Clayton Crain Launches His New Comic, Out Of Hell, Completely Free

Posted in: Comics | Tagged: clayton crain, free, Out Of Hell

Clayton Crain Launches His New Comic, Out Of Hell, Completely Free

Clayton Crain Launches His New Comic, Out Of Hell, Completely Free... but you can also buy a copy if you want

Published Tue, 13 Oct 2026 10:57:10 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• Clayton Crain launches new self-published comic Out Of Hell, with issue #1 available to read free on his website.
• Out Of Hell: Dark Veil #1 is written and painted by Clayton Crain, with print editions and multiple variant covers.
• Clayton Crain began in self-publishing before breaking out on Shadowman, Spawn, Ghost Rider, Venom, and X-Force.
• Best known for his painted Marvel work and Carnage art, Clayton Crain now returns to his indie roots with Out Of Hell.

Clayton Crain, known for X-Force, Carnage and Ghost Rider, didn't begin painting comics for the big boys. He began as a self-publisher. And that's where he has returned, launching a new comic book series, Out To Hell, in print and digitally. And you can read the first issue, Out Of Hell: Dark Veil #1, completely free on his website, before deciding if you want to buy a print copy. Out Of Hell is written and painted by Clayton Crain, with script edits and letters from Greg Shepherd and coordinated by April Crain. There are variant covers from Simon Bisley, Alan Quah, Jonathan Glapion, KIBAR, and Kevin Conrad, and it is published under the name of Rainbow Black Comics. It will continue in the next issue Out To Hell: Strawberry Shortcake #2.

Born in 1975 and raised in the small town of Moxee, Washington, Clayton Crain decided at 14 to become a comic book artist after seeing The Amazing Spider-Man #315. He dropped out of art school after a few months, lived in an old print shop, and started self-publishing while knocking on doors. His first professional work came in 1998 at Acclaim, where he pencilled Shadowman #16–20 under the name "Klayton Krain." From there it was the usual early-career grind: Curse of the Spawn, Kiss: Psycho Circus, and other Image/Top Cow books in Todd McFarlane's orbit. He was a solid penciler, but in 2003, he switched to digital painting, and Marvel Comics noticed.

He drew the Venom vs Carnage mini-series in 2004, co-creating Toxin. He painted both of Garth Ennis's Ghost Rider minis: Road to Damnation and the Civil War-era Trail of Tears. He drew The Sensational Spider-Man during the Civil War period, before the 2008–2010 X-Force run with Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, in which his art matched the book's grim "everyone's dying or about to" tone. He also became one of the go-to artists for Carnage material, including Carnage: Family Feud and Carnage. Joe Quesada once described Crain's work as "a mixture of the world's greatest tattoo artist and Leonardo da Vinci."

In recent years, he's expanded into traditional acrylic and oil paintings for covers and commissions, while still producing digital work and variant covers across the industry. Marvel has even run full variant cover programs spotlighting him. He's also become a regular at CGC Signature Series events, doing private signings and remarques, especially for Venom, Carnage, Spider-Man, and Deadpool. He even managed to get a whole scandal around him for purely innocent reasons, acetategate. But now he's back where he began, self- publishing.

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