Comics
Review: “Wildfire” #1
Tackling the issue of genetically engineered food, Wildfire #1 is the story of Dr. Beth Silva and her team of bioengineers who decide to demonstrate an untested new process of accelerated plant growth to show up a group of GMO naysayers called Green Aware, unwittingly starting the greatest wild fire that Southern California has ever known via mass dandelion infestation. This book is dense, dry, and reads like a sequel to Birdemic with less interesting characters.
WRITTEN BY: Matt Hawkins
ART BY: Linda Sejic
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: 3.99
RELEASE: June 11, 2014
Review By: Epic Switzer
Sci-Fi-Horror, and more aptly the disaster genre, has a rich history of examining contemporary social fears and then magnifying and exploiting them to amuse audiences. Those that have been successful rely on metaphor; they create a larger than life threat to represent a real cultural anxiety. Godzilla as a metaphor for nuclear war and Invasion of the Body Snatchers as a metaphor for communism are just two example of the staying power that a strong character or story can have within the zeitgeist when it is handled with finesse and subtlety.
Then there is Wildfire #1, which follows in the tradition of a divergent path. One popularized by recent Roland Emmerich fare and the aforementioned Birdemic, in which the disaster it wrought directly by human negligence or, in the case of Wildfire #1, science overstepping its bounds. These tales are meant to be cautionary and informative, often coming across as heavy handed or preachy. They can, however, be forgiven by carnage-hungry audiences if the explosions are big enough. Aside from a rather dull splash on the first page of L.A. on fire, this book has 0% mayhem.
Now, to be fair, this is issue #1, so some set up is to be expected. After all, 2012 doesn’t open with Cusak whipping down the street as volcanic fissures emerge beneath him does it? No, it starts with scientists in India talking about neutrinos and solar flares and a rapid temperature rise in the Earth’s core and blah blah blah. This is Wildfire #1.
I found myself skimming the paragraphs found in almost every dialogue bubble because I didn’t understand and didn’t care what the characters were saying. Here is the dialogue on one page:
“The Time is 3:45 PM, Tuesday August 12th. This is Dr. Dan Miller preparing to conduct trail A16-4 for ACR. This trial has a 5% increase in phosphorus in the soil mix. Four of our transgenic beansprout seeds are buried at a depth of three inches in our nitrate treated soil compound. As in previous trials, adding liquid fertilizer mixed with ACR to stimulate gibberellin hormone growth.”
Did you read all of that? Neither did I.
Personally, I didn’t find the art interesting enough to drive forward all this sci-babble. There is some interesting use of border design to accentuate heightened emotion when characters are speaking, but after the 3rd or 4th time you see it it becomes less ingenious and you start to wonder why people are always shouting at each other.
I really did not enjoy reading this book. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have potential, but I found there weren’t enough interesting characters in play with unique motives. There was far too much heavy-handed discussion about the ethics of GE food, and it was almost entirely devoid of havok. Avoid this one until further notice, unless you happen to be Roland Emmerich.
Epic Switzer AKA Eric is an aspiring filmmaker and screenplay writer living in Los Angeles. His work tends to focus on the lighter side of entropy, dystopic futures, and man’s innate struggle with his own mortality. He can be found on twitter @epicswitzer or reached via email at ericswitzerfilm@gmail.com.
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.