Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 Review

 

Writer: Zac Thompson

Artist: Daniel Irizarri

Colorist: Brittany Peer

Letterer: Andworld Design

Cover Artists: Daniel Irizarri, Martin Simmonds & Gegê Schall

Publisher: Oni Press

Price: $4.99

Release Date: August 13, 2025

 

You can play video games in your sleep with the Dreamwave console. If you die, no problem. You awaken refreshed the next morning. But rumors slither through the internet about Cemetery Kids who never awaken from the Nightmare Cemetery game. What happened to the four kids who came back but were forever changed? How are they navigating life now? Let’s put on our Dreamwave consoles, leap into Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1, and see!

 

Story

When Pik returned from the hospital, he seemed different. His sister, who went into the game to rescue him, also seems unsettled. One of their friends will never see right with one of her eyes again. A bandage circles Wilson's head. Of the four, Wilson pays attention to the online gaming forums. When a photo of Pik's mutilated body surfaces, participants assume it's to sell the next expansion. But Wilson fears it may be more.

 

Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 checks in on Pik, Birdie, and Wilson in Toronto, Canada. Wilson is receiving treatments for his affliction. Yet the allure of immersive gaming persists. They find a new friend in Maddy, who brings her new Dreamwave console to Pik and Birdie’s home. Despite getting caught in Nightmare Cemetery, Pik agrees to play The Blighted Sprawl with Maddy. Birdie can play with them, or like Wilson, monitor their game without actively participating.

 

Zac Thompson’s story taps into the infectious quality of computer and online games. Like gambling, the games quickly become addictive. There’s also a sense of Dungeons & Dragons, with gamers fighting beasts and nightmarish creatures in Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1. Yet what seems strangest of all is that Pik and Birdie's father, who nearly lost his children to the game and saw their friends forever changed, allows them to risk repeating history.

 

Art

Daniel Irizarri opens with a splash page of Pik hanging from a noose. His body is severed lengthwise. While his guts hang out, one half of his body is human. The other half resembles a creature from a game. A glimpse into the past shows Pik looking doped, with hair obscuring half his face. Birdie sits in her chair with her back to her friends, gazing at her brother through her large glasses. While their bandaged friends leave the house, Pik and Birdie’s dad keeps his back to them, a haunted look in his eyes.

 

Brittany Peer fills Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 with a loaded palette. Birdie, Pik, and their father have purple hair, while green hair dances atop the orangish scarred scalp of Wilson's brown face. Their new green-haired friend, Maddy, attacks a punk in the cafeteria with orange-red spiked hair who wears a Union Jack vest. While each kid's Dreamwave console is a different color, Wilson stares at the green one in his hands that matches his remaining strands of braided green hair.

 

Andworld Design fills white dialogue balloons with a delicate font, and colored narrative boxes with black, lowercase words. The uppercase dialogue grows bold for intonation and swells for raised voices. Sound effects enhance confrontations in Toronto, Canada, and an abandoned mall. Thanks to Oni Press for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

While Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 probes addiction, parental responsibility, and what we are willing to risk for a good time, a cliffhanger ending leaves readers wanting to know more.

 

Rating 8.8/10

 

For more covers see my cover preview for Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1. 

Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 Cover Preview

 

COVER A BY DANIEL IRIZARRI

 

You can play video games in your sleep with the Dreamwave console. If you die, no problem. You awaken refreshed the next morning. But rumors slither through the internet about Cemetery Kids who never awaken from the Nightmare Cemetery game. What happened to the four kids who came back but were forever changed? How are they navigating life now?

Here's all the info from Oni Press:

 

CEMETERY KIDS RUN RABID #1 (of 4)

WRITTEN BY ZAC THOMPSON ART BY DANIEL IRIZARRI ON SALE AUGUST 13th, 2025 | $4.99 | 32 PGS. | FC YOU CAN'T ESCAPE THIS GAME, EVEN IN YOUR DREAMS. Acclaimed creators Zac Thompson (Into the Unbeing—Parts 1 & 2) and Daniel Irrizari (Judge Dredd, XINO) enter an synapse-shredding new level of the groundbreaking science-horror hybrid that began with CEMETERY KIDS DON'T DIE! One year ago, four friends barely escaped the unrelenting terror of the video game called Nightmare Cemetery. After spending endless hours locked into the innovative Dreamwave—the first gaming console played entirely while you sleep—in order to save one of their own from the game’s all-too-real consequences, they survived . . . barely. But after their harrowing rescue, they’ve decided they’ve had enough of Nightmare Cemetery and its enigmatic final boss, the King of Sleep. That is, until the newest DLC, The Blighted Sprawl, suddenly appears online with a promise to reveal the truth of what actually lurks at the heart of Nightmare Cemetery’s digital darkness . . . and why its effects are now bleeding out into the real world in an array of bizarre and disturbing new ways. The sold-out series that AiPT! called “compelling sci-fi horror . . . that feels closer to home than it should” returns with a perfect new jumping-on point for the series that challenges Stephen King, Clive Barker, and David Cronenberg to a three-way PVP deathmatch in a cyberpunk haunted house!

