Comics
[Comic-Con ’13] ‘The Twilight Zone’ Returning As A Comic Book Series!!
Dynamite Entertainment continues to load on the Comic-Con announcements. The publisher has signed on writer J. Michael Straczynski to deliver a new comic series based on The Twilight Zone, one of the most beloved TV series of all time. No word yet on artists or release date plans.
Continuing the trend of IDW bringing back “The X-Files”, I feel like this is something we’ll be seeing a lot more of in the coming year. Should TV series be brought back in comic book form? I’ll let you decide.
Official Press Release:
July 17, 2013, Mt. Laurel, NJ: Dynamite signed a deal with CBS Consumer Products to create a comic book series based on one of the most captivating television shows of all time, The Twilight Zone, featuring all-new tales of science and superstition as written by acclaimed author and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, one of the privileged few celebrated as a Special Guest of San Diego Comic-Con International 2013.
“One of the most deeply satisfying and creatively exciting experiences I’ve had in 25 years of writing for television and film was my stint on the new Twilight Zone television series,” says Straczynski. “I’ve been a fan of the original series since I was tall enough to reach for the TV tuner. So I was profoundly excited when Nick Barrucci came to me with the possibility of doing the new Twilight Zone comic to come out from Dynamite.”
The Twilight Zone took millions of television viewers on a weekly journey to another dimension, starting in 1959. The enduring success of The Twilight Zone spawned three revival series (one of which featured episodes written by J. Michael Straczynski), a feature film, novels, comics, and other related merchandise.
Regarding the unique nature of The Twilight Zone series, Straczynski says, “The immediate creative question to be resolved was: how do you transplant or adapt the TV anthology format into comic form? Individual stand-alone issues don’t give the issue-to-issue continuity you need to consistently bring in modern readers, and if it’s a year long arc, it’s not an anthology. The solution: three four-issue arcs that are connected by theme, character, and location… so that in reading one arc you get one side of the story, with its own supernatural or science-fiction elements, then you turn the character around to another character in that sequence who has his or her own story for the next four issues… and then at the end, you connect all of these individual stories into one overlapping tapestry, so you could literally view the book as individual stories as initially published, or layer the pages to create one big story. It’s a cool structure that I’m not sure has been attempted before, so this will be an awful lot of fun. I’m very excited to be working with Nick and his team on this book, and hope folks will check out the books when they come out.”
J. Michael Straczynski is the perfect choice to reinvent a television icon for the comics medium after spending many successful years straddling both media. In television, Straczynski has written over 300 produced episodes and six TV movies. In film, Straczynski’s credits include five produced movies in six years: Changeling for director Clint Eastwood, Ninja Assassin for the Wachowkis, Thor for Kenneth Branagh, Underworld Awakening, and World War Z for Paramount and Brad Pitt. He has written nearly 400 published comics for Marvel, DC and Image, including The Amazing Spider-Man for seven years, followed by Thor, The Fantastic Four, Before Watchmen, and others.
“It’s a thrill, an absolute thrill, to not only develop new tales for Twilight Zone, but to welcome J. Michael Straczynski as our honored host,” says Nick Barrucci, CEO and Publisher of Dynamite. “We’ve wanted to work with him for years, and it’s finally materializing with this perfect combination: Straczynski and Twilight Zone, together again! The energy and enthusiasm behind the scenes is going to yield some truly mind-blowing science fiction.”
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.