Category: Zombies

“He’s Mine”

I’ve been a fan of Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead comic series since the first issue.  I generally pick up my comics once and month and invariably the first that I look to read is The Walking Dead.  Part of the reason is you never know who is safe or what is going to happen.  This series has had more jaw-dropping-I-can’t-believe-that-just-happened moments than any other series I’ve ever read.

The current issue is no exception.  There is a scene so tough to read [not because it is gory and not as much for what is happening, but more for what is about to happen] that I actually paused to think, “Kirkman wouldn’t really do THAT, would he?”  I honestly didn’t know.  After what he did to the Governor and many of the major cast members, perhaps he would.  [And no I am not going to spoil it for those of you who haven’t read the issue yet.]

Suffice it to say that the panel shown above made me as happy as when Burt Reynolds showed up with his crossbow in “Deliverance.”

Flatulene – Stinky Good Time

If Rev. Dave Johnson aka “The Potentate” draws it, I’m there.  So today we have a link to Rev. Dave’s trailer for “Flatulene.” What is “Flatulene” you ask?  Well, here’s how “The Potentate” describes it:

Farting for fun and profit… About 3 days of work to put this together for Titmouse Studios second annual 5 second animation day… As I worked on it, her story started to write itself… My inspiration was Russ Myers ‘Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill’… I might even try to pitch this to Adult Swim.

So if a smokin’ hot chick with irritable-bowel syndromefast cars and a partner who’s a flesh-eating zombie sounds like something you’d like to check out, then click hereVROOM! VROOM!

Sign Me Up for The Eternal Prison

Jeff Somers jumped to the top of my MUST READ AUTHORS list with his first Avery Cates novel, The Electric Church.  His second in the series, The Digital Plague was even better.  So you can imagine how much I’m looking forward to his third Avery Cates novel, The Eternal Prison.  Here’s what we have to look forward to:

Avery Cates is a wanted man. After surviving the worst bioengineered disaster in history, Cates finds himself incarcerated – in Chengara Penitentiary. As Chengara has a survival rate of exactly zero, the system’s most famous gunner must do some serious plotting. And a betrayal or so later, he achieves his goal. At a price.

All he has to do now is defeat some new personal demons, forge some unlikely alliances, and figure out why the people he’s killed lately just won’t stay dead.

Since The Eternal Prison won’t be out until this August, if you haven’t read the first two books now is the time to get on it.  If you’ve already read them,  you’ll have to be satisfied with hanging out at Jeff’s Blog or the official site for The Eternal Prison.

Nazi Zombie Action

Harry over at Ain’t It Cool News posted a link to a trailer for “Dead Snow” — a zombie movie that was screened at the 09 Sundance Film Festival. Knowing how much ZONErs love horror movies, and the zombie genre, I thought a link here would be appropriate… but first a few words… there’s violence [zombies eating, killing and being killed] and strong [subtitled] language — this is not appropriate for younger readers. As I watched the trailer with the Nazi zombies I kept thinking, “Boy, do they need Hellboy to show up!”

With that said, if you’re age appropriate and want to see some Nazi zombie action, then click here.

Z-View – Marlow: Soul of Darkness

 

The Pitch: A hardcase with a secret leads a small group of mercenaries onto an island full of zombies in order to rescue a scientist.The Good: The concept. The Marlow character and his associates. The art by Mathew Reynolds shows a lot of promise with inspired panels/poses. Running some of the original proposal pages [by a different artist] was cool.

The Bad: The lack of backgrounds — at times it works, but as the story progressed I missed them and wanted more than just gray-scale figures, etc. The fact that Marlow almost always has a cigar in his mouth became a bit much.

The Ugly: The logo needs to be reworked. The shop owner where I bought Marlow said he had no idea what the title was when he first looked at the cover. The price tag of $4.95 felt a bit high.

The Summary: Marlow was created by Aaron Thomas Nelson and Dario Carrassco Jr. The first issue is 46 black and white pages with a color cover, written by Aaron Thomas Nelson art by Mathew Reynolds. I enjoyed the first issue and feel like Nelson and Reynolds could have a hit on their hands if they stick with it.

Rating:

"…Of the Dead"

DreadCentral.com scored the first look at the poster for George Romero’s latest zombie-fest titled “… of the Dead.” I kind of like the title considering that we’ve had “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Day of the Dead,” “Land of the Dead,” “Diary of the Dead” and even a return to some of the earlier titles. Yeah, “… Of the Dead” works just fine.

