Comics
Review: ‘Nosferatu Wars’
I’m obsessed with a good writer/artist pairing in comics. The kind that makes me excited just on word alone. Writer Steve Niles and artist Menton3 provide that sort of ambitious coupling that sends chills straight to my gut in this month’s special “Nosferatu Wars” one-shot. And when combined with the word and context behind “Nosferatu” you know it’s going to be “bag and board” worthy.
WRITTEN BY: Steve Niles
ART BY: Menton3
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: March 12, 2014
The plot of this horror one-shot is introductory. There is no beginning, middle, end. There are a series of events shadowing vampires Tarquin and Moria as they live, love, fight, and hunt during the black plague. In order to give us some context of their lives, Niles seamlessly interlaces flashbacks and possible flash-forwards. This technique also serves to make the plotlines time frames enigmatic. We’re not quite sure which plotline has us in the present. Overall, this creates a circular-type understanding of their existence, which is simply impressive.
Niles sets up an interesting character dynamic. Two vampire lovers against the world, “enemies in life, lovers in death” …and other romantic literary tropes are added into a juxtaposition of the pair’s humanity and their absolutely brutal impulses. In a landscape of literary bipolar disorder, Tarquin and Moria go from gentle, kind beings, to loyalty-driven vigilantes, love-driven murderers, utterly brutal fiends and back again. His writing really accentuates this as he uses a gothic-romance tone—a tone that’s fairly rare for Niles though shockingly unique to his writing.
True to Menton3’s artistic nature, the color palette is dark and rich, the faces and bodies are harsh and slender throughout the two styles of illustration he ping-pongs between in “Nosferatu Wars”. When his more sketch-like, rudimentary illustrations break into his velvety gallery-style art it’s like a high–voltage current running to your shock collar. It exacerbates the fear and heightens the senses in handpicked panels.
Without giving anything away, I must confess the ending twist made me laugh for an abrupt moment. I’m still not sure how I feel about it but a.) I believe in the future, we will get an answer on why this twist was important to utilize, and b.) it’s a fresh take on the vampire genre. Like…a never before seen take. The one-shot ends on this twist leaving you slightly unsatisfied and craving more.
I enjoyed getting acquainted with Tarquin and Moria, consuming the stunning art, and obsessing over the hauntingly beautiful bloodshed. Though the plot was not completely stand-alone, which is uncharacteristic of a one-shot comic, I do think (and hope) that we will see these characters in a series of one-shots. Or however it’s done, I believe we will see more of this nicely established world and its brilliant characters.
4/5 Skulls
Reviewed by Bree Ogden
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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