Comics
5 Skull Review: ‘Fatale’ #24
The greatest horror-noir of all time comes to a close with “Fatale” #24. Brubaker and Phillips deliver a melancholy resolution for Josephine while building upon the myth hitting just about everything we love about “Fatale”. There is no major twist, there is nothing particularly gasp worthy or unexpected. What we have is simply the most satisfying and appropriate end for one of the most unfortunate and endearing characters in comics. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
WRITTEN BY: ED BRUBAKER
ART BY: SEAN PHILLIPS
PUBLISHER: IMAGE
PRICE: $4.99
RELEASE: July 30, 2014
Reviewed By Epic Switzer
Who needs a cigarette?
This is the ending Josephine deserves. I think partly what is so fascinating about this character is that she represents an unobtainable ideal both diegetically and for the reader. It is almost as if her power extends off the page and corrupts your mind as you read “Fatale”. Just like her “victims”, we love her, we lust after her, but we can never obtain her. And if you haven’t gotten the whole picture yet, Brubaker and Phillips brilliantly give you one final hint as to what it is that she represents. I hesitate to disclose my interpretation of final allegory, because I find it’s meaning to be deeply personal and relevant to me yet open to your own interpretation. Upon reading this series again, I think there will be a great deal to discover and connect to this final installment. And that, to me, is the mark of fantastic plotting and powerful themes.
“Fatale” has been such an incredibly influential book for me personally that I can’t help but swoon over how perfectly concluded this deeply rich story is here in issue 24. If I have any complaint at all, I hate shudder to even suggest it, but part of me wishes we had just gotten one tiny step closer to the true cosmic horror that Josephine is meant to give rise to.
Nick’s brush with the eternal is merely suggested rather than depicted and is over as soon as it began. This stays true to the style of true cosmic horror, because to actually see them would drive us insane, as it did Nick, but I fear the scene and its narration were almost to brief to satisfy my twisted taste.
Anyway having said that, I’m sorry and I take it all back. This book is perfect.
At the end there is a preview for Ed and Sean’s next noir book called “The Fade Out” (drool) and a final, fantastic article by Jess Nevins about the noir trope of fallen heroes and their counterpart, the redeemed villain. Each and every one of her essays has been a masterwork and if you haven’t been reading the single issues, you are missing out. Go back and find them if you can.
I’m sort of still reeling from the fact that it is all over now. I don’t know if anything can fill the void left behind by this book, but I also think that feeling is incredibly appropriate to the series. There is nothing left now but to grieve and start again from the beginning. To trap myself in a cycle, reliving each tragedy, each mistake, each heartbreak. To live like Josephine, searching for meaning in a mad mad world. To seek the truth, because I will not deny it. I live in the shadow of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Bravo gentlemen, bravo.
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.
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