Comics
[Comic Review] “Pisces” #1 Proves Ambitious and Ambiguous
Reviewed By Taylor Hoffman // @taylorcheckerss
“Pisces” #1 is an ambitious and ambiguous start to a body-horror science-fiction series brought to us by the new powerhouse team Kurtis J. Wiebe (Rat Queens) and Johnnie Christmas (Sheltered). Lovers of Wiebe’s ‘Green Wake’ must add this to their pull immediately so this series doesn’t suffer the same fate, and there’s no doubt that it will draw in fans across several off-kilter genres. This is a cerebral story centered around a man’s life who has been to war, to space, and back again. Wiebe and Christmas have promised David Cronenberg inspired body horror and this first issue only shows us a preview of what horrors await.
Story By: Kurtis J. Wiebe
Art By: Johnnie Christmas
Colors By: Tamra Bonvillain
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.50
Release Date: 4/29/15
The book opens with Dillion Carpenter driving drunk while generic whiskey drips from the bottle in the passenger seat. His face is already bloody and haphazardly bandaged, hands tight on the wheel as he approaches an emergency room. He stops a second too late and, thud-crash, hits a parked ambulance. It’s late and raining hard, and the man in shadows emerges from behind the shattered windows of the driver’s seat and stumbles into the main lobby of the ER with blood dripping off him. Why? Well, there’s no spoilers in saying that we still don’t know, but it’s one hell of a way to introduce the main character. Soon, we’re in Vietnam during Dillion’s younger years serving as a pilot. Things, as they must, go poorly, and we’re set to a different time. Each new time period establishes this story as very grounded in reality, but as the solicits say, he’ll eventually be going into space on a secret mission for NASA. Well, this is the story of how and why this guy is important.
Truly, there’s none of the Scanners vibe present, but there’s an equally chilling horror of reoccurring trauma bubbling. Obviously, Dillion’s got some issues to work out and the abyss of space keeps whispering to him. Wiebe’s tackling some heavy topics in this story, including war veteran PTSD as a way of both story-telling and character development. We’re putting pieces together as we go along even while completely displaced from any distinct timeline. Wiebe puts a lot of heart into his writing, and it’s no doubt that Dillion’s story will be told truthfully, guts and all.
Johnnie Christmas’ art on Sheltered is fantastic, and his talent really shines on this new project. The paneling is very deliberately laid out for a story that is made up of jarring memories. Christmas uses his space wisely by creating juxtaposition between the vastnesses of space and other unfamiliar territory in which, probably, Dillion doesn’t belong. Christmas’ silent story-telling in a few pages is very Watchmen-esque in its nine-panel structure. The gutters run through equally important memories that are in no particular order and any sequence works. The facial expression work for these characters is superb and depicts a range of emotions from pity to disgust naturally. Tamra Bonvillain’s (Wayward) coloring brings everything together with a constant awareness of the tone of the story at every point and the color palette to match. All together, the story’s timeline is more defined, but not too rigidly that it takes the wandering away.
It’s both exciting and awfully dreadful to feel lost, and its in this dark disconnect that Pisces thrives. The lack of understanding isn’t unsatisfying; it just leaves you hungry for more details in the second issue. There’s an abyss waiting Dillion and plenty of darkness in store for the rest of the series.
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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