Exclusive looks at the new IDW Dark comic expansions, including a new “Twilight Zone.”

Smile tackles sports, A Quiet Place hits the Florida Keys, and more IDW Dark comic expansions (exclusive)

Exclusive looks at the new IDW Dark comic expansions, including a new "Twilight Zone."

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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June 16, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET

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New 'Smile' and 'A Quiet Place' comics on the way. Credit:

- The *Smile* entity touches down in the pro football arena for new *Any Given Smile* comic.

- *A Quiet Place: Rising Tides* shows the creatures descend upon the Florida Keys.

- More *Twilight Zone* comics are coming soon.

IDW Dark, the horror imprint of the larger IDW comic book publisher, continues to expand upon Paramount's scarier entertainment franchises in intriguing ways.

What happens when the parasitic entity of the *Smile* universe heads to the world of professional fashion modeling in the early aughts? The answer unfolded with *Smile: For the Camera*. What occurred after the monsters from *A Quiet Place* touched down on a small island town in Iowa? *A Quiet Place: Storm Warning* depicted those results.

Now two new comics coming down the pipeline explore two more scenarios for these horror worlds.

'Any Given Smile' cover art by Jock.

*Any Given Smile*, a five-part limited comic series from Eisner-nominated writer Stephanie Williams (*Wonder Woman*, *Roots of Madness*) and GLAAD Media Award–winning artist Pablo Collar (*Avengers Academy*), brings the smirking entity into the professional football arena with a kickoff issue set for September.

Then in November, the five-issue *A Quiet Place: Rising Tides*, from writer Declan Shalvey (*Moon Knight*, *Wolverine*, *Terminator*) and artist Luke Sparrow (*Terminator*), will bring the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.

'The Twilight Zone' issue #11 cover by Victor Alpi.

Meanwhile, the *Twilight Zone* comics will be extended for another six installments, starting with issue #11 from Mark Russell and Victor Alpi. The new element this time will be color. Each issue of the black-and-white series will feature one color per issue. More details on that front will be unveiled at a later time.

According to Heather Antos, an editor at the imprint, the new additions to the comic roster are a direct result of the entire IDW Dark line so far. "It's continuing to find success with every launch," she tells **, "and a lot more is on the way that, much like *A Quiet Place*, we can't talk about just yet."

Any Given Smile

'Any Given Smile' cover by Ashley Witter.

Williams remains a huge sports fan. "Disgustingly so," she admits. And when IDW Dark first announced they were exploring *Smile* comic-book spinoffs, the news coincided with the NFL season.

"Because that universe is often about people who are a little bit broken or just have things going on, football players almost always have some type of drama, some type of backstory that is sometimes a little unsavory," Williams explains. "And then also...sports gambling. Very big. Didn't know that would happen after our pitch, but it just all aligned. So this was the perfect chance for me to get my other fandoms and obsessions into a work."

*Any Given Smile*, with work by colorist Triona Farrell and letterer Ariana Maher, is set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Fla. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city's gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt.

'Any Given Smile' cover variant by Martin Simmonds.

"Sports betting is bigger than anything right now," Antos comments, "and I think we're putting a very particular lens on that in this story."

Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.

'Any Given Smile' variant by Joëlle Jones.

"You are at the highest level of your profession. All this pressure on these athletes that are paid all of this money, and sometimes that's not enough," Williams says. "Money does not solve everything for everyone, and especially if you have unresolved trauma, it might make it worse. For one of our characters, it absolutely does. So I wanted to lean into that."

She also wanted to pay respect to the pop-star peg of *Smile 2*, director Parker Finn's 2024 sequel to the film that started it all, by giving the entity a grand stage, like a professional football game. "It is really scary because it wants everyone to smile," Williams points out. "So if you happen to find a host that will be on a big stage, what does that look like?"

'Any Given Smile' trading card variant by Pablo M. Collar.

The world of sports proved to be fruitful for horror, especially the kind fans of *Smile* are used to seeing. "It's so violent," Williams says. "I say that as somebody who enjoys it, but it is absolutely violent, not just physically but also mentally."

Antos refers to CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease linked to repetitive impacts to the head. "That is pretty, pretty terrible and pretty tragic and problematic when you think about what these people put their physical bodies on the line every day for entertainment," she says. "So that in particular, especially with football, makes it a perfect environment to tell horror stories."

A Quiet Place: Rising Tides

'A Quiet Place: Rising Tides' cover by Declan Shalvey.

Shalvey likes the problem-solving aspect of storytelling. And in the case of *A Quiet Place: Rising Tides*, two questions were posed: Can he do what the films did but in a different medium? What new spin can he bring to the universe?

"I think the geography does dictate the story in some way," he says. "I thought of maybe going to Scotland. Basically, water for me was the key. As anyone who's seen the films knows, it's like a kryptonite to some degree."

The concept that sold Antos and the powers that be centers around Grace, a woman who tracks down her estranged, ailing father to his houseboat in the Florida Keys. This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she'll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father's oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.

"I've spent some time in Florida," the Irish scribe says. "It's beautiful and sunny and then, all of a sudden, the earth just pours water down on top of you. It's not like that in Ireland. I thought that would be a good narrative and visual tool to use in the story."

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Sparrow, who previously worked with Shalvey on the *Terminator* comics from Dynamite Entertainment, considers his style to be less of the American superhero aesthetic and more grounded. "I mostly like things to feel real and believable, which I think plays into the *A Quiet Place* world pretty well," he remarks. "They're monster movies, but they're also about people, and having that character-based real-life feel is helping the book work."

Shalvey requested Sparrow for *Rising Tides*, complimenting "his believable environments, emotional storytelling, and good action moments."

"As much as we were talking about the action, a lot of it *isn't* action," Shalvey says. "The whole point is the characters don't want action. They want everything to be quiet. And the tough thing about this book is it's about two characters who really need to talk to each other but can't."

You can pre-order both *Any Given Smile* and *A Quiet Place: Rising Tides* from your local comic book store.

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