Crawling Sky #1
Story by Joe R. Lansdale and Keith Lansdale
Artwork by Brian Denham
Antarctic Press
Release Date: January 13, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

From the bottom of the well comes a dark entity, ravenous for blood and violent beyond hell’s imagination. Crawling Sky is a Western motif story, leading in towards what seems to be a supernatural thriller/horror story. With thick suspense, and some captivating characters, the first issue of the series makes for an interesting read. And the kicker is that it’s all in black-and-white, presented in a classic manner that feels like a breath of fresh air amidst that choking haze of digital gradients that dominate comic art like a Technicolor yawn.

In stereotypical Western iconography, a stranger rides into the sandy Texas town. He is identified only as the Reverend, dressed in all black, white-collar, wide black hat, and clean black goatee beard. His appearance is as cliché as hell, but it looks so badass-as-fuck that you recognize he’s going to kick some ass at some point. Arriving in the shittiest town ever to be seen in a Western called Wood Tick; the Reverend comes across a man in stocks named Norville.

The Last Zombie: Before the After #2
Written By Brian Keene
Art by Fred Perry
Tones by Robby Bevard
Cover by Joe Wight
Antarctic Pres
Release Date: November 21, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Reviewer bias up front: I’m all about the zombies. I can’t get enough of them. I want it all: books, comics, games, movies, television shows, costumes, races, and pub crawls. I’m all in. However, even with my near blinding infatuation with zombie stories, I can still recognize the good stories from the bad; the originals from the derivatives. Here’s my opening argument: The Last Zombie: Before the After is a damn good comic series regardless of genre. Period.

The Last Zombie is a different breed of zombie book that takes place years after the zombie apocalypse has run its course. Dr. Ian Scott is part of a mission to find out what happened to the FEMA bunker in West Virginia. They lost all contact with the bunker which also housed his fiancée, Jen. Along the journey from Colorado to West Virginia, Ian contracted the zombie virus. He has been secretly injecting himself with the precious, experimental zombie vaccine that the team is transporting to the FEMA bunker. Even with the vaccine, Ian is slowly deteriorating and succumbing to the virus. And Doctor Federman is beginning to piece together Ian’s secret.