Comic Book Review: The Zombies That Ate the World #1

The Zombies That Ate the World #1

Creative Team

Story, Letters, and Design - Jerry Frissen
Art and Cover - Guy Davis
Colors - Charlie Kirchoff

Published by - Humanoids Publishing and Devil's Due Publishing

In Los Angeles in the year 2064, the world has changed. The dead have risen and corpses live again. In a blackly comedic saga that only Guy Davis could illustrate, a zombie apocalypse like you have never seen engulfs the City of Angels.


Characters

Karl Neard
Zombies
Various Citizens of Los Angeles

The Zombies That Ate the World is an anthology series with two stories in this issue. As such, as is usually the case, there are different characters for each story. However, there is one recurring character...Karl Neard.

Karl is a professional zombie wrangler and eliminator. Dressed like a cowboy and covered in acne, the bespectacled zombie expert is all out geek material being less skilled than lucky at handling the zombies he's called to handle. He still lives with his mother and harassed by his younger sister, who sometimes joins him on his jobs. Karl's bizarre tendencies include asking his sister, "Have you ever checked out your asshole?" and keeping the zombified wife of a client saying, "A woman. Dead or alive. What's the difference?" Karl's different, but amusing.

Zombies are, of course, cool, but some of you may be wondering, "What else can be done with zombies?" I'll cover that in the plot segment.

And LA as the setting is great. It makes for the perfect setting for quirky citizens.

Character Rating: 1 Worm - The comic could be entitled Zombies vs. Geeks, and how cool would that be!?!

Plot

This issue carries two stories, but there's a theme running through all of the stories that I'm assuming will carry on through the rest of the series. The year is 2064 and the dead return as zombies. However, laws are passed giving the dead equal rights. Thus, it's politically incorrect to call them dead...they are the life-impaired.

But that poses a problem for some, like Seth, in the first tale "A Domestic Drama in a Suburban Hell". He's forced to keep his life-impaired father-in-law, risking getting thrown out of a no-zombie-allowed apartment complex. Seth's zombie-in-law walked in on him having sex with Seth's wife, and the kids practice shooting at the grandfather. Seth's wife Susan is resistant to cremating her zombified father, which is forbidden, but Seth gets his way and he calls Karl Neard. The zombie extraction doesn't go quite as well as it could have.

The second tale, "Dead Girl Superstar," has Karl, with little sister Maggie. They are sent to exhume the body of Franka Kozik, actress who predominantly played zombie women in old movies. In this tale, we learn that zombies in this series act on reflex based on their former lives. As Maggie wonders, "I wonder what Franka's reflexes are going to be?"

Added interest includes things like a radio report about the world reaction to the possibility of a zombified Jesus and the use of regeneration technology being used to create zombie dinosaurs.

Plot Rating - 2 Worms. Fun, funny, zombirific!

Art

Ok, honesty time. I'm not a big fan of Guy Davis art. I've grown used to it from his work on BPRD and other Mignola Hellboy projects, but it doesn't really capture me. He does a good job, and I can't say it's bad art. Just not a style I like. Sorry, Guy.

Art Rating: 1 1/2 worms...Loss of half a worm just for my personal tastes.

Overall Rating -: 4 1/2 Worms...Strongly Recommended for zombie fans with a sense of humor and Guy Davis fans.

You can purchase The Zombies That Ate the World #1 at Amazon.com