Comics
Review: “The Devilers” #2
“The Devilers” #2 picks up with our team of multi-cultural super friends descending into the pits of hell to confront you-know-who. This book spares no ink and utilizes every square inch of page real estate; sometimes to wonderfully grotesque effect, often to overwhelming confusion. This issue makes some strides to develop the group of characters that had been thrust upon Malcolm in issue one, and continues the high energy pace and visual spectacle of the first issue with an added reveal about the truth behind Malcolm’s power.
WRITTEN BY: Joshua Hale Fialkov
ART BY: Matt Triano
PUBLISHER: Dynamite
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: August 13, 2014
Reviewed By Epic Switzer
“The Devilers” is in my wheelhouse. The macabre, the occult, and especially the agency of heaven in hell is my bread and butter. I eat that shit up. That being said, I find “Devilers” to be a bit of an overcrowded mess. Though I appreciate the attention to detail, each page in so dense with insanity that it may induce headaches. Everything is red and covered in blood and has two heads and ten legs and while I love it conceptually, it is a little confusing to look at.
Again, I really like the idea of “The Devilers” and I’m enjoying discovering every one’s powers and their histories while Malcolm tries to get a grip on what makes him special and how he fits in. The art certainly isn’t bad: the characters are expressive and the use of perspective is effective and the beasts are imaginative, but it can be too much to look at sometimes, and it is a little jarring when one panel is the grand hulking beast in beautiful detail and the next is a floating head with a solid red background. I don’t know if deadlines were an issue or if it was deliberate but it doesn’t really work for me.
I think “Devilers” will end up being effective as a mini-series and for that reason I will continue to read it. If this was an ongoing, however, this would probably be the last issue I read. It is a spectacle to be sure, but I don’t find it special enough in any one way to justify it in my ever growing stack of books. If the pages were cleaner, or the dialogue tighter, or the characters more dynamic, I could find something to love about this book. I really want to like it, but it just isn’t doing it for me.
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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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