Comics
[Comic Review] “Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Return” #1 Is Mostly Triumphant…
A more accurate title for “Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Return” would be ‘Bill & Ted’s Mostly Triumphant Rehash.’ Filled with recycled ideas of pre-established Bill & Ted conventions, it’s more of the same. That’s not entirely bad, in fact I’d stand by the ‘Triumphant’ part, but more originality could’ve gone a long way.
WRITTEN BY: Bryan Lynch & Ryan North
ART BY: Jerry Gaylord & Ian McGinty
PUBLISHER: BOOM! Studios
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: March 11, 2015
The beauty of the original films was how totally different Bill & Ted’s experiences were both times. In the first film they have an excellent adventure through time, which is a total blast and sees them completely subvert people’s perceptions of time travel. Twisting it in their own special way. Next they go on a bogus journey through the afterlife, which is super rad and sees them distorting people’s perceptions of heaven, hell & the Reaper himself. They conquer the spiritual plane and in an impeccable pay off use their powers of time travel, learned in the previous film, to defeat the villain. Perfectly tying both films together, while each still has its own specific voice. That is what this comic is missing, it relies too heavily upon what came before instead of forging its own path. Scared or maybe unsure of how to continue on its own too legs, it takes one leg from each of the films and hobbles along on those.
Hardcore Bill & Ted fans will eat this comic up, there’s fun to be had here, especially with all of the self-referential humor. Filled to the brim with numerous little easter eggs that all those true Wyld Stallions can scour each and every page for. For their part Bill & Ted are perfectly on point, they sound and act just like you remember. Lynch & Gaylord have captured their mannerisms expertly and flawlessly transferred them to the page.
For what it’s worth the backup story by Ryan North and Ian Mcginty, ‘Bill & Ted And The Bogus Virus’, is superb. It takes way more chances and from an originality standpoint it’s much stronger than the main story. Focusing on Bill & Ted’s Robot Usses receiving an ‘e-mail’ from the future that mixes up their circuits, making them more apathetic and standoffish towards their masters. It uses time travel in a much more interesting way, having Bill & Ted circa 1991 visit their far off future and our present, 2015.
Bill & Ted are still Bill & Ted, if you love ‘em, you’ll love ‘em here. It’s the framework they are trapped in that truly holds them back. This is only the first issue in a 6 part series so things could totally turn around in the plot department. If you’re not already a fan there’s nothing here for you, but if you are I urge you to give this a read.
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Torin Chambers is a rad dude from the nineties who does film stuff or something. Thomas the Tank Engine is his favorite transformer. Find him on Twitter @TorinsChambers
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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