IDW's You'll Never Leave This Place Alive Is One of the Year's Best Horror Comics (Exclusive)

IDW Dark has struck again, releasing the excellent You'll Never Leave This Place Alive, and ScreenRant has an exclusive first look.

IDW is set to release You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive, a new horror comic that oozes paranoia and dread, and ScreenRant is pleased to bring readers a first look. While IDW Publishing may be best known for its licensed titles, such as Star Trek or Godzilla, it actually began by publishing genre-changing horror comics like 30 Days of Night.

In an acknowledgment of its roots, IDW recently launched “IDW Dark,” a new horror-themed imprint. The line broke through on the strength of licensed titles, giving fans new stories from the world of Smile as well as the cult-classic Event Horizon. Meanwhile, the imprint has also offered compelling and original horror comics, such as the heavily-lauded Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees and The Exorcism at 1600 Penn. The publisher has promised more books, both licensed and original, will be coming from the imprint in the months ahead.

A consistent theme uniting the disparate IDW Dark titles is the willingness to push beyond what has come before. Prior to Beneath the Trees…, no one seriously believed a creator could mix so many genres at once, all while giving the proceedings a horrific vibe underneath the cuteness. This desire to break down boundaries has already made the company a major force in the comics market, and You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive is the next great entry in the IDW Dark canon.

You'll Never Leave This Place Alive Mixes Body Horror With A Coming of Age Story

Writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly Have Horror Comic Credentials

You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive will be written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and drawn by Heather Vaughan. IDW has provided ScreenRant with an overview of the series, shared here:

Five friends. Four houses. One perfect life.

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.

From Eisner-Nominated writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, and rising horror artist Heather Vaughan, this paranoia-laced, socially-conscious, horror mystery will leave you questioning reality, and reveal that this crafted world is more of a nightmare than the idealistic dream they were expecting.

In addition to a synopsis, IDW has graciously shared a bevy of variant covers and preview pages. The excerpts from You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive’s first issue are a wonderful showcase for Vaughan’s art, and gives fans a tantalizing glimpse at the horrors and wonders awaiting when the book drops in November.

Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly have spent the last decade building an impressive bibliography of titles, from a range of publishers. At IDW, the duo have been active with the company’s Star Trek titles, and have penned stories at Marvel and DC. They have also written horror comics, such as The Principles of Necromancy. When asked how You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive compared to his previous work in the genre, Lanzing had this to say:

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

His writing partner Collin Kelly elaborated further, stating:

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.

These ideas are on display in the preview pages IDW shared.

You'll Never Leave This Place Alive's First Issue Proves IDW Has Hit Gold

Interest in horror comics is at an all-time high. Books such as Something is Killing the Children and Revival have stoked the flames of this renaissance. As the world's situation continues to deteriorate, fans find answers and comfort in horror movies and books that reflect the anxieties of the moment. The recent success of smaller horror pictures like Obsession and Backrooms has proved there are still plenty of great stories to be told.

And IDW, who built their reputation with horror comics, are returning to the genre in a major way with its Dark imprint, and You’ll Never Leave this Place Alive is sure to be another hit. The first issue introduces you to the off-kilter world the children live in, an idyllic existence that comes crashing down in a brutal fashion. Lanzing, Kelly and Vaughan pull no punches with this first issue, and it makes for an intense read that respects its reader’s intelligence.

You'll Never Leave This Place Alive #1 is on sale October 14 from IDW Publishing!