Zombie War #1
Written by Kevin Eastman and Tom Skulan
Illustrated by Kevin Eastman and Eric Talbot
Colored by Ronda Pattison
Cover by Kevin Eastman
IDW Publishing
Release Date: October 23, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99
There is perhaps nothing more frightening than zombies — except for zombies with full awareness who can speak and carry weapons. Written by Kevin Eastman and Tom Skulan with illustrations from Eastman and Eric Talbot, comes IDW’s Zombie War #1. Find out my thoughts on this horror-filled comic below.
Hundreds of UFO sightings are being reported across the globe; dead soldiers are rising from their graves all around the world, amassing an army of undead militants. As cities begin to burn from all out war — littered with the bodies of humanity — U.S. Airforce pilot Jina quickly uncovers the truth behind the two sudden and strange occurrences and races against time to prevent further devastation.
Zombie War #1 presents a shaky start to the series. What Eastman and Skulan do well is to take an increasingly popular sub-genre of horror fiction and give their zombies attributes that are completely uncommon. Their version of the undead is terrifying because the monsters can think before they act.
Two things, however, really fell short in this first issue: pacing and characterization. The timing of this story moves way too quickly. There is no time to wonder what might be happening or to leave anything to question as everything is revealed in the first issue. So much happens within such a short period of time without allowing the reader to connect to the main character — which is the second problem. Filled with an assortment of news briefs explaining the growing world-wide event and pages upon pages of zombies slaughtering humans, the character of Jina is reduced to a two-dimensional personality without a moment to really shine.
Eastman and Talbot’s art fits perfectly with the scary tone of the comic. Relying on a dark and bland color palette to represent the feel of the horrific scenario, bloody body parts are strewn about every page amongst an array of close-up, over-the-top gory panels.
I have a great appreciation for a zombie story done right. I was really excited about the conception of Zombie War #1, but it was unfortunately poorly executed. I don’t think I’ll be tearing the flesh out of issue two.
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment