Writer: Jonathan Chance
Illustrator: Joao Azeitona Vieira
Colors: Ren Spiller
Letters: Adel E. Talemi

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Throwing one and all head-first into the high-pressure world of hosting a popular American chat show, Jonathan Chance’s storyline for this horror anthology’s opening trip into terror will surely utterly engross its readers. Indeed, whether it’s Dick Halloway’s dream job in television simply being too good to be true, or a sinister extra-terrestrial serpent suddenly screeching down to Earth in a torpedo-shaped spacecraft, it quickly becomes clear that despite all the upcoming celebrity’s aspirations for super-stardom, the young man will instead soon be facing some truly gruesome fate.

Impressively however, rather than simply play this twenty-six page plot out as a straightforward alien possession yarn akin to Jack Finney’s novel “The Body Snatchers”, Chance instead rather cleverly taps into his audience’s sentimentality by having the central protagonist’s dying father reach out to his son one last time before succumbing to old age. This dream sequence, poignantly penned by the author, makes it surprisingly clear that Holloway is already doomed. But then still keeps everyone hooked by having his Dad also whisper something in his ear which could yet lead to the unwilling host potentially defeating the ultimate goal of the monster already writhing around in his head.

Furthermore, for those fans eager to witness some grotesque-looking physical mutilation and buckets of blood-splattered gore, “Late Night Host” shouldn’t disappoint either. In fact, the longer poor Dick mentally battles the malign entity fighting for control of his body, the more painful and unpleasant his metamorphoses become – with the final confrontation resultantly in him savagely tearing himself free of his own skin in a last gasp effort to rid himself of the sinister influence from outer space; ”I want my life back!”

Just as successful as this tale’s scary script is Joao Azeitona Vieira’s artwork, which alongside the colours of Ren Spiller, do a fantastic job of illustrating Halloway’s descent into a blank-eyed catatonic state. Of particular note though has to be the way the illustrator manages to pencil the sheer desperation and agony suffered by Ben Conrad’s ultimately unfortunate replacement. The look on Dick’s face during his last rational moments are wonderfully intense, and contrast so well with almost peaceful look he has seconds later when he realises his father was proud of him for fighting off the alien for as long as he could.

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Advance Copies of Never By Night: Disturbing Passages Into The Unknown #2 will be available at L.A. Comic Con on 26th-28th September 2025.

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[ARTWORK – CLICK TO ENLARGE]

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The writer of this piece was: Simon Moore
Simon Tweets from @Blaxkleric ‏
You can read more of his reviews at The Brown Bag

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