Tag Archives: jude ellison s. doyle

Clayface: Celebrity Dirt follows Basil Karlo’s twisted journey through fame, transformation, and self‑destruction

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DC has announced Clayface: Celebrity Dirt, a new Batman universe noir horror comic book miniseries starring Basil Karlo in a twisted tale of fame, transformation, and self-destruction. The six-issue series follows the classic Batman villain as he escapes Arkham Towers, ready to stage his comeback, only to discover that someone else has stolen his name, his face, and his long-lost stardom. 

Acclaimed horror writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle teams with artist Fran Galán, colorist Patricio Delpeche, and letterer Tom Napolitano, on Clayface: Celebrity Dirt for a story that balances body horror, the studio spotlight, and Gotham City noir. Galán’s expressive and unsettling artwork brings Clayface’s shape-shifting terror to life, while Doyle explores the fractured psychology of a villain who can become anyone but still struggles to face himself. Clayface: Celebrity Dirt blends psychological suspense, body horror, and dark satire into a story only Basil Karlo could star in…a cinematic nightmare where neon fame curdles even the most carefully sculpted façade.

This new DC comic book series explores the duality at the heart of Clayface—the billboard-sized glamour Basil Karlo still craves and the grotesquerie he can never escape. Galán brings that contrast to life with bold visuals that swing between Hollywood sheen and theatrical horror, grounding the story in noir shadows while pushing Clayface’s powers into visceral, unsettling territory.

Clayface: Celebrity Dirt digs into the legacy of the Clayfaces and the long shadow Basil Karlo has cast over the DC universe. As Basil confronts a doppelgänger who has achieved everything he ever wanted, the series examines fame, self-reinvention, and the price of trying to control the way the world sees you. Doyle and Galán pull the story between spotlight-bright glamour and sewer-slick horror, revealing the toll of transformation and the danger of chasing the version of yourself you wish you were.

When Basil Karlo breaks out of Arkham, he’s ready to reclaim the Hollywood crown he lost years ago. But the world he returns to is stranger than ever: a creeping new plague is twisting ordinary citizens into clay-warped reflections of his own nightmares, and a charismatic body double has taken over Basil’s life, becoming a bigger movie star than the real Basil ever was. As a disturbing pattern begins to emerge around this new celebrity, Basil must confront the darkest parts of his past and trace both mysteries to their source. His search leads him deep into the history of the Clayface family and face-to-face with one of its most dangerously unstable members.

Anchored in noir atmosphere, Clayface: Celebrity Dirt draws inspiration from psychological horror, body-horror cinema, and the unsettling glamour of dark thrillers. The series pays tribute to classic Clayface stories while pushing the character into bold new territory, exploring what a true reckoning looks like in a world where fame and monstrosity blur together.

Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #1 features a main cover by Fran Galán, with variant covers by Mike Del Mundo and Dave Johnson. Patricio Delpeche colors the series with Tom Napolitano lettering. The 32-page debut issue arrives July 8, 2026, priced at $3.99 US for the main cover, with card stock variants available for $4.99 US. For readers who crave horror with theatrical flair, this is Clayface as he’s never been seen before, a tale where glamour fractures, monstrosity spreads, and every spotlight casts a darker shadow.

Dead Teenagers #2 builds upon the mystery but dials back the humor

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Dead Teenagers #2

For five friends, being trapped in an infinite loop of murder on Prom Night ’97 was living hell. They’re about to find out that being an adult in 2026 is much, much worse. High school seniors J.T., Ryder, and Brandy have been catapulted through time into their adult bodies. Physically, they’re now elder millennials with jobs and families. Psychologically, they’re damaged teenagers with disposable income who are about to discover the consequences of making poor life choices. Even worse, not everyone thinks their new circumstances are an improvement over being ritualistically murdered every 24 hours. Does their never-ending prom night massacre hold the key to finding out how and why they were chosen to live out this supernatural torment? Dead Teenagers #2 is an interesting second issue that builds upon the mystery of what’s going on but doesn’t have the same humor that made the first one entertaining.