Now, here are some more covers:

COVER B BY MARTIN SIMMONDS

 

COVER C BY GEGÊ SCHALL

 

FULL ART VARIANT (1:10) BY MARTIN SIMMONDS

 Thanks to Oni Press for sharing this cover preview with us.

Death Sentence: The Complete Collection Review

 

Writer: Monty Nero

Artists: Mike Dowling, Martin Simmonds & Monty Nero

Letterer: Jimmy Betancourt

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $49.99

Release Date: July 1, 2025

 

Sex can be many things. At its best, it celebrates love. But people also barter sex in the hopes of securing love. For many, it is a form of pleasure or diversion. At its worst, people use sex to dominate others. Even in the healthiest relationships, sex can spark infections or transmit disease.

 

Still, diseases can clarify what we want in life. They can bring us closer to the people we care about. Some can even attack the pleasure centers in our brains, making us happier while killing us. What happens when a sexually transmitted disease (STD) gives us superpowers? How might it change the world? Let’s leap into Death Sentence: The Complete Collection and find out!

 

Story

Verity Fette seeks love in an endless cycle of relationships. But she's always too self-absorbed to make them work. When her counselor asks what she wants to do with the rest of her life, Verity doesn’t have a plan. She knows the G+ virus will kill her. It’s time to figure out what she wants in the months she has left.

 

When the Whatevers broke up, Daniel Waissel continued as a solo artist. But the cult phenom struggles without his former bandmates in Death Sentence: The Complete Collection. His record label hopes the G+ virus can enhance his musical abilities and repay their investment in him.

 

David Montgomery enjoys a life of wealth and fame. The crowds adore him. “Monty” has successfully transitioned from a standup comedian to a movie star. He enjoys money and fame while using the G+ virus to manipulate others.

 

In Death Sentence: The Complete Collection, the Department of National Security tracks people with exceptionally high G+ ratings. When Weasel's powers manifest, the authorities realize they should have brought him in earlier. He explores life in a secret facility where they house patients with exceptionally high G+ ratings. The government hopes to learn how G+ enhances people like Weasel and Verity. But they miss Monty. And his inflated ego, boosted by years of despising his audience, fills him with the need to control others.

 

In Monty Nero's story, the G+ virus enhances a person's life in unexpected ways. For most, it boosts their existing abilities. But the virus endows a few with superpowers. The government wonders about the superhumans' appetite for destruction. With G+ slowly infecting the world, lying dormant for months or years to avoid detection, another Black Death seems unavoidable.

 

Art

Mike Dowling employs a traditional comic style to reveal Verity’s inner turmoil and Weasel’s struggle for a breakthrough. While the Rock and Roll lifestyle involves groupies, Monty fills his evenings with orgies. Amid the explicit sex and violence, Verity receives a plush apartment on a beautiful island. Weasel's ability to phase through solid objects leads to manslaughter. And Monty becomes the Scanner that David Cronenberg warned us about.

 

Martin Simmonds gives a lush, painted look to the second series of stories in Death Sentence: The Complete Collection. After helping save the world, Verity Fette roams the streets as Artgirl. She foils crimes with holograms of surprising beauty. The crowds follow Weasel, who enjoys the street festivals. But when he seeks solace, he glows as he uses his Kitty Pryde-like abilities to burrow through the dark crust of our planet. As superheroes like Artgirl encourage anarchy in the UK, Mayor Tony Bronson rages in London's City Hall. Bronson's unrestrained hair frames his wild features as he insists that he calls the shots. And in the UK government's fractured state, Bronson can declare martial law.

