The Zombies That Ate the World v1 cover detail by Guy Davis
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Guy Davis Draws The Zombies That Ate the World v1: “An Unbearable Spell”

They may want to eat your brains, but you can’t kick them out of the house.  Zombies!  They’re the new norm.

And they’re very well drawn here.

 

The Zombies That Ate the Credits

Writer: Jerry Frissen
Artist: Guy Davis
Colorist: Charlie Kirchoff
Translator: Natacha Ruck & Ken Grobe
Published by: Humanoids
Number of Pages: 58
Original Publication: 2004

 

A Different Kind of Zombie Comic

The first panel on the first page lays out the premise completely:

The zombies are back. Los Angeles is done fighting them, and welcomes the non-living back into their society.

“The world has changed. The dead are rising from their graves, corpses are coming back to life.  Unable to deal with the increasing numbers of the living-dead, the government decrees that the living must dwell with the dead.  Peacefully.”

Sometimes, you can’t fight a trend.  You need to assimilate and hope for the best. That’s the L.A. plan.

I am not a zombie guy.  I like “The Walking Dead” (the comics), but that’s about it.  This twist on the genre, though, works for me, purely for its comedic value. That’s something Frissen plays with a lot in this book. It’s not the center of everything, but it does come out in often understated and some very dark ways.  As far as high concepts go, this one is a winner for me.

The book is a series of short stories, each 12 pages long or so.  They’re quick reads, and complete short stories.  I love a good short story — I spent a chunk of my time as a teenager in the summers reading classic sci-fi short stories, so the idea of a short burst of story with an actual ending is attractive to me.

The not-so-subtly named Karl Neard is the recurring character of the book.  He’s a zombie handler, who’s not afraid to come help you with your zombie problem and take care of things permanently for you, if you’ve got the cash.

It’s illegal to “kill” a zombie in Los Angeles now, so he’s the underground market come to life. He’s assisted by his sister, Maggie, in the second half of the book. The two are your typical squabbling siblings, with strong personalities that don’t always get along.

We also meet The Belgian, a big dumb oaf of a guy who can kill with his bare hands.  He’ll figure more prominently in the second volume.

 

The Stories

Let’s break down the four stories in this volume.

Story 1: “A Domestic Drama in Suburban Hell”

Say goodbye to zombie papa. Karl is taking him away.

A man is upset that his Living Dead father-in-law is ruining his life: always hanging out in the living room, smelling bad, and shutting his love life down.  So he brings in Karl Neard to take care of his problem.  The law of unintended consequences kicks in here, though.

This is a good introduction to Karl Neard, who’s basically the lead character in an anthology series.  Frissen sets up the premise quickly, and then gives us one example of how these zombies are impacting people’s lives.  This is good world building from the start, and the story’s unexpected ending is dramatic and darkly comedic. It’s the kind of ending that will repeat again in the series.

 

Story 2: “Dead Girl Superstar”

The Collector of zombies has specific uses for them. Ewwww

A particularly decadent character hires Karl and Maggie to go get the Living Dead body of a favorite Hollywood actress.

This one speaks a little to how celebrity culture might get warped in a post-zombie world, but it also shows the types of people who enjoy their relationships with zombies on a completely unexpected level. It’s a dirty world, and some people enjoy that more than others.

Again, it’s building up the world a little bit. With a series set in Los Angeles, it makes sense to look at the Hollywood aspect of the situation. How do fame and zombies mix?

Karl and his Maggie work together, but fight constantly. There’s a page-long discussion in the middle of the book about whether they’ve ever stared at their own backside, which is a bit random and out of place.  It adds nothing to the story, but some might find it funny.  I guess?

All of these stories end with the same caption, “Just one of the hundreds of everyday occurrences that happen in the twilight of Los Angeles.”  I have to think “Twilight Zone” was a particular influence on this series.  They don’t all end on twists, but they generally do have an exclamation point at the end when they don’t have the twist.  Frissen has his story structure down pat early on in this series.

 

Story 3: “Terminal Boredom”

Bored teenagers are bad enough. Bored ZOMBIE teenagers are the worst.

This story is told from the point of view of three Non-Living friends.  They’re bored and looking for something to do, especially when a good deal of society rejects them for being the Un-Dead, and won’t have anything to do with them.

The zombies decide to roll up on an unsuspecting house and storm it in the stereotypical zombie way.  They don’t want to kill anyone; they just want to get a response. A quick scare is all they need.  It’s entertaining for them.

You can already imagine dozens of ways this might go wrong, I’m sure, but don’t be so sure.

The house they scare fights back, and the husband takes advantage of the situation to rectify one of his unrelated problems.  It’s slightly similar to the first story in the book in that the set-up at the suburban house is the same.  But the point of view and the final actions are wildly different, which makes it a lot of fun.

Again, this is another story that features a character doing things that are immoral and/or illegal that they likely wouldn’t have done in any other circumstance.  This new world order is setting a lot of people off…

 

Story 4: “Enter the Belgian!”