Crossed #0 Review

Crossed #0 [written by Garth Ennis with art by Jacen Burrows] is available now. That’s the wraparound cover by Jacen pictured above and it should give you a good idea of what to expect. At first glance, you might think it’s another zombie comic, but it’s not… at least not exactly.

An event happens which causes a good portion of the population to go crazy. Normal folks in a small town are suddenly surrounded by friends and neighbors killing each other and worse [much worse in some cases]. This introduction by Ennis is smart in that it places us in the middle of things as the insanity spreads. There are enough inspired touches that we understand that this is not a limited event and the world will never be the same. The most frightening scene in my opinion wasn’t any of the attacks by the infected, or the bomb blast, or the widespread shots of carnage all around. To me the most creepy shot was of a plane crashing — we see it strike a clock tower as it hurtles to the ground and then Jacen gives us a close up of the cockpit. In it we see two flight attendants in the background fighting, an infected passenger with an evil grin killing the co-pilot as the infected pilot laughs maniacally as he dives the plane into the ground.

Crossed was definitely good enough that I’ll be back for more. Jacen Burrows provides the pencils and inks and this is his best work yet. Greg Waller provides the colors and did a great job in capturing the mood of the book and complimenting Burrows’s line work. Garth Ennis’s story leaves me wanting more. He knows how to hit all the right notes but be aware that he’s not afraid of going over the line when it comes to shocking gore and violence.

Crossed isn’t for everyone. However fans of horror and the zombie genre [although the infected aren’t zombies… at least traditional zombies] might want to check it out. Issue 0 would be a great place to start. It’s only a buck and available now.

Day of the Dead [2008]

The Pitch: “Day of the Dead” updated with fast moving zombies and no George Romero.

The Good: The idea of a town being quarantined by the military. The chaos when the zombies begin attacking. Ving Rhames. Mena Suvari is a cutie. Several zombies jumping in unison out second [third?] story windows to get a people on the ground.

The Bad: Not enough Ving Rhames. Zombies climbing sheer walls and across ceilings. Zombies exploding when set on fire. Characters repeatedly making stupid decisions: [“Let’s sneak back into the city full of zombies that we escaped from so we can hold up in a room full of windows.” “Let‘s keep a zombie alive because he follows orders.”] Smart zombieszombies firing guns — a zombie not attacking people because he is a vegetarian!

The Ugly: The alternate ending. Boy, if they’d have used it the movie would have been even worse.

The Summary: “Day of the Dead” is a remake of my least favorite Romero zombie movie. If you’re a real fan of zombie movies then you probably won’t mind some of this movie’s badness [and I don’t mean badness in a good way]. If you’re just a passing fan of the genre then you ought to pass on it.

Living with the Walking Dead XXXombies

Zombies are in. Nearly forty years after George Romero recreated a horror genre, zombies have never been more popular. Let’s take a look a three currently running zombie comics.

The Walking Dead, which single handedly jump started the genre back to comics continues to go strong. I’ve been talking up this series since the first issue and it continues to be the only comic that I must read as soon as I get it home. Issue 42 [43 is on stands now] has the most surprising double page spread that I’ve seen in any comic in years… then there was an even bigger shock when you turned the page. The original issues are hard to find and pretty expensive when you do. If you’re just coming to the series you might want to seek out the paperback trades [Volume 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8] or spend a bit more for the hardcovers [Book 1 2 3]. However you get the stories, I can guarantee you a great ride thanks to the talents of writer Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard.

Living with the Dead #1 just came out from Dark Horse. Writer Mike Richardson and artist Ben Stenbeck team to bring us a Shaun-of-the-Dead-type zombie series that has just the right mix of humor. Two slackers are making the best of a bad situation. These guys have been best buds for years and if a zombie infestation can’t break up their friendship, surely a cute babe won’t. Right… right?

XXXombies #1 also just hit the stands. Featuring the talents of some of my favorite comic creators [Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Kieron Dwyer] this zombie tale is definitely not for kids [are any zombie tales?] since it follows a group of adult film actors and crew having to deal with, you guessed it, a zombie infestation.

My guess is, if you are a fan of the zombie genre, you’d enjoy any of these comics. If not, then not.

Living with the Dead

While we’re on the subject of first issues of new comics as we were HERE and HERE, there’s one more that I thought I’d mention. It’s called “Living with the Dead” by Mike Richardson [writer], Ben Stenbeck [artist] and Richard Corben [covers].

It’s a “hilariously funny” look at the life of two slackers who’ve, at least until now, survived a zombie plague. When they discover a beautiful young girl across the way things get really interesting.

I’m giving it a shot since I enjoyed “Shaun of the Dead.”