Comics
Jonathan Maberry’s ‘V-Wars’ Makes Its Comic Book Debut
Following the success of the prose vampire anthology, “V-Wars”, IDW teams up with Jonathan Maberry to continue the franchise in comic book form with a new ongoing series. The series takes place in a world where an ancient vampire virus runs wild, affecting each individually differently. “V-Wars” begins in May with an issue coming out on Free Comic Book Day 2014. Alan Robinson and Jay Fotos will be on art duties.
Maberry is a vampire expert, having written a multitude of fiction and non-fiction about the blood suckers. If there is anyone you want writing vampire stories, it’s probably him. This marks Maberry’s second vampire comic this year, the other being “Bad Blood” over at Dark Horse.
Official Press Release:
San Diego, CA (January 14, 2013) – Hot off the success of the shared-world vampire prose anthology, V-Wars, IDW and New York Times best-selling and multiple Bram Stoker award-winning horror author, conspire once again to continue the battle that rages between humans and vampires in the all-new ongoing comic book series coming this May.
V-Wars is set in a world transformed by a global pandemic caused by a millennial-old virus that, once triggered, affects individuals differently depending on their DNA. The result is vampires as unique as their cultures and a response from those unaffected humans like never seen before.
“The vampires people used to believe in weren’t charming romantic antiheroes. They were monsters,” says writer Maberry. “Each culture had their own legends, and each of these vampires was completely different from the others; and all of them were different from the vampires in pop-culture. We went directly to the source: the myths and legends of vampires around the world and throughout history. Old-school, scary, and complicated.”
The ongoing V-Wars series will kick off in May on Free Comic Book Day 2014 with the first two issues of V-Wars. V-Wars #0 will be available for free at participating comic book retailers and introduces a world caught in the early throes of the fast spreading Vampire Wars as seen through the eyes of a folklore scholar, Luther Swann. It boasts a cover by the incomparable Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and is not to be missed. V-Wars #1 will be available the same day for standard price and highlights an event that takes the Vampire Wars to fever pitch and makes it bloodier than ever.
V-Wars will make the leap to comics with the help of artist Alan Robinson (Mars Attacks, KISS: Solo) and colorist Jay Fotos (Locke & Key). Together they flesh out this world in a vivid and frightening way.
IDW re-invented the vampire genre once before with 30 Days of Night…and we are doing it again with V-Wars! The future of vampires is here!
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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