In this review of Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man #1, it’s time to buckle up for the story of an evil man with an evil plan. Just how far will he go to get some new skin?
Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man #1
Writer: Ben Stenbeck
Art and Main Cover: Ben Stenbeck
Variant Cover: Mike Mignola
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: March 4, 2026
This review contains spoilers
We open Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man #1 on a traveler and his two companions as they take refuge in a witch’s house from a storm. The old woman inside seems to know a bit about them, and offers up a story.
The story is that of a king of thieves known as El Kubra (or The Skinless Man, as some refer to him). One day, during a normal day of murder and plunder, he and his crew find among the treasure, a baby with golden eyes. There’s some debate as to what to do with it: eat it, raise it, collect its golden eyes…but El Kubra immediately notices how soft the baby’s skin is and starts to wonder if he could possibly steal that skin for his own use.
His question soon morphs from “can I?” to “How do I pull this off?”, and he consults some Warlocks to see about making it happen. They send him off to find a giant, so that he could get a Bloodcake (crucial to the spell they have in mind).
But as he’s off to find this giant, it turns out that the Warlocks were lying through their collective teeth and instead wanted the baby for their own uses. And through their magic, those of El Kubra’s men still in town turn on each other.
El Kubra reaches his destination, and tries asking the King of Kurfa to buy a giant. He’s turned down, so he does the reasonable (to him) thing and kills him. They find a giant soon enough, and free him to come with them.
Upon returning home, they find the carnage set into motion by the Warlocks. One of the Warlocks transforms into a Kymbatu, attacks them, and is ultimately taken down.
The witch then tells the travelers, upon being asked about El Kubra’s skinlessness, that they were there when it happened. And that this is the very man that they’re currently hunting.
So, Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man #1 starts off with a rather classic setup: hiding out from a storm that’d otherwise make travel difficult. And it makes for an excellent setup for an anthology’s wraparound story. Even with this particular comic having two issues devoted to the tale of El Kubra, it has that anthology feel to it.
Interestingly, the story itself is connected to this grizzled old warrior and his two companions. He seems to be referred to as “The Red-Haired God Killer”, so that tells one right off the bat that 1) he’s not to be messed with, 2) his gray hair means he’d been in the god-killing biz for a good long while (unless the “Red-Haired” part came from the sheer amount of blood he’s gotten on himself in the past, which…well, given how much gore is in this comic, is entirely possible), and 3) the wolf and rabbit he hangs out with are probably just as dangerous if they’re his companions.
On to Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man #1‘s main story itself…Now, I’m a regular consumer of horror, but it takes a special degree of twisted for someone to go from “Can I harvest this infant’s skin for myself?” to “Okay, now how do I make my dream a reality?” without even once stopping off at the “SHOULD I do this?” station in the first place.
I know El Kubra resides in/rules an area populated by thieves and rogues, but it feels like the most reasonable people in said area may have to be the ones that wanted to raise this golden-eyed baby. Seriously, they seem to be the only ones not looking to either eat it or harvest its organs or use it in magical rituals, which makes me wonder if they’re lost. It’s established that this whole region is not one someone should enter alone without some means of self-defense.
And even with all that in mind, El Kubra still manages to be the worst of the worst. Which is a major win for the writers, here. He doesn’t wonder if he’s evil, he just goes about doing his own thing and proves it.
If someone’s looking for an excellent source of blood and gore, Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man #1 is an excellent place to look.
The artwork in Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man #1 is solid, the fight scenes well-composed. And special mention to the use of a man’s tibia as a weapon.
Final Thoughts
With an especially twisted villainous presence in “The Skinless Man”, this is a tale sure to make one’s skin crawl. It’s an excellent opening chapter, with the promise of a (hopefully-as-good) closing chapter next time. Heads up: lot of blood in this one.
