Antarctic Press 2018
Written by Brian Ball & Trent Luther
Illustrated by Luigi Teruel
Coloured by Capucine Drapala
Marine Corps Veteran Regina Ragowski is trapped naked and alone in the town of Paso Robles during the Zombie Outbreak. In order to survive she’ll need to avoid the zombies and find food, shelter and weapons…but most importantly….a clean pair of pants.
First off there is a ton of reason why this is a must have book and I’ll get to as many as I possibly can. What I found interesting is that the book opens up with the Zombie Apocalypse already in full swing so there isn’t an explanation as to why it just is. This is great because there is no need for us to get into that, at least not now. No now it’s time to meet Rags follow her adventures and hope she finds a pair of pants! The opening is pretty great too as there are very few words or narration boxes its basically a visual representation of how this world now is.
There are a lot of things I can overlook when it comes to being in a Zombie Apocalypse and the first thing that literally goes out the window is trust. Who to and why should you trust people when the world has fallen apart if you don’t already know them. Some are just lost wayward souls, others are looking out for themselves and only care for their own survival and others would make damn fine members of any grouping that may still be left alive. I am not going to tell you where Rags fits into my assessment of the kinds of folks you gotta watch your food-stamps over you will have to read the book to find that out on your own.
Why bring all that up? Well because we already meet one such group as they are looting store and watching Rags outside being accosted by a rather large group of zombies. They watch and assess and pretty much write her off because she is after all a woman in a bra and panties, which by the way get torn off during the fight, and they all think there is no way she’s going to survive. Hell even when she bangs on the window demanding to be let in they are very wary of her. It is a natural reaction after all and when she does get inside well they come to an understanding.
Good lord have mercy Luigi why have I never seen your work before? The way that we see this is utterly spectacularly sensational! The manipulation of the varying weights in the llinework bring all the subtle details front and centre and to create some of the realist almost manga look work I have ever seen in my life. The linework is so crisp, clean and strong it’s just an absolute joy to move through the pages. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a stellar eye for storytelling. The fact that backgrounds get utilised as they do gives the book a better sense of scope and reach and helps flesh out the moment. The use of colour here is sensational as well and it pops because of how rarely it’s used. This has to be some of the most impressive interior artwork I have seen.
The characterisation here is flawless and the boys really do a superb job in fleshing out the characters and getting us to think of them as people instead of two-dimensional beings. That along with the pacing and story development make for some damn good reading. Also we do learn how she came to be in this state of dress and a little about her background here. It is just enough that we want to know more. The nudity is handled extremely well and there’s a censored and uncensored version and honestly if I had that choice I'd go uncensored just because while the cover-ups are cute her nudity isn’t a sexual thing.
A strong new offering in the Zombie genre has hit shelves and just when you thought there was nothing new to be done with it along comes Rags!