 

Monty Nero takes over art duties in the final chapters of Death Sentence: The Complete Collection. Monty Nero’s traditional penciling and coloring portray the characters amid realistic settings. Nudity, always obscured under Simmonds' watch, occasionally returns. But by now, the focus of Death Sentence: The Complete Collection has shifted from how the virus is transmitted and the ways people couple sex with domination. Costumed superheroes appear as a woman with a green thumb becomes a hellraiser. And on a remote island, an undercover agent investigates what Britain's Department of National Security is doing with all the G+ data they have collected.

 

Jimmy Betancourt fills dialogue balloons and narrative boxes with uppercase and lowercase letters. Font size varies, while volume swells letters, and emotions deform balloons. Sound effects amplify this story about the delicate balance of society, while white letters in black boxes conclude each issue with a quote inviting contemplation. Essays on the characters and situations reveal observers' reactions to how superpowered people are changing the world order. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

Terrorism isn't always about politics or money. People manipulate loved ones out of fear. Superpowers only enhance people’s ability to hurt and terrorize others. In Death Sentence: The Complete Collection, Britain becomes ground zero for a devastating attack from an unlikely terrorist. The rising pandemic empowers the poor and disadvantaged. Heroes arise while politicians scramble for control as governments realize that another arms race has begun.

 

Rating 9/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Death Sentence: The Complete Collection. 

Death Sentence: The Complete Collection Preview

 

This is a big book that reads like an epic! It's all about sex, drugs, Rock 'N Roll, and superpowers. The art is shocking with lots of nudity and over-the-top violence. But it has an intriguing idea that will keep you reading. Here's all the info from Titan Comics:

 

DEATH SENTENCE: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

Author: Monty Nero

Artist: Martin Simmonds & Mike Dowling

Publisher: Titan Comics

HC, 464 pages, FC, $49.99

ISBN: 9781787741461

On sale July 1, 2025

 

Collected together for the first time, all three volumes of the irreverent, no-holds-barred graphic novel about an STI that grants superpowers at a cost of only 6 months to live…

 

Death Sentence is an adult story featuring swearing, drug-taking, sex, violence and it's blackly funny too. Snort your coffee across the room funny!

 

SEX, SUPERPOWERS AND SIX MONTHS TO LIVE!

 

Verity: frustrated artist. Weasel: struggling guitarist. Monty: rogue media icon. Three people infected with the G+ virus, which grants them incredible powers – but will kill them in six months! Will they fade away – or go out in a blaze of glory? From the streets of London to the North Atlantic, from muses lost to futures thrown away – Death Sentence is the jaw-dropping next step in superpowered storytelling! Funny, fearless and frightening, this collection of the hit series is an unforgettable comics debut.

 

More than any other series Death Sentence predicted the world we now live in, one of the reasons it was named Dreamcage Comic of the Decade (beating Umbrella Academy into second place). Work is underway to turn the comic into a major TV series, but nothing beats the magic of reading the original comics first.

 

This incredible collection sees all three graphic novels brought together for the first time in marvellous mayhem! Features art by Martin Simmonds — artist on Department of Truth by James Tynion.

 

 

Now, let's take a look inside:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Death Sentence: The Complete Collection is on sale July 1, 2025 at bookstores, comic shops and digital. Pre-order now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million and Forbidden Planet for UK. 

 

Here's the Direct Market cover:

 

 

 

  

ABOUT CREATORS

Monty Nero is a writer and artist specialising in graphic novels, after a career

making computer games such as Need for Speed and SSX. His credits include writing The Hulk and X-Men for Marvel, as well as stories for 2000AD, DC’s Vertigo imprint, and Delcourt in France. He’s currently writing and drawing Book 2 of his original hand-drawn cyberpunk series Chrome Roses, after the first book raised $35,000 on Kickstarter. Monty lives in Scotland and his agent for written work is James Wills at Watson Little Ltd. You can find him at www.montynero.com or on social media @MontyNero

 

Mike Dowling is a comics artist in pencils, ink and colour – drawing for creator-owned, independent and mainstream comics, both sides of the pond. After Death Sentence, he co-created Unfollow with Rob Williams for Vertigo, and worked on Safe Sex with Tina Horn for Image. At Marvel, Mike has done stints on Alien, Amazing Spider-Man and Black Cat amongst other titles – and Judge Anderson and Judge Dredd at 2000AD.

 

Martin Simmonds is a comic artist, and co-creator of the Eisner nominated The Department of Truth (with James Tynion IV) for Image Comics, Dying is Easy (with Joe Hill) for IDW, Punks Not Dead (with David Barnett) for Black Crown/IDW, and Friendo (with Alex Paknadel) for Vault Comics. Martin is also a cover artist, with his work regularly appearing on titles from Marvel, DC, Image, Boom!, Vault, and IDW.

