Dark Descent Prequel Series Gets Horrifying New Cover Artwork

It’s safe to say Event Horizon: Dark Descent has been a big hit for IDW Publishing. The first two chapters of the series (which serves as a prequel to the 1997 horror movie) are both going back to print in November 2025, and they’re getting some horrifying new cover art to mark the occasion.

IGN can exclusively debut the new cover art to the third printing of Event Horizon Dark Descent #1 and the second printing of Dark Descent #2, both of which form a connecting image. Check them out in the slideshow gallery below, along with an exclusive new page from issue #3:

Event Horizon: Dark Descent is written by Christian Ward and drawn by Tristan Jones, with colors by Pip Martin and colors by Alex Ray. The series explores the events leading up to the original film, showing the dark fate that befell the original crew of the doomed spacecraft. The series is part of the IDW Dark horror imprint, which includes other spinoffs of popular films like Sleepy Hollow, A Quiet Place, and Smile as well as original projects like Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees.

“When I came aboard Event Horizon, I thought it would be a nice, quiet little book that would maybe have a solid little built in following and maybe I could make something that someone down the track would find and be wowed by in a back issue bin and be compelled to find the rest the same way I was with all those rad licensed horror comics back in the late ’80s and early ’90s…” Jones tells IGN. “If you’d told me then that we’d be opening to not one but two sold out issues, and one of those being sent back to print twice I’d have thanked you for being very kind but definitely scoffed…! So here’s me now, genuinely humbled by the response this thing has received release after release, and endlessly thankful for the cult that makes Event Horizon a cult movie turning up month after month and showing their support for this thing! Everyone on this thing has given their all to make the best book we can with this, and it’s really great to see it striking such a chord with readers.”

Jones adds, “And I’ll say this, if you haven’t hit your stores and preordered #3 and #4, you’re going to want to do that ASAP, because knowing how those issues go and seeing how the response has been is going to make those the ones you’ll be kicking yourself for not locking down!”

“I had four goals in mind when I approached Event Horizon: to celebrate the legacy of the movie, to make it accessible to new readers, to make it emotionally impactful, AND most importantly, SCARY as F**K! In short, a book that anyone could enjoy that would move and terrify in equal measure,” Ward says. “Seeing the hype and success of Event Horizon: Dark Descent build and build as it finds new readers is so wonderful and so gratifying and I have to thank my co-pilots, Tristan Jones and Pip Martin, without whom this book would not soar nearly as high as it does. Most exciting of all however, is that the best is yet to come. Both issue 3 and in particular issue 4 (did someone say ‘Blood Orgy’?) will have readers shedding tears as they read between their fingers and of course, this book answers what happened before the film, now I’m pondering ‘what happens after?’ So get on board now… it’s a long journey to hell.”

Both new printings will be released on November 12, with a preorder deadline of October 27. You can preorder these reprints at your local comic shop.

In other news, check out our exclusive excerpt of the Batman 1989 sequel Batman: Revolution and see why Marvel seems serious about ending the new Ultimate Universe.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.