Comics
Advance Review: ‘Liberator’ # 4
Matt Miner’s ‘Liberator’ concludes this month with a harrowing final act. After a stern lesson in the virtues of vigilante justice Damon and Jeanette agree to one final mission together. The narrative takes some incredibly interesting turns. The final confrontation will linger with you for some time, both due to the emotional beats Miner hits, and the incredible way Aranda brings it to life. A riveting conclusion to a powerful series.
WRITTEN BY: Matt Miner
ART BY: Javier Sanchez Aranda
PUBLISHER: Black Mask Studios
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: Oct 16, 2013
‘Liberator’ is a series that pushes a real world agenda with a larger than life premise. The frustration from animal cruelty pours through the page to create a passionate statement on standing up for your beliefs. We all want to be the empowered hero that saves the day. Damon is a fantastic outlet to live through.
His passion and his fighting strength stem from deep seeded beliefs about animal equality. He was perhaps misguided but his passion should be commended. In the final moments Miner makes sure to twist this character on its head making the real stand out hero Jeanette.
She is always more careful in her actions and thoughts. She is cool, calm, and collected. Damon is untethered and too emotional for his own good. It really hurts when Jeanette learns why Damon is this way. It hurts on almost every level. Even more so because Miner doesn’t even directly address it he lets the art do all the work.
This final chapter doesn’t let up. We’re given the last mission we deserve. We’re even treated to a fantastic moment of innocence as Damon tries to convince a little furry escapee to take off.
Miner even gives a fantastic moment of gore that will be engrained in your memory for quite some time.
The whole thing dovetails with beautiful visceral simplicity. It was all there on the surface, but passion made use blind. When our eyes are finally opened it all makes sense, but not a moment too soon.
Aranda’s art is nothing short of incredible. The relationship fostered by the team is clear. The art carries the story this month. Most of the issue operates at breakneck pace. Aranda is truly left to his own devices to articulate the final confrontation and he shines brighter than ever before.
The fall, oh god the fall. The rotten wood, and the result of a simple slip that escalates everything to the next level shows the danger in vigilante justice. Especially when Miner takes the time to discuss violence isn’t violence if no one gets hurt. Well, such isn’t the case this month.
The end of Liberator isn’t one dotted with finality, but a new hope. The final page will fill you with renewed vigor after the melancholy of the pages that preceded it. The silver lining here defies expectations because its not the one you originally thought you’d get. The result is a fantastic conclusion to a powerful and important series.
Rating: 4.5/5 Skulls
If you dig Liberator you can find Matt Miner at NYCC in the Artist’s Alley Table G3.
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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