By: Jeff Roenning (writer, co-creator), Jean-Paul Bonjour (co-creator), Robert Love (pencils), Dana Shukartsi (inks), Diego Simone (colors), Drew Gill (letters) & Branwyn Bigglestone (editor)
The Story: A rebellious teenage girl makes her way in a zombie apocalypse.
Review: This isn’t a bad comic and it has some promise. Let’s start with the positives. The art is definitely good enough to carry a comic book in this really crowded market where there is simply NO reason to read mediocre comic books. Love’s basic look is very cartoony and with that come all sorts of advantages when it comes to showcasing action because it’s possible to wring so much more expression out of a cartoon character than a character based in realism. I also really like how the comic is colored: mostly flat and lots of bright primary colors that POP out at you. This is a very attractive comic.
This comic also fits into a niche of tongue-in-cheek humor comics. The basic premise is that these “zombies” stem from an accident at a cosmetics factory. See, that’s kind of a funny concept, right? I expect that this comic will appeal to fans of Reed Gunther and Xenoholics (two other recent Image comics with cartoony art and a sense of humor). You know, the kind of comics that fans say, “If you don’t like this, you’re allergic to fun.” Honestly, I must be allergic to fun, because none of those comics are my bag, but I know a LOT of people love them and if you are one of those, this is probably worth checking out.
The problem with this comic is that the story structure in this first issue is kinda screwed up. After meeting our teenage, goth girl protagonist and seeing the “zombies” of this world, we spend the rest of the issue seeing how the accident happened at the cosmetics plant that caused this whole mess. The scenes with the scientists were cute, but I really wanted to see the protagonist more and see her kill a few zombies or get more of her back-story (we do get some of her back-story though). I guess the problem is that the issue spent more time on the less interesting part of the story. The creators may well fix that in future issues, but for now it keeps this comic from shining.
Conclusion: A funny comic with some nice cartoony art. The humor isn’t really my style, but I know a lot of people will problem enjoy it. The more problematic issue was that the story spent more time on less interesting things instead of showing us the protagonist (who has potential). That’s the type of thing that can be address in later issues if folks stick with it. I’m dropping this for now, but could be talked into reading future issues if the story-telling structure improves. Not a bad comic, but (as I said) this comics landscape is SOOOO crowded that there is no call for reading books that don’t have a spark of excellence or that stumble in certain areas.
Grade: C
-Dean Stell
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