Comics
[Comic Book Review] “Wild’s End” #1 Is Worth A Read.
Wild’s End is the latest from Boom! Studios. Their solicit accurately compares it to popular movies, saying “fans of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s Cornetto Trilogy will fall in love.” It has the small-town-goes-horribly-wrong ethos of that series, and the Britishness-is-so-darling-and-
WRITTEN BY: Dan Abnett
ART BY: I.N.J Culbard
PUBLISHER: BOOM! Studios
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: September 10, 2014
Reviewed By: Katy Rex
In fact, Cornetto Trilogy fans will find this not only familiar, but nearly identical in tone and feel. The opening scene, in which two extremely British animals stumble around drunkenly, feels like it might have been an actual deleted scene from World’s End, while the town meeting could have been taken directly from Hot Fuzz. Through most of this first issue, the story felt a lot like déjà vu, and even the mysteries and unknowns felt familiar and predictable.
Although the story, from the overall arch to the individual scenes, felt very much like something I’d read/watched before, that didn’t detract from the enjoyability of the issue. This isn’t the series to pick up if you’re looking for the newest and most innovative thing that nobody has ever thought of, but it’s a fun romp. And although the end of the issue, again, is exactly what I expected (but I won’t spoil it further), it does give hope that maybe this could go in a variety of directions.
Since this is the first issue, it’s entirely possible that the creative team is playing with the reader’s expectations. Aside from the arch itself, the writing is extremely clever, with dialogue that manages to be dialectic without being overly precious, and names that feel exactly like what you’d expect (the fox is Fawkes, the town is Lower Crowchurch) in a small country town populated by animals in suits.
I.N.J.’s art is a perfect complement to both the Britishness and to the anthropomorphicness of this story, feeling not unlike a cartoon-style take on The Wind in the Willows. The colors are vibrant and clear, but just muted enough to feel a little old-fashioned, a little traditional, a little small-town and British and almost stodgy. This overall feels comfortable and nostalgic, allowing the reader to slip seamlessly into the story. The design and layout is easy to read, and lends itself well to the humor of the piece with a simple large panel layout and painstakingly stylized characters that are both easily distinguishable from one another and easy to interpret.
This isn’t a top new issue that you absolutely have to pick up or you’ll regret it, but it’s comfortable, enjoyable, and worth a read. And it certainly bears sticking with, at least for a few more issues, to see where it goes from here. Don’t forget to read the “letters” section in the back, which has been done in the style of an old fashioned small town newspaper, complete with advertisements for posture improvement and miracle pills.
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Katy Rex writes comics analysis at endoftheuniversecomics.com, comicsbulletin.com, and bloody-disgusting.com. She also writes scholarly articles for various academic journals. She really likes butt jokes, dinosaurs, and killing psychos and midgets in Borderlands 2. She has a great sense of humor if you’re not an asshole.
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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