 

ABOUT TITAN COMICS

 

Titan Comics, a Titan Publishing Group company (which includes Titan Books, Titan Magazines, and Titan Merchandise), is the comic book arm of the Titan Entertainment Group, and its sister company is the pop culture retail chain, Forbidden Planet. Titan Comics offers comics and graphic novels from the world's most renowned properties, alongside creator-owned comic books from new and established talent, as well as classic graphic novels remastered for a brand-new audience.

 

Titan Comics publishes a variety of genres through its imprints: Hard Case Crime (world-renowned pulp-crime publishing), Statix Press (critically acclaimed translated comics and graphic novels), the new Titan Manga (exciting manga and anime-based titles), and Titan Nova (new young readers imprint).

 

For more information, visit https://www.titan-comics.com.

 

For further information, follow Titan Comics on Facebook, X, Instagram, and BlueSky.

 

 

Thanks to Titan Comics for sharing this preview with us. 

 

W0rldtr33 #3 Review

 

Writer: James Tynion IV

Artist: Fernando Blanco

Colorist: Jordie Bellaire

Letterer: Aditya Bidikar

Cover Artists: Fernando Blanco; Marcos Martin; Aaron Campbell; Ariel Diaz; & Martin Simmonds

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: June 28, 2023

 

Ellison climbs into his lawyer’s car. Silk and Nicky don’t want to release him, but the FBI agents can't arrest him for his brother's murders. As Ellison realizes no one else is in the car, it drives away from the police station, and a man’s voice pours through the speakers. What happens next? Let's climb into W0rldtr33 #3 and learn more!

 

 

Story

The voice pouring through the speakers calls himself Gabriel. He explains he's back at the police station, stealing his late brother's laptop and cell phone from the evidence room. The car stops behind the police station, and the wealthy technologist climbs inside. As the FBI agents guess they've made a fatal error, an explosion rocks the car. Ellison looks out the window. The police station is in flames. What has he gotten into?

 

Fausta—Ellison’s podcast producer, and perhaps more—had searched his late brother Gibson's house while the FBI agents detained him. She found an internet address and password on his desktop computer. Although he killed sixty people, she can't resist seeing what the Undernet revealed. Now she's mesmerized. 

 

 

Darren and Amanda—two members of Gabriel’s team that discovered the Undernet—intended to torch Gibson's house. Now they attempt to rescue Fausta, unaware that PH34R—the naked, tattooed woman--has ignited their fire.

 

What kind of person is Gabriel? Who gives Silk and Nicky their marching orders? Can Darren and Amanda rescue Fausta and escape? While some things get murkier in W0rldtr33 #3, others grow clearer. Ellison has entered a nightmare he may never leave.

 

 

Art

Fernando Blanco spoils us with 196 panels across 24 pages, ensuring we never miss a moment. He draws buildings, vehicles, and characters with precision and attention to perspective. It's easy to care about Ellison. It's harder to read Gabriel and his cohorts. One minute they appear heartless, and the next approachable. If Silk and Nicky look cold and uncaring, their boss is a block of ice. Yet no one compares to PH34R. The naked, tattooed blonde strides through the suburbs in W0rldtr33 #3, serene, stately, and unabashed. If she smiles at you, run away as fast as you can!

 

Whether in Gabriel's car, the police records room, inside Gibson's former home, or anywhere else our characters travel, you feel like you're there too. Many creators would waste an entire page—or devote a double-page spread--to the explosion Gabriel unleashes. Blanco gives it nearly half a page, along with seven small panels. If any other creators out there average eight panels per page of art so detailed and representative, I want to read their comic!

 

 

 

Ellison looks gray against the car's gray interior. Gabriel searches the gray police evidence room wearing a gray pinstriped suit. When he opens the back door and slides in beside Ellison, orange twilight is fading to gray. The cars on the highway reflect the fading orange light as they speed across gray asphalt. Guess what color Gabriel's hair is? I'll give you a clue. It's not orange.

 

While Jordie Bellaire seems fixated upon gray, orange, green, and blue in W0rldtr33 #3, she delivers nuanced and contrasting colors that deepen the mood, intensifies the drama, and heighten the reality. Yet all pales before the howling kaleidoscopic void that opens when the Undernet invades our world.