Dead Teenagers #2 is an interesting second issue of a series. The concept is simple, a group of teenagers die over and over by some mysterious force. We don’t know why or if it can be stopped. While that could be interesting on its own, the first issue of the series took us through numerous scenarios of exactly how that was happening. Each scenario was more ridiculous than the last and it all came together for a debut that had a sense of humor about itself instead of just delivering straight gory horror. The second issue focuses on one potential path as our group takes stock of what’s going on and attempt to live their lives under this strange circumstance. Beyond an opening scene though, the humor is lacking and overall that shifts the tone of the series.

If you’d ask me to describe the first issue, I’d have said comedic horror. In Dead Teenagers #2, writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle delivers something a bit different narrowing down the focus of the series and overall dialing back the laughs. There’s still some of them, but the comic really focuses on the group living their lives and struggling to remember exactly what’s going on. It’s more of a spotlight on the mystery of it all. While not bad, it’s still a shift with a more serious feel of it all.

The art by Caitlin Yarsky straddles things along with the lettering by Becca Carey. There’s a mix of sadness of what’s going on but there’s still an enthusiasm by some of the characters that matches a bit of the debut issue. What’s interesting too is how mundane things rather are. They’re living their lives and those lives are just rather bland overall. There isn’t a sense of dread or fear, it just is visually. But, still, it feels like a quiet before the storm when it comes to the art and the final few pages delivers that.

While the debut issue delivered laughs, Dead Teenagers #2 goes for a more somber vibe. It’s an interesting shift and we’ll see if the series as a whole goes more towards the horror path as it progresses. It’s an intriguing series overall with a nice mystery to it.

Story: Jude Ellison S. Doyle Art: Caitlin Yarsky Letterer: Becca Carey
Story: 7.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Read

Oni Press provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle

Dead Teenagers #1 is an interesting horror concept that’s a solid intro to the world and characters

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THERE’S NO ESCAPING HIGH SCHOOL! Since 1997, five friends have been trapped in the ultimate nightmare as a mysterious entity forces them to relive their first prom night over and over again . . . and re-kills them in new and increasingly insane ways each time. They dress up. They party. They make out. And no matter what they try to change, they always die . . . until now. Something is about to break the cycle that has kept Alicia, J.T., Ryder, Brandy, and their group of friends locked in a bizarre purgatory beyond all understanding . . . but what they find on the other side will be the most disturbing revelation of all. Hell is the ’90s in this brash and brutal, genre-distorting ode to the generation that gave us Scream and Buffy the Vampire Slayer—and what’s become of them since.

Story: Jude Ellison S. Doyle
Art: Caitlin Yarsky
Letterer: Becca Carey

Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

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Preview: Dead Teenagers #1

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Dead Teenagers #1

(W)  Jude Ellison S. Doyle (A) Caitlin Yarsky 

Since 1997, five friends have been trapped in the ultimate nightmare as a mysterious entity forces them to relive their first prom night over and over again… and re-kills them in new and increasingly insane ways each time. They dress up. They party. They make out. And no matter what they try to change, they always die… until now. Something is about to break the cycle that has kept J.T., Ryder, Brandy, and their group of friends locked in a bizarre purgatory beyond all understanding… but what they find on the other side will be the most disturbing revelation of all.

Dead Teenagers #1

Dead Teenagers #1 – Die (Again and Again) in Oni’s Time Loop of Terror from Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Caitlin Yarsky. Check Out an Extended Preview.

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BEING A TEENAGER FOREVER IS ONE HELL OF A DEATH SENTENCE! Oni Press has released a look inside the terrifying, decade-warping pages of Dead Teenagers #1, the ’90s-era time loop of terror that finds five friends living (and dying) endlessly inside their high school prom night. Get an extended look inside the first issue of the sardonically sharp and gloriously gory new series from GLAAD Award-nominated writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Eisner Award-nominated artist Caitlin Yarsky before the first issue arrives in comic shops everywhere on March 18th, 2026!

Since 1997, five friends have been trapped in the ultimate nightmare as a mysterious entity forces them to relive their first prom night over and over again… and re-kills them in new and increasingly insane ways each time. They dress up. They party. They make out. And no matter what they try to change, they always die… until now. Something is about to break the cycle that has kept J.T., Ryder, Brandy, and their group of friends locked in a bizarre purgatory beyond all understanding… but what they find on the other side will be the most disturbing revelation of all.

