| Print |

Written by Jesse Gernigin Friday, 19 March 2010 00:00

Four standalone tales set in the world of the recent zombie film, based on a 1973 George A. Romero classic.

The first issue focuses on the degradation, loss and ultimate demise surrounding a poor pig farmer, Jon Buran and Chris DiBari’s artwork rounding out the quick tale with an elegant flourish whileauthor Ivan Brandon’s script moves the story along at a nice clip. The second issue explores a darker scene. Ms. Marvel writer Brian Reed opens the story at the end and then spends the rest of the comic retracing what happened, leaving nothing unexplained or unexplored. Out of the four, I favored this issue the most because of the curt use of an old plot device. Also, artist Hugo Petrus’ use of pencil and ink is ambient enough to foreshadow what happens to the main character, lending an overall fatalism to the comic. The third comic focuses around a coroner and is definitely my least favorite of the three: Vincent Spencer’s use of color and depth gives the comic a cheap feeling, like the artist threw it together in a day. Meanwhile, Marc Andreyko’s writing lets the story wander off into Stephen King territory in regards to how the man deals with his inner demons, but where King's use of detail both enhances and progresses the story, Andreyko’s use of detail clobbers you with its lack of subtlety. The last issue is my favorite of the four in regards to art: Rahsan Ekedal’s coloring and layouts are great, moving the story along so nicely you forget you’re just reading a comic. And while Joshua Hale Fialkov’s vigilante plotline is systematic (read: systematic, not cheap), Ekedal’s artistic choices pull the story together.