 

 

 

Aditya Bidikar helps us hear dialogue with (mostly) uppercase black letters in white balloons. The font makes for easy reading, but I wouldn't mind it slightly larger. The Underworld's ZIZZ grows unintelligible as it assaults Fausta. A WUFF overwrites Gabriel's face as he turns off all lights in the police station. The white letters baDEEP, outlined in green, hover over the bomb. The yellow, orange, and red KRAKOOM reveal the intensity of the explosion.

 

Final Thoughts

W0rldtr33 #3 overturns our preconceptions and ponders how readily we may advance objectives detrimental to our well-being.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Indigo Children #2 Review

 

Writers: Curt Pires & Rockwell White

Artist: Alex Diotto

Colorist: Dee Cunniffe

Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Cover Artists: Alex Diotto & Dee Cunniffe; Martin Simmonds

Publisher: Image

Price: $3.99

Release Date: April 26, 2023

 

In the beginning, he saw Mars. People lived and worked in domes and rounded buildings. Aircraft flew through red skies over tranquil blue lakes. Every night Fred watches people walk along elevated walkways that slope up and down, curving like ribbons throughout their city. Then a mushroom cloud forms and fiery destruction envelopes him. What happens when Fred awakens? Let’s tune into Indigo Children #2 and find out!

 

Story

After clients accept Fred’s proposal, the architect celebrates that evening. Over the voices of other patrons, the conversations on the dance floor, and the singer's lyrics pouring through the bar's speakers, a coworker or friend compares his visionary designs to savant Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 film Rain Man.

 

The next day Fred speaks with his psychiatrist about his anxiety and paranoia. The medication she prescribes makes it harder for him to think clearly, but she encourages him to take it regardless. After suffering from troubling visions throughout the day—perhaps from his past—he decides to flush his pills down the toilet. Like journalist Donovan Price in issue #1, this decision will propel his life in a radically different direction.

 

As I followed Fred's life in present-day Chicago, Indigo Children #2 felt more like a linked story in an anthology than the next chapter in a series. I  vaguely recognized Alexei when he appeared. Aside from Fred, writers Curt Pires and Rockwell White give no character names in this twenty-seven-page installment. Another glimpse of the last issue's opening scene—with four kids levitating beside Egypt's mighty Sphinx—pairs with Alexei, Fred, and two other people who arrive with Alexei. I had to reread the first issue to realize that the latter two were Donovan Price and Nikki, the Russian man who helped Donovan locate Alexei in The Town That Is Not A Town. 

 

 

 

 

Art

 

Fred's recurring dream reminded me of my visit to Epcot in Florida. I don't know how the theme park has changed since my visit a dozen years ago or how it compares with Walt Disney's original vision of a livable futuristic city. Artist Alex Diotto and colorist Dee Cunniffe give the Martian city a futuristic, organic appeal that contrasts with Fred's spartan apartment and Chicago's highrises.

 

As Fred's abilities emerge, white dots or stars sparkle near his head. The first time we see this is in the bar when it's hard to distinguish them from the colorful interior lighting. That's also where Fred spots the man he believes is following him in Indigo Children #2. The man wears a hoodie and drinks something resembling an Icee with an olive attached via a toothpick.

 

Fred's abilities manifest as blueprints, with white lines on blue fields. He also glimpses memories from his childhood. Unlike his multicolored present, these are also colored blue. By the time the men with guns--and the soldiers in combat attire--appear, it's safe to say the color that dominates Dee Cunniffe’s palette is blue. I don't know if it's his coloring or Alex Diotto’s artwork, but I found it hard not to associate the latter half of this issue with The Old Guard series by Rucka and Fernandez.

 

Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou makes Indigo Children #2 easy to read. Black uppercase letters in white dialogue balloons shift to white letters on blue in Fred's blueprint visions. Hassan uses bold and increases font size to show intonation. He underlines commands or borders the dialogue balloons with red to show shouts. He shows Alexei's dialogue as white letters on purple clouds. (Or should I say indigo?) Sound effects—seen at night and with minimal interior lighting—appear drawn with a white pen. Big-ass white letters in the upper lefthand corner of panels differentiate current events from flashbacks.

 

Final Thoughts

Indigo Children #2 introduces readers to another person with extraordinary abilities who remembers his previous life on Mars. Pursed by government conspiracies and paramilitary organizations, can all four Indigo Children help Earth escape the fate of its nearest planetary neighbor? I, for one, hope to avoid brainwashing or accidental death until this series concludes.

 

Rating 8.6/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.