Phew, that last blog post is a monster. And not much fun for people who don't play boardgames. So now it's time for another monster, of a comic book and zombie variety.
The Walking Dead is a fairly definitive and seminal zombie comic, and there have been many imitators in recent years.
But I think we can all agree, DC/Vertigo tend not to jump on the bandwagon, preferring instead to give us considered and well produced storytelling such as Hellblazer, Sandman, Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Y: The Last Man, Fables, House Of Mystery and the wonderful Pride Of Baghdad OGN.
Next from this pedigree stable comes I, Zombie. This quirky and fun horror-fantasy comic is written by Chris Robertson, who recently wrote the excellent Fables spin-off, Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love.
The artwork is from the pencil of the wonderful Eisner Award winner, Michael Allred, creator of Madman and the man behind the much loved X-Statix mutants.
I was never a huge fan of his redesign of X-Force as it came after the wonderful Warren Ellis inspired Counter-X redesign that included a personal favourite of mine, Peter Wisdom, who came in and shaped the Cable-enamoured X-Force moppets into a no-nonsense Black Ops team. There was a really Global Frequency vibe there.
Still, there's no denying I was in the minority as X-Force sales and it's follow up X-Statix went through the roof. People still adore Doop and Allred's art really helped to sell that.
I Zombie #1 is out Friday May 7th in the UK due to the May Day Bank Holiday, and will cost just £1.00, part of DC/Vertigo's new debut issue for a dollar initiative. Here's the solicitation from the DC website:
Gwen Dylan is a gravedigger in an eco-friendly cemetery…and a zombie detective. Once a month, she has to eat a human brain – both to keep from going all "Night of the Living Dead," and to keep her own memories intact. As a result, Gwen's mind is crowded with the dead person's thoughts. And lately, she feels compelled to fulfill their final requests. Torn between a mysterious mummy and a dashing young monster-hunter, Gwen is set for adventures beyond imagination! A were-terrier, a swinging '60s ghost and a pack of paintball blasting vampires complete the cast of I, ZOMBIE.
It sounds fantastically mental! Gwen and the others debuted in a seven page story last year's House Of Mystery Halloween Annual and DC were kind enough to post those seven pages again on their Vertigo blog, entitled Graphic Content. You can find that blog here, but we've grabbed the seven pages for you to enjoy right now. Check out the awesome Shaun Of the Dead reference too!
If you like it, don't forget to place a pre-order! There's a Darwyn Cooke variant for issue #1 too, as seen at the beginning of this post. We have a couple coming in, but they won't last long!
That looks frigging sweet - preorder for me I think!
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