Comics
Review: ‘Sheltered’ #3
After the startling cliffhanger from its first issue , “Sheltered” #3 continues to be a suspenseful thrill-ride. Showing no signs of slowing down, the “Sheltered” creative team examines every corner of its world, always keeping the narrative interesting. What we’ve learned so far is that in order to survive the apocalypse, you can’t trust anyone over 18.
WRITTEN BY: Ed Brisson
ART BY: Johnnie Christmas
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: September 4th, 2013
Afraid of the outside world, a group of parents took their children to Safe Haven, a gated and isolated community. Safe Haven belongs to the like-minded “Preppers,” survivalists who have trained themselves for the inevitable doomsday. What the parents didn’t know is that their children lost their minds. Led by Lucas, the teenagers eventually turned against their parents and murdered them. Though she is in their age range, Victoria only sees Lucas as the psychopath who murdered her father. How will Victoria take down Lucas when he has already turned the “Preppers” into savages?
Writer Ed Brisson explores the rebelliousness of youth at its extreme. Because there are no parents, the children are the rulers of their own domain. There is no one to tell them what they can or cannot do. Now seeming more as a cult leader, Lucas previously had all his followers take part in the bloody massacre. After snapping under pressure, Lucas wants his followers to take the extra step. If Victoria cannot fall in line just like the others, she has to be taken out of the picture, just like her father.
Brisson presents Victoria as someone who has always been a free-thinker. Not everyone likes what she has to say, which is what Victoria’s father warned her about in the first issue. What was seen as a flaw in her personality is what’s actually keeping her alive. Victoria immediately realizes something is seriously wrong with Lucas. After hearing Lucas’ reasoning behind the murder of her father, Victoria understands Lucas’ grand scheme is actually a lie.
Artist Johnnie Christmas is able to physically show to readers how mentally unbalanced Lucas is. Notice the way Christmas illustrates Lucas’s face after Victoria hits him. Pay close attention to the pattern on Lucas’s forehead as the lines of blood zigzag around. Readers are able to tell Lucas is cracked in the head because of how he visually appears. Lucas’ mental breakdown is captured on his face and there is nothing to hide it.
In the first installment, the narrative took place during a single day. As the story progressed, it is always nighttime in Safe Haven, as if the sun refuses to rise. While playing around with shadows and the snow, Christmas captures an eerie atmosphere of isolation and claustrophobia. There is no city to for Victoria to run to, because the snowy woods seem endless.
“Sheltered” #3 gets the heart of its readers racing. As the “Sheltered” series steers into “Lord of the Flies” territory, we’re soon going to see how far these teenagers have fallen into the dark side of human nature.
4/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – Jorge Solis
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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