iZombie, Vol. 1: Dead to the World
by Chris Roberson, Mike Allred
Paperback, 144 pg.
Vertigo, 2011
Read: January 20, 2015
Color me underwhelmed.
I love the concept. A non-mindless Zombie has to keep eating brains so she doesn’t become the shuffling, mindless kind. She’s got a friend who’s a ghost, and another who’s a were-terrier (possibly the idea I enjoyed most), and works as a grave digger so she has easy access to “fresh” food. I enjoyed her friends, and wish we’d spent a little more time with them.
But the execution didn’t live up to the potential. I thought the writing was slow and a little unclear a couple of times — but some of that was intentional, I realize, as Gwen’s supposed to be learning what’s going on, but some of the lack of clarity was just poor writing.
I don’t demand dazzling art, I get that not everyone is George Perez, Mark Bagley, or Ryan Ottley, but I’d like something more than competent. People seemed stiff, generic and lifeless. I could only differentiate between two characters because of their skin tone! Not confusing at all.
In the end, it was good enough that given the chance, I’d read the next collection, but I’m not exerting a lot of effort to do so. I’m mildly curious about a few things — and can understand why some would be attracted to this, but it left me feeling cold.
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hortah01
nice review! I felt kind of the same way.
HCNewton
That’s a relief to hear, I gotta tell ya. Given that the CW is spending all the $$ necessary to put it on TV, I know it has to connect with a good number of people, so I wondered if there was something wrong with me. Maybe it develops into something better? Have you read beyond this collection?
hortah01
I have not, I gave it up after this. Zombies are hot right now, the CW is probably hoping they have a tv success like the walking dead is for AMC.