Comics
Advance Review: Alan Robert’s ‘Killogy’ #4
Killogy #4 delivers a grand finale that readers will not soon forget. Since the beginning, this thriller delivered on all fronts – crime, black comedy, and grindhouse horror. Even with the star-studded cast of Brea Grant, Frank Vincent and Marky Ramone the plot never takes second fiddle and stands out on its own merit.
WRITTEN BY: Alan Robert
ART BY: Alan Robert
PUBLISHER: IDW Publishing
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: April 24, 2013
With the zombie apocalypse taking place outside, Sally Sno-Cones, Cole Edwards, and Summer Rhoades are locked inside a dingy jail cell. Suffering from intense claustrophobia, none of them can tolerate being in the same room together. In order to escape, the three inmates must go through a growing horde of zombie cops. Even if they make it through the zombies, there is still an apocalypse going on outside.
The three need to put aside their hatred towards each other and work together as a team. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and the only ones who can save it are a thief, a hit-man, and a femme fatale.
For the epic conclusion, writer/artist Alan Robert takes a different route with his storytelling and avoids flashbacks, which was a consistent technique. With his illustrations, Robert finally takes readers outside the prison and depicts a crime-ridden city gone to Hell. The character arcs for Summer, Sno-Cones, and Edwards has changed as well. We’ve seen them hate each other before, and now it’s time to see them work together. Robert provides such witty banter and hilarious one-liners when Sno-Cones and Summer share a panel together. The punchy dialogue has always been my favorite part of the series.
Even though Robert leaves the small and cramped space of the jail cell behind, it doesn’t mean he is taking away the suspense and tension. Readers are given a bigger room that Robert can play with. In this issue, the three inmates escape but only find themselves swamped by bloodthirsty zombies. I found myself rooting for Sno-Cones when he punched a zombie with his bare fist. And the fact that Sno-Cones is played by Frank Vincent, it just makes this illustration so much cooler.
Robert makes great use of colors during the escape from the jail. In these panels, the light source comes from the explosions and flames. Robert only uses red and yellow tones in these pages, highlighting the black ink on the characters. In an impressive layout, Robert uses three panels to showcase Edwards blasting away at the zombie cops. The best part, the zombies are taken out by shots to the head.
Using the likenesses of his cast became an interesting experiment for Robert. Because it never felt gimmicky, Robert pulls off the experiment with a cinematic effect. The way Brea Grant holds her pose, with her hairstyle and head turned, this looks like a performance captured spot-on in a picture.
Readers will have no idea what hit them when they reach the last page of “Killogy” #4. “Killogy” stands out among Robert’s body of work, and it has become my personal favorite of his. How is Alan Robert going to top “Killogy”? I’m not sure, but I cannot wait to find out.
4.5/5 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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