Comics
Review: George R.R. Martin’s ‘Skin Trade’ #2
With the monstrous success of Game of Thrones, author is George R.R. Martin is currently red hot. His books are flying off the shelves of book stores and Avatar Press was smart enough to scoop up the comic book rights to his gory werewolf novel. Using Martin’s prose novel “The Skin Trade” as the source material, Avatar has tasked writer Daniel Abraham and artist Mike Wolfer with adapting “Skin Trade” into sequential form.
WRITTEN BY:George R.R. Martin & Adapted by Daniel Abraham
ART BY: Mike Wolfer
PUBLISHER: Avatar Press
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: August 7th, 2013
The series follows private investigator Randi Wade as she digs deeper into a pair of murders that left victims brutally skinned alive. She quickly finds a connection to the case she’s investigating and the murder of her father, which leads her straight into the mouth of danger. Willie Flambeaux, an asthmatic sort of repo man, knew one of the victims and is out to bring the killer to justice. Flambeaux enlists the help of Wade and together they set out to solve this murder mystery. But Willie is holding onto some secrets he’s not telling Randi, which leads to him butting heads with the Harmons, a powerful family that hold enormous power within town.
Abraham and Wolfer are executing this book with deadly precision. They are taking the time to build the characters and bring things to a slow boil. The pacing of this book is perfect and they are revealing just enough to keep readers intrigued and salivating for more. We are slowly learning things about this world and the major players within it right with Randi Wade as she tries to decipher each piece of the puzzle. With each revelation comes more questions as they continue to build a great foundation of mystery and suspense.
In the past I’ve never been a huge fan of artist Mike Wolfer’s artwork, but here in “Skin Trade” he is turning in some of the best work of his career. He’s able to perfectly capture the intensity of the scenes, as well as the emotion of the characters in each carefully constructed panel. When Wolfer is finally unleashed, he delivers some fantastic action sequences and a brilliant stomach turning image of the murder victim’s skinned body in issue #2. In “Skin Trade”, Wolfer has really stepped up his game to pack the same potency as the story.
“Skin Trade” is another fantastic addition to the stable of Avatar Press horror books. There is the perfect balance of mystery, intrigue, suspense and character development. The only complaint is that this book might be better suited as a graphic novel, because the intricacies of the story would have more impact in one reading rather than the current monthly format.
4/5 Skulls
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.