Five friends. Four houses. One perfect life.
Phoebe Joplin has never questioned the world her parents built: a secluded community where she and her friends were raised to be smarter, stronger, and better than anyone else. No distractions. No dangers. No secrets.
Until the night of their graduation.
When one of them dies under impossible circumstances, Phee starts to pull at the edges of her perfect life—and finds something far more terrifying than she ever imagined.
Because this place isn’t a sanctuary.
It’s a cage.
And no one who discovers the truth ever leaves it alive.
From Eisner-nominated writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and rising horror artist Heather Vaughan, this paranoia-laced, socially conscious horror mystery will leave you questioning reality…and reveal that this crafted world is more of a nightmare than the idealistic dream its residents were expecting.
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January 1995. All eyes are on the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The Sharks gear up for the most significant event in the AAL’s 20-year history, and Maximillian Dupree—their sudden-star backup quarterback—is feeling the pressure from his teammates, his fans, and his debts to the city’s gambling underworld. A string of suicides hits the community hard, drawing a desperate sports journalist to examine their connection to the big game. No one can trust anything they see as a mind-bending entity and its frightful visions threaten their payouts, their sanity, and their lives…
Based on the critically acclaimed Smile film franchise, writer Stephanie Williams (Nubia, Roots of Madness) and GLAAD Media Award–winning artist Pablo Collar (Avengers Academy) are sure to run fear across the goal line. Time to place your bets. Kickoff approaches for a Sunday ritual that will have you ready to win…or die smiling.
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This is an Ashcan Preview Edition of issue #1 of IDW's upcoming horror hits. As such, art and text are subject to change between now and the release date of September 23rd 2026 and October 14th 2026.