With a unique variant cover on each issue by interior series artist Caitlin Yarsky paying homage to an iconic film from the decade – alongside main covers by Naomi Franq and variants by Keyla Valerio and Brandt&Stein — break the cycle with the deadly clever Dead Teenagers #1 this March 2026, only from Oni Press.

Dead Teenagers #1

Break Your Jaw On These Deliciously Droll ‘90s Covers From Dead Teenagers #2

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WHAT’S WORSE — GETTING TRAPPED IN THE PAST OR HAVING TO FACE THE FUTURE? … This spring, GLAAD Award–nominated writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Eisner Award–nominated artist Caitlin Yarsky invite you to Dead Teenagers – the smirkingly clever, ʼ90s-obsessed, blood-drenched horror massacre that will keep you guessing until the very last stab wound! Now Oni Press has revealed a first look inside Dead Teenagers #2, including a jaw-droppingly memorable homage cover by interior artist Caitlin Yarsky inspired by the ‘90s cult classic flick Jawbreakers, alongside the main cover by Naomi Franq and a variant by Keyla Valerio.

For five friends, being trapped in an infinite loop of murder and dismemberment on Prom Night ʼ97 was living hell. They’re about to find out that being an adult in 2026 is much, much worse. After spending an interminable number of years trapped in an endless cycle of violent death and painful rebirth, high school seniors J.T., Ryder, and Brandy have found themselves catapulted forward through time into their adult bodies . . . and in new lives where everyone else is totally unaware of their harrowing, unexplainable ordeal. Physically, they’re now elder millennials with jobs and families. Psychologically, they’re badly damaged teenagers with middle-aged bodies and disposable income that are about to discover the consequences of making poor choices later in life. Even worse, not everyone thinks their new circumstances are an improvement over being ritualistically murdered every 24 hours. Is there a way to go back to their never-ending prom night massacre . . . and could it hold the key to finding out how and why they were chosen to live out this supernatural torment beyond all human reasoning?

Scream meets Freaky Friday in the next captivating chapter of the brilliantly propulsive horror-soaked time loop, out April 15th!

Dead Teenagers #2

Horror Master Joe R. Lansdale Enters EC Comics History in Catacomb of Torment #9 – Coming in March!

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THIS MARCH, EC COMICS’ CATACOMB OF TORMENT PROUDLY USHERS A HORROR ICON INTO ITS HALLOWED HALLS! Oni Press and William M. Gaines Agent, Inc. have announced that award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and comics legend Joe R. Lansdale is joining the ranks of EC Comics’ blood-spattered luminaries with an all-new story, “Picture Perfect,” debuting in March’s Catacomb of Torment #9 alongside Eisner Award-winning artist David Lapham. 

The winner of 11 prestigious Bram Stoker Awards, the American Horror Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Edgar Award, Joe R. Lansdale’s career has spanned more than four decades across 50 novels, multiple feature films and television series, and countless short stories and comic books. Known as one of the formative pioneers of the “weird western” genre – wryly colliding classic American gunslinging with mutants, monsters, and Lovecraftian horror – Lansdale is perhaps most frequently recognized for his instant-classic reimagining of the DC Comics anti-hero Jonah Hex (alongside artist Timothy Truman) for the Vertigo imprint in the mid-1990s, as well as his creations Bubba Ho-Tep (subsequently adapted into the cult-hit feature film starring Evil Dead’s Bruce Campbell) and his long-running Hap & Leonard series that now spans more than a dozen novels, novellas, and multiple anthologies. 

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE CORPSES! On March 18th, welcome back to the endless maze of the Tormentor’s catacombs . . . where the flesh is freshly flayed and the worst is always yet to come! In the malevolent EC Comics manner, breathe in that acrid stench and prepare for three ribcage-thrumming tales of trepidation wrought from the gaping maws of its latest victims . . . ahem, contributors: Celeste Bronfman, Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Joe R. Lansdale, David Lapham, Malachi Ward, and more, only in Catacomb of Torment #9 – featuring a murder of calamitous covers from artists Ariel Olivetti, Yanick Paquette, Shawn McManus, and Patricia Martín!

