Dark Horse Comics 2016
Story by Jason Blundell & Craig Houston
Written by Justin Jordan
Illustrated by Jonathan Wayshak
Coloured by Dan Jackson
Lettered by Michael Heisler
Join Stuhlinger, Misty, Russman, and Marlton as they fight for survival against the undead horde. The Tranzit crew, last seen in the “Buried” map, are trapped on a deeply unstable and fractured future Earth.
While i’m not a video game guy I do love me some zombies and the last Call of Duty story was really very good so it’s no surprise i’m on board for this one. I will say having not played the game it’s not necessary to enjoying this issue which sets up what’s happening here. We’ve got a group of survivors in a zombie apocalypse who are in a seemingly uneasy alliance. With wildly diverse personalities that Justin is more than adept at bringing to life here it’s kind of that horror comedy with some interesting ramifications.
We open up with a narration from someone we don’t meet as they assess the four different folks in this book. Have no idea why these four as only two seem to have any real chance of finding ways to survive, well the know-it-all engineer (nerd) and the sharpshooter. It’s really the other two Russman who likes to refer to himself in the third person and Stuhlinger who hears a voice in his head that provide the comic relief. So four very different people with no clear connection, as of yet, together on a world overrun by zombies.
I’m all for a good zombie shoot em up story so long as there are twists and turns that make things surprising. There are a couple of those here and that’s great because one is inherent to the plague and the other adds a science fiction quality to the book that is kind of out of place and yet totally appealing. I may go into one for the other you’ll have to read the story can’t be giving away too much now can I?
I do like the interior artwork here Jonathan and Dan do a great job not only depicting the four characters but with the undead horde as well. Not to mention on in particular who is much scarier than all the rest. The use of page layouts with the angles and perspective not to mention the use of backgrounds, which I think are hugely important to fleshing out the bigger picture bring us to this desolate place that looks like it’s on the verge of being reclaimed by mother nature. There’s nice tension and action sequences along with that chuckle or two which may or may not be appropriate.
It looks like this story is going to tackle the question of what’s the next evolution of the zombie. Do they stay stagnate or do they evolve? From what we see here it looks like the latter which makes for a much more interesting not to mention deadly premise. If the zombies are to evolve and use coordinated attacks with some having retained more intelligence than others than the old rules and easy kills no long apply. This ups the ante as it were and makes a routine run anything but routine. I love the idea of that!
This is a nice introduction to the story and it’s characters. It reveals just enough to hook us in and leave us with enough missing information to want to know more. Justin most effectively brings this video game story to life for us and the boys interior work compliment those words. Like zombies? Like Call of Duty? Either way this one’s for you!