Comics
‘Locke & Key’ Concludes With Two ‘Alpha’-Sized Issues
“Locke & Key” was originally supposed to close with the current “Omega” story arc, but IDW made public over the weekend that there will in fact be more from Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, and I’m not complaining. “Locke & Key: Omega” will now run 5-issues as opposed to the 6 originally planned, and the series will conclude in with “Locke & Key: Alpha”, which consists of two oversized issues. It’s often a problem that creators are not given enough room to bring a series to a proper conclusion and IDW is keen on making sure fans of the Locke family get the ending they deserve.
The first of the forty-eight page issues will hit in August.
Official Press Release:
San Diego, CA (April 27, 2013) – While it’s long been announced that Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s Eisner-winning epic Locke & Key is approaching the story’s conclusion, details of the finale have finally been announced, and the finale has become even bigger than originally revealed.
The concluding series, Locke & Key: Omega, will now run five issues instead of six, and the finale itself will bring the Keyhouse down in the form of LOCKE & KEY: ALPHA, a series of two forty-eight-page issues that will end the series with the kind of intense, macabre aplomb that made it a hit for six series!
“We hadn’t wanted to reveal the direction this finale was going to take until now in order to maintain necessary secrecy over how LOCKE & KEY wraps up,” said series editor and IDW’s Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall. “But after Omega, there can only be Alpha. And the series will end much the way it began, in the form of an extra-length issue. Two, in this case. Hard to fit this much death and destruction into just a regular-sized issue…”
Ryall added “It’s been an incredible rewarding six years of Locke & Key, and we’ve loved seeing Locke & Key build a larger and more rabid audience with each volume of the series. Add to that the fans who’ve liked the series enough to tattoo it on their bodies, the actual keys built by Israel Skelton’s Skelton Crew Studios, the Fox pilot, the Eisner Awards and everything else we’ve experienced, and it’s been one of the more rewarding series IDW has ever published. And now it’s time to close this storyline in a way that will be as equally memorable as everything we’ve seen over nearly 40 issues from Hill, Rodriguez and colorist Jay Fotos.”
Locke & Key has enjoyed a massively successful critical and commercial run and found a die-hard group of passionate fans. Though all good things must come to an end, LOCKE & KEY: ALPHA promises to cap things off in the kind of legendary, eye-popping fashion that can only come from the minds of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.
For the saved and the damned alike, it’s always darkest before the dawn… or is it? This August, there’s only one way to find out.
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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