Comics
Review: ‘Amala’s Blade’ #3
Civil war is on the brink of being reignited in “Amala’s Blade” #3, and our teenaged assassin is at the centre of it all. With only one more issue left in Steve Horton and Michael Dialynas’ Dark Horse mini, writer and artist continue to approach the narrative with an accelerated pace, and set the stage for what’s expected to be an epic finale to this well-written, and beautifully illustrated, steampunk fantasy series.
WRITTEN BY: Steve Horton
ART BY: Michael Dialynas
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: June 26, 2013
Keeping up with the speed of the previous installments, Part 3 continues with Amala’s successful infiltration of Lady Strawbale’s Purifier Palace as she attempts to complete the suicide mission The Vizier vindictively assigned to her. Disastrously, a huge character reveal confirms reader speculation regarding the true identity of Amala’s target. This complicates matters for the hero and sets forth a series of events that’ll keep readers hooked until the very last page.
In contrast to the ample amount of bloodshed leading up to this issue, Horton focusses on building Amala’s story and establishing just how significant her role is in forging a better future for all of Naamaron. Readers are offered more insight into Naamaron’s bureaucracy through Horton’s world-building, as well as Amala’s psyche and disposition towards her role as ‘assassin’.
Besides all the drama bread from recent character and plot developments, “Amala’s Blade” #3 has some comedic aspects to help alleviate the tension. One panel in particular depicts two high-tech Modifier guards debating over the modification of male genitals. This offers a welcomed treat before the action picks up again. Biopunk themes of genetic engineering and bodily enhancements are pretty visible throughout this installment, but the most impressive panels feature the same mechanical wyrm that graces this month’s fantastic cover, and Dialynas does a superb job rendering its body. The scenes where Amala’s facing off with the cybernetic beast makes it hard not to be reminded of Kurtis J. Wiebe and Riley Rossmo’s junk-punk series “Debris” in terms of art, in which Rossmo illustrates the female protagonist battling against machine-like animals. It’s a worthy comparison.
On the topic of art, Dialynas delivers his best work thus far with the release of this month’s issue, and continues to establish himself as a stylistically distinguishable artist. His colour palette of purple and blues when dealing with the Modifier people, and his incorporation of traditional steampunk browns when illustrating the low-tech Purifiers, is perfectly executed on paper. The fact that he successfully manages to portray how vastly different the two warring factions are, is commendable.
As far as lead characters go, there’s still so much to learn about Amala than is provided in these pages, but Horton does an impressive job creating a likeable character that possesses such questionably unlikeable traits. Here’s hoping both writer and artist have more Amala goodies up their sleeve because one more issue doesn’t seem like enough.
4.5/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – ShadowJayd
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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