Clayface: Celebrity Dirt (2026-) #4

by Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Fran Galán (Artist)

Looking into numerous disappearances and the bizarre side effects of Losilmix, Basil Karlo and Dr. Victoria October start to put the pieces together—and the evidence says Basil Karlo is to blame. Their findings lead Basil straight into the crosshairs of Lady Clay—but is she here to help or to end Basil’s Hollywood dreams once and for all?

Genres: Comics

Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2026

About the author

Jude Ellison S. Doyle is an author, journalist, and comic book writer living in upstate New York.

Under his former pen name “Sady Doyle,” Jude founded the feminist blog Tiger Beatdown in 2008. He is the author of "Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear... and Why" (Melville House 2016), which has been called "smart, funny and fearless" (Boston Globe), "compelling" and "persuasive" (New York Times Book Review). The Atlantic predicted that "Trainwreck will very likely join the feminist canon." Doyle’s second book, "Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy and the Fear of Female Power" (Melville House, 2019) was named a Best Non-Fiction Book of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews and was shortlisted for Starburst Magazine’s Brave New Words award. His first non-fiction book under his real name, "DILF: Did I Leave Feminism," will be published by Melville House in the fall of 2025.

In 2021, Jude published "Maw," a limited-series horror comic with artist A.L. Kaplan, for Boom! Studios. His follow-up, "The Neighbors" with artist Letizia Cadonici, was published in 2023, and was nominated for a 2024 GLAAD award for “Outstanding Comic.” Both are now available in collected edition, and Jude’s third series, "Be Not Afraid" with artist Lisandro Estherren, is forthcoming from Boom! Studios.

Reviews

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now we’re really getting into the Clayface weeds of it all, that’s what I’m talking about. I continue to love the art direction and the weird ways they show clayface shift around, but that was a big screw you to my theory that the villain is actually still Basil but a piece of him he lost and grew sentience. Honestly I think what they ended up going for here is a bit better, and it seems we are still getting the chance for Basil to face his past. Jumping into this issue we find that Basil has fully went to Victoria October for assistance, good call, and she has taken on a number of new clients in her personal underground lab (which she pays for by being a consultant on a terrible tv show) who are suffering from the clay effects of losilmix. Their bodies change in different ways resembling clayface but they are unable to change it back, they are all victims. Clayface asks why batman just putting a stop to this…but that’s a lot of faith in one man to investigate every toxic miracle cure put out on the market. He’d be doing nothing else. Victoria asks Basil about the missing girls, which the real Basil has found at least three seen with fake Basil before they vanished, and his publicist always has an alibi, but he could be using different names and faces for the hundreds of other photos of girls in his apartment. From what Victoria has observed in the Losilmix victims this has to be one of the other clayface’s cussing all of this…so they go down the list. Peter Malley wasn’t this smart, Cassius Payne wasn’t mean, Sondra Fuller is a grifter not a killer, Preston Payne is a killer but can’t shape shift, and there is no chance the serial killer, Todd Russell, is here…not after Basil saw him last. A few years back Basil was hiding in a condemned apartment tower, except there was one door he couldn’t get open…until it opened on its own. He stepped inside to find the entire room wet and ooze everywhere…and ooze by the name of Todd Russell. He couldn’t hold himself together anymore, forgot how to look or that he was human. Basil remembers the laughing and mini mouths popping out of the ooze taunting him about how easier it is this way when you’re just slime.

All the while the fake Basil is conducting a personal private interview with a reporter, they end up leaving his house to go to a very exclusive club but the conversation shifts as the reporter brings up Maria Mariani…a woman he was seen with multiple times before her disappearance. As he was with Lorna Cameron…who Basil immediately laughs off the mention of as she walked off set and was photographed barefoot and wasted in the city a few weeks later, to him an example of what fame does. The reporter goes back to Maria and the questions around her death…and Basil stops the recording on the reporter’s phone and takes it for himself. No one said anything about death and the reporter just invented that, and so Basil begins to pull the untouchable rich card. If the reporter prints any of this then everything goes to his agent who represents half this town and puts in a call to make sure none talk to mister magazine. He will be fired and Basil’s lawyers will work at taking everyone else, so Basil asks of he would like to walk away or continue the interview. Ultimately the reporter walks away.

