Comics
Review: “Southern Bastards” #3
Armed with his Daddy’s stick, Earl Tubb has decided to stay and get some answers from the men who killed Dusty Tutwiler. Earl proves himself to be a genuine ass-kicker and has managed to piss off just about everyone in Craw County in just a few days. “Southern Bastards” #3 continues to build out this fascinating world and move the plot forward quicker than anyone could have imagined.
WRITTEN BY: Jason Aaron
ART BY: Jason Latour
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: July 2. 2014
Reviewed by Epic Switzer
“Southern Bastards” is doing for the rural south what “Fargo” did for the rural north. Aaron’s vision of a corrupt small town in Alabama is instantly iconic, and not without it’s charms. Latour’s art is raw, almost tactile. Like the people of Craw, everything is right on the surface. Every close up makes you a little bit sick. The atmosphere in this book is chilling, invoking the base animalism of human nature, yet warm and familiar at times. “Southern Bastards” precisely captures the conflicting dualism of the American South.
Aaron’s voice obviously comes from a very honest place. His characters are not caricatures, but archetypes, and he is such a strong dialogue writer and plotter that even the most despicable killers are grounded in something real and relatable. This issue in particular is very much “Earl Unchained” as he goes after the bastards that killed his acquaintance Dusty. Whether Earl is a seeker of justice, or merely an uncontrollably violent man remains to be seen, but I’m loving the journey.
What’s remarkable about this book is that Aaron and Latour aren’t necessarily telling a new story, yet their brilliantly constructed setting is what is really driving this narrative. That’s not to say it is predictable, there is plenty of mystery and intrigue here about Earl’s dad and the inner workings of Craw County. But the most interesting thing about this book is just living in this world for 24 pages.I feel gross when I read “Southern Bastards”, but I love every second of it.
With seeing Earl finally come out of his shell and a pretty effective cliffhanger to boot, there is no reason at all to stop reading “Southern Bastards” at this point. And if you haven’t read it at all yet, then this is a worthy title to add to your stack if you can manage to snag the first two. The letter column is well put together, but if you are typically a trade-waiter, you really won’t be missing anything. If you think the south is scary, I think you’ll be moved by this book.
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.