Comics
[Comic Book Review] “Dark Engine” #4 Intrigues and Confounds
“Dark Engine” #4 is the most foreshadowing issue yet. It begins, as each issue does, with The Dragon’s journey towards the Gigahul he intends to pilot. After a close call with a terrible flying beast, 2 things are revealed, one that The dragon is in a life-or-death time crunch, and two that he is heading directly for the Alchemist’s tower. Meanwhile Sym is doing what Sym does, which turns out to be blindingly macabre at this point, and the alchemists are having some internal issues; the skull crushing kind. “Dark Engine” is concludes its first arc and is a book every fantasy fan should be reading.
WRITTEN BY: Ryan Burton
ART BY: John Bivens
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: November 26, 2014
Reviewed By Eric Switzer
I feel like I am on top of the language of “Dark Engine”, and in only four issues I actually pretty impressed. I read Prophet for years and never figured out what was going on. I called it Dune-syndrome, and as I’ve said before, I was at first afraid this book suffered from it, but now I realize the slight learning curve has an incredible reward.
There are at least two more incredible reveals in this issue that I wouldn’t dare spoil because it gives this series such great depth and new energy. I was at once shocked and embarrassed that I didn’t pick up on it before hand, but this isn’t a book you can make assumptions about. To enjoy “Dark Engine” you really have to submit Burton and Bivens and enjoy the ride they are taking you on. Not every twist and turn will blow your mind, but it is consistently weird and fantastic and disgusting and beautiful. This is the action/horror/hard-sci-fi you’ve been waiting for.
I said about the last issue that it didn’t suffer from the crowded panels and incomprehensible action that the first two issues did, but a couple of times in this issue I paused to speculate what I was looking at. It isn’t particularly uncommon, but it does always seem to take me out the action.
This is a spectacular finale to the first arc and one that intrigues as much as it confounds. I highly recommend “Dark Engine”. It takes a few issues to get a handle on the world, but once you figure it out, you won’t be ddisappointed
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Eric Switzer 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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