Comics
Review: “Clockwork Angels” #2
Owen Hardy continues his journey and exploration of Crown City on a mission to see the titular “Clockwork Angels” in the second installment of Rush’s Neil Peart’s comic book based on his album and subsequent novel of the same name. As Owen comes up against obstacle after obstacle to view the Angels that he has given up everything to do, we learn more about the City, the Watchmaker, and the Anarchist. Unfortunately, this steampunk dystopian comic can present buckets of information all day in the most elaborate and beautiful illustrations with well-crafted dialogue, and yet it’s still not enough to make me want to read more.
WRITTEN BY: Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart
ART BY: Nick Robles
PUBLISHER: BOOM! Studios
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: April 30, 2014
When our protagonist, Owen, finally makes it to the Clockwork Angels, he is unable to enter and view them without a ticket. And no one seems to want to tell him how or where to get a ticket. Distraught, Owen finds himself at a carnival where he receives mysterious fortunes and meets a real life angel, a tightrope walker by the name of Francesca, with whom he promptly becomes smitten.
Meanwhile, something is amiss. The Anarchist, in his quest for freedom, flexibility, and spontaneity (something apparently not allowed in a town run by a Watchmaker so obsessed with time and clocks) sneaks around at night and uses the skills he learned as the Watchmaker’s protégé to mess with all the clocks and challenge the very fiber of Crown City.
As Owen slips in and out of situations around Crown City, he finds himself helping the Watchmaker’s workers during which he finds out that the Watchmaker has planned the entire universe to perfection. The functionality of the planets, moons, stars, it’s all planned according to the Watchmaker, and apparently, not even the Anarchist can disrupt that. Though I sense that will change.
In a case of mistaken identity, Owen is chased out of Crown City, believed to be the Anarchist. Having no money and nowhere to go, we see him head toward the carnival where he first met Francesca and the other misfits. End scene…wait for issue three.
As I said in my review for issue #1, there is nothing wrong with “Clockwork Angels” but there is nothing really right with it either. Nothing happens that makes the reader ponder about life, seize with fear, giggle with excitement, or grasp at the edge of their seat in anticipation. It just…is. It’s a decent story with some beautiful art that doesn’t bring a whole lot to the table. In fact, by the end of issue #2, I had way more questions than answers, and not in a good way.
I wish good things for this comic, I want it to grab ahold of the genres it is toying with and play to their strengths. I want it to make me think. I want it to give me chills. And maybe it will in the future. But for now, I’ll have to be content with its simplistic and dry storyline.
Review 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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