Comics
[Comic Review] “The Surface” #1 Is A Smart Satire That Mocks Itself
Reviewed By Katy Rex. “The Surface” #1 is an ode to the Beat generation as much as it is a criticism of that merry group of pranksters. Set in a dystopic future, it both adopts and satirizes facets of that generation’s espoused values. In a material world, it both rejects materialism and mocks that rejection.
WRITTEN BY: Ales Kot
ART BY: Langdon Foss, Jordie Bellaire
LETTERS BY: Clayton Cowles
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: March 11, 2015
The story, told in Ales Kot’s distinctive direct and yet psychedelic style, follows Mark, the president’s son, his boyfriend Gomez, and their girlfriend Nasia, as told by a bizarre and unreliable narrator who gives clues as to his or her identity with lines like “Sorry, I needed to scratch my butt*,” annotating to the helpful note “*Believe it or not, this is a clue.” Like any good speculative future, it has taken perceived strengths and flaws in the world today and amplified them, so sharing your life online is now default, privacy is opt-in, and people who don’t participate in the common culture are viewed with suspicion– after all, why wouldn’t you share your lifelog if you didn’t have something to hide? It embraces alternative sexualities, like that of Mark and his 3-way romantic partnership, and while it implies that Mark’s father doesn’t approve, it’s not clear if that has anything to do with the genders or quantity of Mark’s choices, or some other issue. The Surface, the concept after which this book was named, is as elusive and undefined as the narrator who describes it, but it’s also the goal that Mark, Gomez, and Nasia are working toward.
The book directly references several other works, including the author William S. Burroughs and the Transmetropolitan character Spider Jerusalem, in ways that are passing and not pointed but still manage to make their point; this book is about the generations that rebel, the generations that dream of revolution and the generations that are foolish enough to believe they will succeed without any particular plan in mind, and the generations that we look back at with nostalgia as though they in their cleverness and privilege really changed the world. It critiques the effectiveness of works that espouse ideals that are so quickly misinterpreted and castrated and boycotted, while at the same time being a work that espouses ideals open to misinterpretation, castration, and boycotts.
Kot and Foss are doing some unique work in the world of comics with this book. Many comics rely on cinematic strategies, using their panel layouts as enhanced storyboards, but The Surface contains propaganda and essays that are both on point with a modern world (“swipe right to keep reading,” one page says) and vaguely reminiscent of Brian Wood’s Channel Zero in the ways it incorporates words as images, prose as art. The cityscapes are exactly familiar enough to point out to the reader the way the flaws of this world echo the flaws of our own, the technology just a step more evolved than ours in a way that examines the ways technology can be both useful and harmful. The colors, especially when they focus on Mark & co, are lighthearted and a little artificial, but primarily reflective of their location, be it the busy palette of a city or the shades of beautiful monotone in a desert. Clayton Cowles’ letters are planned and effective. Tom Muller’s work seamlessly transitions from the different modes of storytelling, the advertisements and the propaganda and the q&a sessions with the author. The creative team is working together, collaboratively, to create a fresh product that wouldn’t work with anything less than each of their best efforts. This is an extremely solid first issue, and with so much more to learn about this world, it’s hard to have to wait another month for the next one.
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Katy Rex writes comics analysis at endoftheuniversecomics.com, comicsbulletin.com, and bloody-disgusting.com. 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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