Comics
Comic Book Review: ‘Casanova Acedia’ #1 – A Welcome Return Of The Strange Spy Series
Reviewed By Katy Rex. I probably wouldn’t have picked up ‘Casanova: Acedia’ #1 on my own. My spy/intrigue quota is very well satisfied by titles like Velvet, but having picked it up, I’m probably not putting it down anytime soon.
WRITTEN BY: Matt Fraction
ART BY: Fabio Moon
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: January 28, 2015
Casanova Quinn now serves as a sort of loyal bodyguard and companion for a seriously Gatsby-like man who is named, without any winks to the fourth wall, Mr. Boutique. And as much as “reboot” is a dirty word in comics, this issue is almost a reboot of sorts. Quinn has completely lost his memory (which means he doesn’t have to try to figure out the time paradox that led him to living as his own evil twin), and although he still seems to be able to access his skills, he has the chance to be a completely different person. It’s less an opportunity and more of a necessity, since he doesn’t seem to have a choice in the matter of his memory.
This issue has two narrators, Quinn and another unknown and omniscient narrator, distinguished by their lettering styles courtesy of Dustin K. Harbin. The new story follows Quinn’s character, now going by Quentin Cassidy, in his new life. He’s been living as a majordomo for 2-3 years, but the omniscient narrator tells us that in that time, even as he lives his new life, he’s constantly alert for some hint about his past. When Quinn flashes back, in the course of his narration, to the not-explicitly-stated duties he performs for Boutique, the panel layout makes that flash as abrupt as a memory, and the washed out palette of those brief panels set them in the past. The dynamic between Cassidy/Quinn and Boutique is weirdly relatable even for someone who has never been a bodyguard and hitman for an older and possibly spy affiliated Gatsby, but it’s a little hard to believe that they know so little about each other. If Quinn’s spy training is still present enough for him to perform menial tasks like murder and chauffeuring, why isn’t it present enough for him to instinctually dig up background information on Boutique?
Because of the weird Gatsby party vibe, it’s crucial for Moon’s art to straddle 1920’s decadence and slightly more modern spy grit, which he accomplishes by meeting somewhere in the middle– there’s a very 60’s feel to a lot of the textures, implying that Quinn is very much a man out of time in golden Hollywood. New readers might not know what to make of that, since it’s not actually explained in this issue that his memory loss is a result of a crash, and that the thing he crashed was a time machine. Hopefully future issues will give the readers more explanations as Quinn gets some answers himself. The art and backdrop sets this up as even more quintessentially spy-movie-esque, and the brash lines making the characters feel angular makes it difficult to get too comfortable with the sensuous scenes.
As if that isn’t enough, Gabriel Ba (co-creator of the series) is back, drawing a short piece by none other than Michael Chabon (Wonder Boys). Chabon is famous for his heavily comic-influenced prose, and in this book he inaugurates his ongoing mini that will live in the Casanova back pages, The Metanauts. Prose authors can’t always adapt to comic scripting, but Chabon manages it seamlessly, weaving a strange story about an overnight celebrity with possibly-nonhuman genitals, a wry sense of humor, and a way with a bass. Because of Ba and Moon’s history collaborating and trading off on the art, Ba’s accompanying art with this Chabon short is consistent with the book overall and still brings something fresh to the Metanaut story. The bodies are more evocative and less about anatomically accurate representation, which brings the music scene being portrayed to life.
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Katy Rex writes comics analysis at endoftheuniversecomics.com, comicsbulletin.com, and bloody-disgusting.com. She also writes scholarly articles for various academic journals. She really likes butt jokes, dinosaurs, and killing psychos and midgets in Borderlands 2. She has a great sense of humor if you’re not an asshole.
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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