Prom Night Never, Ever Ends this March in Dead Teenagers #1 by Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Caitlin Yarsky

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HELL IS THE ‘90s — THERE’S NO ESCAPING HIGH SCHOOL! This spring, Oni Press presents Dead Teenagers #1, a 90-obsessed horror escapade about prom night ‘97 – and five friends who have been living and dying inside it ever since – a from GLAAD Award-nominated writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Eisner Award-nominated artist Caitlin Yarsky. Brash and brutal, the series is the most clever and compulsively page-turning horror thriller of the year. Dead Teenagers #1 drops on March 18, 2026.

Since 1997, five friends have been trapped in the ultimate nightmare as a mysterious entity forces them to relive their first prom night over and over again… and re-kills them in new and increasingly insane ways each time. They dress up. They party. They make out. And no matter what they try to change, they always die… until now. Something is about to break the cycle that has kept Alicia, J.T., Ryder, Brandy, and their group of friends locked in a bizarre purgatory beyond all understanding… but what they find on the other side will be the most disturbing revelation of all.

With a unique variant cover on each issue by interior series artist Caitlin Yarsky homage to an iconic film from the decade – alongside main covers by Naomi Franq and variants by Keyla Valerio and Brandt&Stein– hell is the 90s in his genre-distorting ode to the generation that gave us Scream and Buffy the Vampire Slayer …and the little bitty bits of viscera that are left of them. 

DEAD TEENAGERS is a terrifying time loop tale of terror.

DEAD TEENAGERS is a terrifying time loop tale of terror.

DEAD TEENAGERS is a terrifying time loop tale of terror.

DEAD TEENAGERS is a terrifying time loop tale of terror.

DEAD TEENAGERS #1 (of 5)

DC Pride 2025 is an ambitious comic that takes the time to dig into the characters’ individual hopes, fears, and dreams

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DC Pride 2025 #1 is a little different from the previous installments of DC Pride in that it’s not a collection of short stories featuring LGBTQ+ DC Comics characters, but is a single narrative centered around a gay bar that Alan Scott frequented in the 1930s and told predominantly from the POV of a new character named Ethan, who is a trans military veteran that ends up caught up a kind of multiversal/elemental saga. I applaud the scope of this comic book, which has big jam session energy as different characters end up in different pocket realities based on wishes they made at the gay bar or graffiti they scrawled. We get Apollo and Midnighter living in 1950s domestic bliss courtesy of Sam Maggs and Derek Charm, a single, psychiatric girl boss Harley Quinn from Maya Houston, Max Sarin, and Marissa Louise ; and a gorgeous sapphic romance between Jo Mullein and Nubia from Houston, Vita Ayala, and Vincent Cecil to name a few. The reading effect is like jumping from comic to comic and look at paths not trodden with some iconic queer characters and a few new or not so iconic ones.

As Tim Sheridan, Giulio Macaione, and Emilio Pilliu Alan Scott-centric frame story shows, fighting supervillains and having superpowers is a metaphor for being queer in DC Pride 2025. It might be tempting to give up and lie low, especially with the United States’ hard turn to fascism, and homophobia and transphobia promoted by folks in power, but Alan Scott, Ethan, and their companions’ actions in the comic act as a clarion call to resistance. The stuff with the Crimson Flame and Scott having his own Red Lantern is a little Geoff Johnsian for my taste, but it’s so cool to watch Alan Scott have a Sailor Moon type transformation sequence and return into action to help save the next generation of queer heroes symbolized by Ethan. I love Macaione’s use of greens to show a possible, idyllic future for Scott and a non-Red Lantern/Russian spy Johnny Ladd, but it’s a happiness based on a lie like the other possible futures in the book.