Victoria and the real Basil retreated to a diner to continue talking about the case, with three real Basil questioning how everyone has just let the fake Basil back in like he isn’t a threat. Women disappear anger being seen with a known criminal and the authorities do nothing. He remembers back to everything the public should know Basil for, how he was running favors for the mob the year he almost won an Oscar, when he kidnapped an entire theater to make them watch his really bad one-man show, when he flipped out bad enough to wreck half of Gotham, and the last time he was in Hollywood when he killed nine people to get the part. And then the world just lets him back in like nothing happened? No consequences at all? Basil starts to loose it a bit, turning into clay, before Victoria reels him back in to remind him that HE did those things. She brings him back to the lab to show him something, one of the victims, a teenager whose doctor recommended puberty blockers but his parents wouldn’t hear of it…so he read about something you didn’t need a prescription for and took losilmix. But here’s what Victoria hasn’t mentioned, the Losilmix is Basil’s DNA and it may be both of their faults it’s out there. Way back in detective comics 973-974, these two pulled a stunt to get Basil away from batman and left gallons of Basil all over the city. Someone probably scooped it up, and it binds differently with each subject. But then Basil receives a notification, a pin on a map and instructions to meet a midnight for answers.

Elsewhere, we return to the house of the fake Basil where the hatch leading to the underground area where Katie park is being held. Only to find the person stepping down is the reporter from earlier and is here to help. He even brought something to cut her chains. He found all of the schematics Basil submitted to build this area and he is here to prove that no one is untouchable. Except in this case the enemy is literally untouchable, as a pink clay runs up the man’s legs and begins to melt him as our fake Basil makes his appearance. The reporter’s bosses know he is here and will come looking…but as the fake Basil shifts into the image of the reporter he assures the man they won’t. He then takes and physically touches him to turn him into nothing but a pile of pink clay and clothes. Fake Basil then picks up the reporter’s phone and calls his bosses using the reporter’s voice to drop the story.

As the real Basil arrives to the warehouse meet point there is a lot on his mind, especially concerning who gave him all the photos of the women. A fluttering sound comes from the rafters as Basil balls up and prepares to jump up to check it out…only for a few tubs of liquid hydrogen to be dumped on him as Sondra Fuller, aka lady clayface, flies down. She apologizes for the mess but she knows it won’t kill him and needs to talk to him. She explains that he needs her help, she has been the one supplying the Losilmix video and the pictures of the women to point him in the right direction, as she knows what he is dealing with better than anyone…none other than her husband, Preston Payne! The final page reveals Preston’s true form as we see the dripping pink clay man as he puts on a see through face mask to form his face into. What I’m thinking has happened is that Preston, who usually can’t shape shift, has merged his body with part of Basil’s to achieve the ability…except it’s temperamental and he is still left with that pesky issue of not being able to touch anyone. I’m rocking with it.

[Whatslifeanyways · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

This series let me know there are shit ton of clayfaces running around! So the antagonist is revealed to be Preston Payne which i have no knowledge of but he’s a killer alright. I like that he absorbs people into his clay-self very spooky
Body horror panels hit hard and thats all i want from this series lets see how the lady clay will help Basil Karlo(?) (lady clay is such a silly name)

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad guy named Preston. This is so fun.

[Rob Vitagliano · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Another interesting but wildly mysterious issue, though it does finally answer some of the many questions. We find out who the other Clayface is, the one that's causing all the ruckus, and it's a deep cut DC reference from what I see. I don't know anything about the characters backstory, so I had to look this one up, but it's neat that this isn't just completely out of nowhere. The art and crazy panels are fun in this one, and I'm still curious to see where this goes, though it's really starting to feel like the author is using the entire story to push an agenda, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

[Annemarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like the reveal would have hit harder if I knew more about all the different Clayfaces. That said, this issue had some really interesting reveals and I'm actually very interested in how the story continues.

[Ushnav Shroff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now, shit gets interesting...

[Simeon Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel very silly for not guessing that reveal but it was well built with some great jabs at the industry and a nice additional level to our protagonists motivation.