Comics
Review: “Kill Shakespeare: The Mask of Night” #1
“Kill Shakespeare: The Mask Of Night” #1 returns with a brand new story arc and it’s just as awesome as ever. More of the classic Shakespearean characters take the comic book page with raw energy. The “Kill Shakespeare” series continues to get better while adding more sex, action, and girl-on-girl catfights to the mix.
Written By: Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col
Art By: Andy Belanger
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Price: $3.99
Release: June 18, 2014
Reviewed by Jorge Solis
In Vol. 3: Tide of Blood, Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello barely got out of the island alive. While on the monster island, Prospero infected Othello and Hamlet with his sick mind-games. Hamlet feels betrayed by Juliet, who may be carrying Romeo’s child. While they were lost at sea, the three were discovered and held captive by the pirates Cesario and Viola. Will Cesario continue to hold the three wanted fugitives chained-up on his ship, The Boreas? Or will he sell his prisoners to the highest bidder, especially to Titus?
After looking up information on the new characters, I believe writers Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col have done an interesting re-imagination of Cesario and Viola. In the play, “Twelfth Night,” Viola pretends to be a man named Cesario. McCreery and Del Col split the character into two different people and make it work as a swashbuckling adventure. Viola is indeed captain of the ship but would any man really serve under her command? She needs someone else, a fighter, to pretend to be Cesario. You’ll notice how Viola is really manipulating the situation through her dialogue.
McCreery and Del Col do something fresh and original with the female Shakespearean characters. Juliet is not a lovelorn teenager; instead she is a fierce warrior who practically went through Hell to save Hamlet. I just loved the scene between Viola’s first confrontation with Juliet. The two may not like each other but they share the same warrior spirit, making them evenly matched.
Andy Belanger’s artwork is completely amazing. Readers will be thrilled by Cesario’s bloody swordfight in the opening pages. In the two-pager, we see Cesario stab his way through other pirates just to get his bulked-up opponent. To defeat his enemy, Cesario digs his fingers into his bloody guts and rips out his intestines. I swear to you, this scene alone is worth the cover charge.
I really like the little details Belanger has added to Cesario’s helmet-like mask. Shaped into a skull, the mask is divided in half, to represent the theme’s split personality. Remember Viola is in charge, not the man behind the mask. The mask has two facial expressions, one smiling and the other angry. In his character design, Cesario has a braided wig on the back of his head and his wardrobe is composed of brown leather.
“Kill Shakespeare: The Mask of Night” #1 is an impressive start to a riveting swashbuckling adventure. Del Col, McCreery, and Belanger have turned Shakespeare’s characters into mean and gritty pirates, who you don’t want to mess with.
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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