In our review of Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #3, Katie finds herself in the middle of a nightmare, as our primary Clayface tries to piece things together.
CLAYFACE: CELEBRITY DIRT #3
Written by JUDE ELLISON S. DOYLE
Art: FRAN GALÁN
Main Cover: RILEY ROSSMO
Variant Covers: MIKE DEL MUNDO, BRUNO REDONDO
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 9/9/26
This review contains spoilers
Katie wakes up in a basement, her masked attacker making it a point not to touch her. Yet. Instead, he’d like to inject her with something.
We cut to ViewTube clips of various people’s bodies beginning to melt in that familiar Clayface-ish way. Our main Clayface is trying to put two and two together between this and the guy who stole his identity as Basil Karlo. He acknowledges that he does not have the brainpower for such an endeavor, and so enlists the help of Dr. Victoria October.
Those that had been melting have one thing in common: they may have been using the supplement “Losimix”. He’s sure the substance has been used to make other Clayfaces, and brings up Basil Karlo. Dr. October points out that he’s not Basil Karlo, either, but rather Matt Hagen. It turns out that that was his stage name, and he throws the “chosen identity” aspect right back in the doctor’s face, saying that she should know.
Which leads to her taking that as something transphobic, and him trying to dig himself out of that particular hole. She says she’ll set up a study and let him know, before leaving. Which is when he realizes that Katie never showed up for her shift.
He goes to her place to investigate, but finds pictures of the more antagonistic Clayface’s prior victims. He goes to track Katie’s phone, reaches its location, and we’re treated to a brief Clayface vs Clayface battle.
Back with Katie, she sees a bucket beside her, with a few things floating in it. She tastes a bit of it, before her attacker hands her a bottle of water. He takes off his mask and prepares to inject her. He then mentions the other girls he’s done this with. The ones who weren’t ready…
Starting off with the story aspect of Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #3 , and Katie’s situation is already prime Nightmare Fuel as it is. Waking up handcuffed in some creepy random guy’s basement just on its own is a classic sort of fear. Finding out that this random creepy guy wants to inject her with something makes it even worse, particularly when we factor in her prior history with addiction, because how does she know it won’t lead to a relapse?
But then we come to the real cherry on the horror sundae: the contents of the bucket. He doesn’t give her a heads-up on what’s in that bucket until after she’s sampled a bit of it. I’m not even sure if it’d count as projected cannibalism due to the fact that his victims had outright melted, and it’s not 100% clear as to if he’d intended for her to drink any of it or not, or if he’d just left it there for the sick thrill of seeing what happened.
On Matt’s side of the narrative, it’s great to see his goal change a bit. He started as wanting to find this guy who stole his (stage) identity, and turns his attention to finding out what happened to Katie. And it’s looking quite likely (barring some kind of twist) that both of these paths lead to the same creep.
I also thought the conversation between Doctor October and Matt was done pretty well. Matt is pretty much on the defensive for much of it, pointing out that he sometimes takes on a female form, says that of the two, she’s probably the gay one, realizes that may have been homophobic and pulls a “Not that there’s anything wrong with that”, before outright denying that it was him in the first place. It’s like he’s just digging himself deeper and deeper, and helps further show him as a flawed human being who happens to be able to look like any other human being he’d like.
For the artwork, I think a favorite part of mine was the brief scuffle between Matt and Probably-”Basil”. There’s a certain fluidity to the struggle, as one tries to absorb the other into his clay. The linework is dynamic, and the prospect of them both having once been human beings makes it all the more disturbing.
With Matt’s search for his impostor taking this interesting new turn, I’d say Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #3 of this series may be my favorite one yet.
Final Thoughts
Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #3 is where the story really gets cooking, amping up the intrigue. The tension is strong, we’ve got some nicely-done character work, an excellent fight scene, and I’m eager to see what’s next.
