Innards #3 — Rob Guillory and Sam Lotfi dig deeper into the dark

The crew is trapped underground as a nuclear storm rages above, but the real danger is what’s hunting them below. Rob Guillory and Sam Lotfi turn the pressure up in Innards #3, where trust fractures and Boo’s rampage intensifies.

There is a specific kind of claustrophobia that hits when you realize the air isn’t just running out, but the walls are closing in to meet a threat you can’t see. That is the headspace Rob Guillory and Sam Lotfi are cultivating in the third issue of Innards, and it is a masterclass in atmospheric dread. If the first issues set the stage, this one pulls the rug out from under the characters' feet, leaving them suspended in the dark between survival and something far worse.

The setup is brutal in its simplicity: the team is pinned at the center of the earth, trapped by an underground nuclear storm that makes the surface feel like a memory. But the real terror isn’t the geology or the radiation. It’s the Lucifium caves. As the creature known as Boo escalates its assault, the crew’s fragile alliances begin to crumble. Dark histories are dragged into the light, and suddenly, the person standing next to you feels less like a teammate and more like a liability.

This issue shifts the narrative lens to Etta, the team’s sole female diver. Her narration adds a layer of chilling clarity to the chaos, as she reflects on her purpose and makes a dangerous decision to unearth ONIS corporation’s secrets. It’s a move that suggests she’s already decided that the truth is worth more than her safety. Sam Lotfi’s art captures this tension perfectly, rendering the grimy, oppressive environment with a grit that makes every shadow feel heavy and every corridor feel like a trap.

What makes this issue such a compelling pickup is how it balances the external threat with the internal rot. Guillory doesn’t just rely on monster scares; he forces the characters to confront why they’re really there. The question isn’t just whether they’ll make it back to the surface, but whether anyone will be whole enough to want to. It’s a gritty, action-packed dive into sci-fi horror that trusts the reader to fill in the blanks of their own paranoia.

I’ve been watching Guillory’s work since the early days of Castle Waiting, and his ability to weave horror with character study is unmatched here. If you’re looking for something that feels like a lost tape from a failed deep-sea expedition, this is the drop to catch. The variant covers are equally striking, but Lotfi’s A-cover really sells the isolation. It’s a slim volume, but it weighs more than it looks.