Comics
Comic Book Review: ‘Gotham By Midnight’ # 3 – Is Demonically Enjoyable
‘Gotham By Midnight’ #3 promises to show you the horror behind the most corrupt city in comics. This month, Detective Jim Corrigan uncovers true supernatural insanity and the tone of the book cements itself as the most unique offering in the Batman universe.
WRITTEN BY: Ray Fawkes
ART BY: Ben Templesmith
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: January 28, 2015
The first issue of ‘Gotham By Midnight’ suffered from heaps of exposition that did their best to establish this new team of cops prying beneath the scummy floorboards of Gotham. With the introductions out of the way, Ray Fawkes sinks his teeth into the true horror behind the series to thrilling results.
After finding the strange nun who spoke in tongues in the first issue, Corrigan and company have plunged themselves into the heart of darkness. The first page sets the perfect tone for the issue showing that this team is the only thing the darkness fears. Every member of the team has a moment here, but this is really Jim Corrigan’s book.
He doesn’t quite get the moment here that I wanted but through the experiences of the supporting characters you understand why he was the perfect man to lead this force. The troubling evil he sensed has reared its ugly head, and now it’s time for people to get in line with his leadership. Fawkes reminds us that our hero is broken, and gives a phenomenal supporting team to buttress this odd demonic hero by giving Lisa Drake an incredible flashback that reinforces her character in a beautiful way.
Ben Templesmith’s work is moody and evocative. Certain pages are overpowering in their visceral use of contrast to cut the page, but it never proves distracting. Instead the think fog of his coloring creates a color palette that defines the dirty and dangerous work of ‘Gotham By Midnight.’ Plus when things get really out of control, Templesmith slides into his singnature use of dirty green and muddy orange to evoke a dichotomy of warmth and cold that really resonates through his panels.
A book like this couldn’t have existed a few years ago. Batman has grown into a full blown phenomenon and yet, he doesn’t grace a single page of this comic. His world stands tall and stranger without him. Fawkes is doing great work to build the occult underworld of the criminal underworld. Better yet he informs all the horror we’ve been seeing in the other bat books, as if its something more sinister at play.
‘Gotham By Midnight’ isn’t motivated by fear, instead it challenges you by giving a foreboding tone to a world we thought we knew and with every issue it builds a strong foundation for the best Bat book on the stands. I can only hope it lives longer than 6 issues, because for it to be wiped out by Convergence in April would be an absolute shame.
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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