However, DC Pride 2025 isn’t all serious action and has a lot of humor and playfulness. Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Alex Moore recontextualize Golden Age Z-list Wonder Woman villain Blue Snowman coming to terms with their gender fluidity alongside nonbinary superhero Envoy in one vignette. I love how they poke fun at the restrictions of the gender binary using the classic tropes of a superhero brawl, and how even well meaning cisgender people can be just plain annoying at times. It’s so cool seeing this kind of story and voice in a mainstream, corporate comic showing that nonbinary characters don’t just have to be righteous heroes, but can be kind of messy too. DC Pride 2025 really hits the spectrum of queer identities, including asexuality with Connor Hawke getting a short story where he resists his father’s reputation as a womanizer and just wants to live his own life. I have to give a special shout out to Philip Sevy’s art in this short sequence, which seems like it’s right out of the late 1990s period where he was member of the JLA. Both the visual and character variety of DC Pride 2025 makes it an engaging read, and the book is a testament to the active work that DC Comics has done to cultivate LGBTQ+ characters in the past decade or so. (I need a monthly Midnighter and/or Apollo book though.)

After a wild and wacky cosmic adventure set in the DC Multiverse, DC Pride 2025 wraps up with a beautiful nonfiction story from Jenny Blake and Sara Soler about Blake coming out as a transgender woman earlier this year. It has gorgeous soft lines and a refreshing color palette to go with Jenny Blake’s honest and humorous script about how old comics about Clark Kent switching genders had an influence on her own gender identity journey. I love how Soler inserts different DC characters into the panel to blur the line between fantasy and non-fiction with Blake’s most famous co-creation Black Lightning making an appearance as well as transgender superheroine Dreamer, who shares coffee with Blake. The story shows that you’re never too old to be your authentic self and hints at a longer graphic memoir, which I hope Jenny Blake gets to realize at DC or elsewhere.

DC Pride 2025 is an ambitious comic with summer crossover energy that tells an epic story with DC’s LGBTQ+ characters while still taking time to dig into their individual hopes, fears, and dreams. It’s a showcase of queer representation on the page and on the issue’s creative teams, and Blake and Sara Soler’s memoir is a beautiful coda and rallying cry to continue to be queer and fearless in an increasingly dark and hateful world.

Story: Vita Ayala, Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Maya Houston
Story: Sam Maggs, Tim Sheridan, Josh Trujillo, Jenny Blake
Art: Don Aguillo, Vincent Cecil, Derek Charm, A.L. Kaplan, Giulio Macaione
Art: Emilio Pilliu, Max Sarin, Philip Sevy, Sara Soler, Alex Moore, Skyler Patridge
Colors: Eren Angiolini, Jordie Bellaire, Triona Farrell, Marissa Louise
Letters: Aditya Bidikar, Frank Cvetkovic, Lucas Gattoni, Ariana Maher, Morgan Martinez, Jodie Troutman
Story: 8.9 Art: 9.3 Overall: 9.1 Recommendation: Buy

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle

Preview: DC Pride 2025

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DC Pride 2025

(W) Tim Sheridan, Vita Ayala, Josh Trujillo, Sam Maggs, Maya Houston and Jude Ellison S. Doyle (A) Emilio Pilliu, Skylar Patridge, A.L. Kaplan, Vincent Cecil and Others
In Shops: Jun 04, 2025
SRP: $9.99

THE AWARD-WINNG DC PRIDE CELEBRATES ITS 5TH ANNIVERSARY WITH AN ALL-NEW SPECIAL IN AN ALL-NEW FORMAT! When a 100-year-old queer speakeasy-turned-bar-turned-restaurant-and-community-space in Gotham announces that it will soon be closing its doors, generations of patrons come to pay their respects–including Alan Scott, the Green Lantern. After all, this is the place where he and his first love, Johnny Ladd, long ago carved their names into the basement wall before it all went to hell…and a love lost is never a love forgotten. But they weren’t the only ones to put their names in the wall over the years, and suddenly queer heroes, villains, and civilians alike from across the DCU–the Question, Midnighter and Apollo, Harley Quinn, Green Lantern Jo Mullein, Bunker, Connor Hawke, and Blue Snowman among them–find them-selves spirited away to a strange alternate dimension that seems to provide everything they could possibly want…but at what cost? In this single, oversized story of interweaving narratives, the vanished will need to come together and look into the very depths of the Starheart itself if they hope to escape that which ensnares them in this triumphant and timely story of community amid chaos!

DC Pride 2025
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