Comics
Review: ‘Witch Doctor: Mal Practice’ #5
Just before its penultimate conclusion, Witch Doctor: Mal Practice #5 delivers a fantastic read filled with monsters, black magic, and femme fatales. As always with the “Witch Doctor” series, readers will find tons of hilarious one-liners, surprising twists, and nonstop action. You’re missing out on all the bloody fun if you’re not reading this comic.
WRITTEN BY: Brandon Seifert
ART BY: Lukas Ketner
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: March 27, 2013
After a one-night stand, Dr. Vincent Morrow found himself under a deadly supernatural attack. With the clock ticking, Dr. Morrow has to stop the killer virus from invading his internal organs. Though he has Eric and Penny by his side, Morrow doubts will actually find the cure to save him. Dr. Morrow’s mysterious enemies want something he has in his collection. In order to make this deal happen, Dr. Morrow has to save Penny, who is being held hostage by his enemies. But with his heartbeat beginning to fade, will Dr. Morrow be able to save himself and Penny from death?
Brandon Seifert’s cleverly crafts two adventures into one issue. First, Seifert has Dr. Morrow entering his body system, which is an homage to the sci-fi film, Fantastic Voyage. Instead of white blood cells, we have dragon-like parasites attacking from the inside. In order to save himself from the demonic parasite, Dr. Morrow has to increase the voltage of the defibrillator on himself. Whatever is happening in the outside world is also hurting Dr. Morrow on the inside.
Elsewhere, Eric is planning a rescue mission for the kidnapped Penny. Morrow’s enemies are using a crack house as their hideout. Because Morrow’s enemies are injecting junkies with black magic, Siefert makes an interesting metaphor for drugs. The junkies have no idea they are taking a substance that will eventually turn them into demons.
Artist Lukas Ketner is just having fun when he illustrates Eric as the action hero. Feeling confident and tough, Eric has no problem carrying Dr. Morrow’s sword as if it were his own. When Dr. Morrow storms into the crack house, Eric has his finger ready to pull the trigger. This goes back to the first issue, when Eric remembers in a flashback of his military training. Eric knows how to enter a room stealthily and strategize an attack.
In the last splash page, Ketner depicts what happens when the drugs start to kick in. With their eyes glowing red, the junkies twist their bodies like spiders and are walking backwards. Some of them are floating above the floor or crawling on the ceiling. Because the drugs are changing their internal organs, the junkies are vomiting tiny monsters.
With just one issue away from its conclusion, “Witch Doctor: Mal Practice” #5 keeps adding the action, humor, and suspense. The “Witch Doctor” series remains a constant fun and entertaining read. I can’t wait to see how this story arc ends.
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.
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