at the forefront of the comics business and a trailblazer for independent publishers. Chaos Comics founder and creator Brian Pulido gave birth to one of the most iconic horror characters of the 90s with “Evil Ernie”. The original series tells the story of an abused boy who is offered the love and affection he so deeply desires by Lady Death, if if he murders everything on Earth. In a horrible accident he is possessed by arcane energy and becomes Evil Ernie, a demonic killing machine that sets out to annihilate everyone on the planet. Now he’s back, a little more modern this time around, from the team of Jesse Snider and Jason Craig.
WRITTEN BY: Jesse Blaze Snider
ART BY: Jason Craig
PUBLISHER: Dynamite Entertainment
RELEASE: October 10th, 2012
When the comics industry bottomed out in early 2000 and sales began to plummet, Pulido and Chaos Comics fell into bankruptcy. Sadly the cast of Chaos Comics characters, including Evil Ernie and Lady Death, were auctioned off to the highest bidders. Dynamite Entertainment emerged with the rights to Evil Ernie, but the rights to Lady Death went to Avatar Press. Now year later, Dynamite is faced with uphill battle of re-launching Evil Ernie without Lady Death.
In this new incarnation, we open to Ernest Fairchild visiting his father in prison. Ernest goes berserk and tries stabbing his father. We quickly learn that Fairchild went off the deep end after years of mental and physical abuse, and as a result decides to kill everyone in town by poisoning the town’s water system with arsenic. Fairchild is sentenced to death for his crimes, but it all goes horribly wrong and instead of killing him with electricity, he is jolted with arcane energy. The issue ends on a cliffhanger as Evil Ernie emerges alongside Smiley.
Writer Jesse Blaze Snider obviously has a deep love for Evil Ernie and his passion for the character bleeds out onto the pages of “Evil Ernie” #1. Snider offers up some sharp dialogue to introduce readers to key players, and keeps the story from becoming stagnant with some fast paced storytelling. Taking into consideration that Lady Death is off the table, Snider has turned in a solid first offering for this book and stays true to the original nature of the character. It will be interesting to see where Snider takes this book and what he has planned to hook readers beyond the initial novelty that comes with resurrecting such an iconic character.
The real star of this issue is artist Jason Craig, who turns out some phenomenal pages. Craig has some big artistic shoes to fill as Evil Ernie has had a long line of fantastic artists render him over the years including the late great Steven Hughes who had a landmark run on the series. Craig’s hyper detailed style delivers the goods and his execution scene in this issue is simply awesome. I don’t know where Jason Craig has been hiding, but Dynamite needs to do everything in their power to keep him on this book.
Evil Ernie #1 is a solid first effort that has the creative team heading in the right direction. There is a lot to be excited about here if you are a fan of the character or the old Chaos Comics universe in general. If Dynamite can keep Jesse Snider and Jason Craig as the main steady creative team then it looks like “Evil Ernie” is in good hands.
3.5/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – BigJ
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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