Dynamite Entertainment 2017
Written by Craig Engler & Fred Van Lente
Illustrated by Edu Menna
Coloured by Sal Aiala
Lettered by Simon Bowland
It’s a year into the zombie apocalypse, a worldwide tipping point when most of the surviving population dies and turns zombie. All remaining forms of government collapse. The last vestiges of civilization are abandoned. Everyone is starving and nobody is safe. Amidst the chaos, a small team of National Guard set out on a Hail Mary mission to find a cache of the food substitute Soylent Z, which may be the only hope to save the few people left.
Here’s what I like about this, it isn’t a prequel or a sequel or another season of the show it’s a story set in the Z Nation universe focusing on new original characters in ways that complement the series. I love that Craig and Fred have taken what’s at the heart of the television show and brought that these pages. There’s the right blend of seriousness and humour in this that it fits perfectly within the SyFy Universe.
Also that Soylent Z is in play here makes what we’re seeing that much relatable to those who’ve followed the series since day 1. For those that haven’t but are dipping their feet into the zombie pond with this it’s been easy enough to follow. Soylent Z is a food product that is high demand because there’s a lot of famine and starving going on with those who’ve been able to so far the whole Z-Pocalypse.
The Soylent Z was taken by a cruise ship and a couple folks from a nearby military base who want it as well were sent out after it to retrieve it from said cruise ship. I like the idea of using a Cruise Ship here it’s a floating petri dish sure but not if no one who’s been infected got on board. It’s a pretty safe closed off environment that if run correctly could be sustained for quite some time. However this is Z Nation so what we see isn’t as logical as we’d like but it is devastatingly interesting and pretty genius.
Edu and Sal do some extremely nice work here. There’s a lot of “normal” people that need rendering so that’s a mighty big task to undertake alone and then add in zombies at various stages of infection and decay and things get a little harder. So it’s really nice to see this level of work being done on a story that can challenge anybody. Plus the use of backgrounds here is phenomenal to me we get to see so much of the ship around them and the attention to detail put into it makes this so much nicer to see.
While i’m still waiting for an appearance of Citizen Z, he can’t only have been talking to the group I mean he’s military and would’ve been in contact with at least a few groups. Which of course would be how he knew about The Murphy as it happened. Besides he’s a great character and one i’d love to see tackled by this crew. In the meantime I like the way this story is progressing, the way the characterisation is unfolding and how the revelations about the reality of life here is being demonstrated.
All the fun, gore and uncertainty that the show entails captured perfectly for the comics medium!