Comics
[Interview] Aritst DaFu Yu Talks Drawing A Gorilla Beating Zombies To A Pulp
“Rex, Zombie Killer” has a simple premise: a pack of animals, including a gorilla with a baseball bat, try to survive the zombie apocalypse. It’s nuts, it’s fun, and this is the kind of stuff you can only find in comic books. Big Dog Ink sent along their interview with series artist and co-creator DaFu Yu where he discusses the new miniseries, hitting stores in October. It’s clear that whoever did the interview is not a journalist, but there’s some interesting details about the series in there nonetheless.
Your art style in REX, ZOMBIE KILLER is very detailed, particularly the backgrounds. How long does it take you to produce a finished page?
DAFU: For REX, I’m both penciling and inking so it usually takes me between two to three days to complete a page. I put in about 12 hours of drawing per day, give or take. To keep things fresh and interesting for me, I work on several consecutive pages at once. I never draw a page from start to finish, I bounce around pages.
Can you talk about your approach to producing the art for REX, ZOMBIE KILLER? Are you working digitally or with old-school pencil and ink?
DAFU: Once I receive the script from writer Rob Anderson, I read it through once to see if I have any questions. Then, as I read through it a second time, I start laying out the panels in stick figures onto the script itself. Next, I take the stick figure layouts and flesh them out into thumbnails for Rob to approve. Although for the REX miniseries I decided to skip the thumbnail stage and do a loose pencil layout onto the actual 11×17 bristol board for Rob. This saves me some precious time.
As far as tools, I use 2H or HB lead pencils and I ink with Sakura micron pens and brush pens to fill in dark areas. So I am old-school when it comes to pencils and inks.
You’ve changed up your style slightly from the REX, ZOMBIE KILLER ONE-SHOT from last year, especially on the gorillas. How did you approach drawing the animals in the new miniseries? Are you drawing from your head? Or from some sort of reference?
DAFU: When the REX ONE-SHOT debuted last year, we received favorable reviews but I also received a lot of constructive criticism. One common criticism was my rendering of the gorillas appeared a bit too human-like. Here’s something you might not notice in the book from last year — Kenji the gorilla was standing and running sometimes like a human. It wasn’t until Rob pointed it out to me that I remembered that gorillas are normally on all fours! That’s why toward the end of the ONE-SHOT they were more gorilla-like, and why they are even more accurate in the new miniseries.
Honestly, it was my first time drawing gorillas and I didn’t understand their anatomical structure or mannerisms last year. So for the REX miniseries I actually did some more research and even bought some to-scale animal figures to help me. The gorillas are now more naturalistic looking in the miniseries.
Who do you consider your artistic influences?
DAFU: Wow, there’s so many, where do I begin? I grew up reading and collecting comics in the late 80s and early 90s, so I was heavily influenced by the Image artists, especially Jim Lee. Then in the mid-90s with the influx of Manga into American comics, I was influenced by Joe Madureira which led me to Masamune Shirow’s GHOST IN THE SHELL. Manga, in general, just helped me add energy into my comics and improved my facial expressions. And there’s so many more, such as David Finch, Art Adams, Frank Cho, Alex Ross…the list just continues to grow.
Who is your favorite character to draw and why?
DAFU: It’s definitely Kenji. What artist wouldn’t want to draw a gorilla with a baseball bat smashing zombies!? Or two big gorillas going to war?
But as I get deeper into the world of REX, ZOMBIE KILLER, I also have become fond of drawing Buttercup the Corgi mix dog. She’s just so bubbly and optimistic in a zombie-infested world. She gives everyone hope when there seems to be none, and she’s part of why I’m happy to return to the world of Rex and his pack!
REX, ZOMBIE KILLER #1 is available for pre-order right now at your Local Comic Shop. It’s listed in the August Diamond PREVIEWS catalog (Order number AUG131097) under publisher Big Dog Ink.
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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