Comics
Review: ‘Blackacre’ #4
Blackacre #4 continues the travails of Hull as things go from bad to worse. Having escaped the forces of the military industrial complex he once served, he finds himself faced with an altogether more depraved, vile enemy; Jesus freaks. This issue is the calm before the storm for this arc, with the finale coming in next issue, but it’s still got the quality story, characters and art that you’ve come to expect from “Blackacre” by now.
WRITTEN BY: Duffy Boudreau
ART BY: Wendell Cavalcanti
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE DATE: March 6th, 2013
There’s nothing really exceptional about this issue, beyond the fact that despite its lack of any distinguishing quality it still remains eminently readable and captivating. More than anything else, this issue sets the stage for what’s to come. We see tension begin to simmer between Sinclair and Bird, his man in the field, and Sinclair begin to worry about an investigation into his actions headed by a rival politician. Hull is captured by the Yokes, religious tribesmen and women who have established a totalitarian rural cult in the wilderness they inhabit, who are none too happy when they discover tokens of their slain brethren in Hull’s backpack. Caged, he befriends a recent captive, Lee, whose rebellious nature is slowly wearing on the cult’s leaders. There isn’t a lot that happens this issue, but what does unfold serves to heighten the tension that will be released, or developed further, in issues to come.
Cavalcanti’s art is, as usual, excellent. If there’s one thing that stands out in this issue, however, it’s how he manages to have characters communicate through their body language and facial features. It’s an often-overlooked flaw in comics that characters faces don’t properly correspond to their words. It’s easy to have a character to have an overly shocked or cynical expression when they are suddenly betrayed or are an archetypical villain, respectively. But it’s another thing to have characters functionally communicate with minimal text, with none at all, or to communicate something beyond the text. This isn’t to say it doesn’t happen at all in comics, but this issue is an excellent example of how to do it well.
Another month, another quality issue of “Blackacre.” Pick it up.
4/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – GeorgeShunick
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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