Comics
Review: ’68: Scars’ #4
With nonstop zombie thrills, ’68: Scars #4 delivers on all the bloody goods for an epic finale. With an alternative take on history, the undead are everywhere in the vast shadows of the jungle. The horrors of the Vietnam War strike at you harder than ever in these blood-soaked pages.
WRITTEN BY: Mark Kidwell
ART BY: Nat Jones
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: February 6th, 2013
As the rising dead continue to multiply to incredibly huge numbers, American soldiers travel deep into the heart of darkness. With the war escalating and the number of fatalities rising, Vietnam has become an open doorway to Hell itself. In the never-ending jungle, soldiers are fighting for their survival against an unknown enemy. As the war against the undead continues, another battle is brewing back home. The zombie infestation is spreading wildly as government officials are cowardly leaving their posts. Soon there won’t be any home to come back to, as the zombie plague consumes the major populations.
In his narrative, Mark Kidwell explores what his damaged characters will do because of their mental and physical scars. Before he started the uprising, Dawes discovered a horrible truth that shattered his reality. Dawes discovered that while his men were sacrificing their lives, blue bloods were given a chance to escape. Anyone with a high-profile name and a rich bank account were escorted off Vietnam on a freedom plane. While everyone else is running away, Dawes and his crew are making their own plans to watch the world die.
One of the most surprising characters in the narrative is Kierney, who has a sick infatuation with violence. Because of his slim and weak figure, you wouldn’t expect Kierney to take down two large and muscular soldiers. But, Kierney is able to distract the two and whip out his pistol before they do. After he pulls the trigger, Kierney kicks the wounded soldiers straight into the flesh-eating zombie pit.
Nate Jones’ gritty artwork visually captures the scorching heat of the enormous Vietnam jungle. Readers can see the sweat running down the foreheads of the exhausted soldiers. What I really find interesting is when one of the soldiers mentions he was just sleeping. You can’t tell if nighttime has already passed because colorist Jay Fotos mixes brownish and yellowish tones in the background; it appears as if the sun never sets and the moon never rises.
Jones puts a lot of attention into the nasty design of the zombies. These zombies look like they just came out of the ground and are still deteriorating. Like the treatment of the soldiers, the jungle doesn’t take too kindly on the undead. Flies are buzzing around their sweaty foreheads, because their rotten flesh is being heated up by the sun’s rays.
A must-read, “’68: Scars” #4 concludes the story arc on a spectacular and explosive note. With such grim artwork, “’68: Scars” vividly depicts the unforgiving nature of war. Longtime fans will be anxiously awaiting for the next arc in the “’68” series, “Jungle Jim.”
4/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – Jorge Solis
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.