Comics
Review: “Veil” # 1
“Veil” is a beautiful book soaked in mystery and subdued neon. The characters are bold with poetic and haunting dialogue it’s the type of book that pulls you into the abyss of human behavior. Centered on a enigmatic girl who wakes up in the subway with ridiculous strength and a constant rhyming ramble. Its goading is irresistible.
WRITTEN BY: Greg Rucka
ART BY: Toni Fejzula
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: March 5, 2014
Thank you, Scott Allie. We can now breath a sigh of relief as Greg Rucka has his first project from Dark Horse. “Veil” is amazing. The book simultaneously evokes an eerie sense of wonder and dread. As you witness Veil wake up and wander through the city you feel her plight. Almost everyone she encounters sees her as an object, except for Dante, her knight in shining cornrows.
Together they begin a journey into the very nature of Veil’s existence. Who she is and what she’s capable of are only briefly teased in this debut issue. It’s enough of a taste to engage the mystery. She’s dangerous, beautiful, and oddly entrancing. It’s a recipe for certain disaster.
Toni Fejzula’s art paints the whole ordeal in a bold and alluring style. His art has a dream like quality that is soaked in soft neon. Every panel looks like a stained glass window. He uses hard edges to create texture and detail. Everything feels beautifully dreamlike and inviting. Which only adds to Veil’s magnetism. This dream like quality is applied to the most unsavory of neighborhoods. Everything that happens in this first chapter is soaked in vulgarity. The environment is threatening but inviting thanks to the color. The characters are vile, but seductive. You feel like Veil, lost in the wild tapestry of colors and unsure of who to trust. You almost want to stand still to take it all in.
Once you look into Veil’s enormous warm eyes its impossible not to fall in love. You’ll join Dante in wanting to help her. Rucka reminds us that this siren is as deadly as she is beautiful. She’s not just an object, she’s a person, and she’s capable of great things. She’s lost, seemingly in her own mind. Rebuilding to who she once was. I’m afraid of what she might become, but entranced at the same time. I can’t wait to see what comes next, and gaze upon Fejzula’s incredible work yet again. There is such symmetry between the art and script that I’m already dying for the next chapter.
“Veil” has the perfect combination of art and story. One could not exist without the other. Together Rucka and Fejzula create a waking dream centered on a captivating and mysterious character. It’s tightly paced, hypnotic, and impossible to read once.
Rating: 4.5/5 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.
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