Freddy the Belgian is quite proud of his strength in Zombies That Ate the World v1
English is his second language. Maybe that’s why he’s going to “rip of your head”? Do I get a No Prize for that?

With a title like that, how can I not like this story?  It centers on a scientist who brought a dinosaur back to non-life, and also rebuilds brains.  The wrong people want his skills, and it comes down to Karl, Maggie, and “The Belgian” to save the day.

“The Belgian” is a massively sized dumb lummox who likes to think with his fists, particularly when it comes to zombies.  He’s also a bit of a self-loathing Belgian, ironically enough.

This story runs closer to 20 pages, but it covers a lot, including Karl’s violent father, how religion is thinking about the odds of Jesus coming back from the dead again, and to what lengths big businesses will go to use zombie technology to better their bottom line. Karl also has a starring moment at the end with an outburst that shows a bit of his character and why he feels so frustrated in life.

The Belgian becomes the third regular of the cast, and will be around in the second volume for more jokes about his homeland.  Yay!

 

The Art

This book is a natural fit for Guy Davis’ style and art.  He likes drawing monsters, so Frissen throws him a whole lot of zombies to draw, in various states of decay. In return, Davis gloms onto the campy spoof nature of the book as well as the horror-filled thematic elements behind them.  He can mix the two very well, even when given a script with so many loathsome characters in it.

We know from the amazing “B.P.R.D.” series that Davis can draw well and can do backgrounds.  We’ve seen that there time and again.  He’s a perfect fit for drawing more European-style comics.

His style plays just as strongly here, where not only does Davis establishing characters in their scene with the proper use of wide angles and detailed backgrounds, but he also creates an environment.

The detail in his backgrounds isn’t amazing for the number of lines he draws or how many small things he can stuff in.  Instead, he draws perspective-correct backgrounds with character. He draws enough detail to give you an idea of the character and the world he’s living in.

Karl Neard's room in "The Zombies That Ate the World," drawn by Guy Davis

Look at that room.  It’s messy and it’s filled with stuff. Nothing is neat or organized.  This kid is a slob. His bed is a crumpled mess.  He has clothes dangling out of an open dresser drawer.  Papers are hung up on his wall, along his mirror, and on a cork board in seemingly random ways.

He’s also a bit of a geek, complete with Star Trek model ships hanging from his ceiling. (His name is “Neard”, so this all fits.)  He even wears a bandana across his face to hide an acne problem.

He checks off all the boxes for this character’s stereotype.

Most impressively, there’s not a perfectly straight line in this panel, besides the panel border, itself.  The perspective is good. All the square angles are right.  But everything has an imperfect hand-drawn line to it.  It’s like asking Charles Schulz to draw a perfectly straight line.  You’ll get something that begins and ends alone the same axis in the same spot, but the path to get there might be a little more undulating than straight.  Lines race past where they should end, or they pull up short and never connect.   It is impressive work that works even when it shouldn’t.

Look back at the first image at the top of this review.  See the cityscape behind the helicopter?  Take a careful look at it.  It’s loosely drawn, with lines that are neither strictly straight nor parallel.  Lines extend past where they “should” go.  But when you look at the panel as you read the page, your eyes fill all that in for you.  It’s amazing.

 

A Note On the Printed Edition

The original French edition of "The Zombies Who Ate the World" from Les Humanoides Associes

I actually own this book in its original French addition.  A fellow writer at CBR happened to get a copy of the French edition at San Diego Comic Con.  I’m guessing it was something somebody at Humanoids gave him, as they had a table there.  He knew I was interested in European albums at that time, and thought I’d like it.

He was right.  I never read it, but I enjoyed flipping through it and soaking in Guy Davis’ artwork.  I kept it as a point of pride in my collection.

Inside front cover of the French edition of "The Zombies Who Ate the World."

The French edition has wonderful inside front and back cover spread that celebrates the classic old school monster movie/schlock horror style of the 1950s or 1960s, I’d guess. (I’m not a student of that material, so don’t quote me on dates.  Most of what I know of that subject comes from Mystery Science Theater 3000, or an issue of “Planetary.”)

Back then, I couldn’t read a lick of this book.  Today, I can parse my way thought the gist of many word balloons, but I’m still grateful for the English translation that we get digitally.

Back cover of the French edition of "The Zombies Who Ate the World."
Back cover, including a Mike Mignola endorsement

It is, of course, oversized and hardcover.  The paper is a solid bright white stock, shiny but not overly reflective such that any surrounding lights glare back at you on the page.

 

TItle page of the French edition of "The Zombies Who Ate the World."

As great as the paper stock is, the colors are still a little darker and murkier in print than they are on a backlit display. It’s not at all hard to read, but if you saw the digital edition first before the print edition, you’d definitely be rubbing your eyes trying to clear them up.

I’m spoiled by digital, though I understand that there are some people who are not so inclined.

I have good news for them, though!  Humanoids released this series in English in print!  In cooperation with Devil’s Due Productions at the time, they released a trade paperback edition in 2009.  You can still buy it at Amazon here:

(Yes, that’s an affiliate link. It doesn’t cost you any extra, but I get a few pennies in kickback if you buy it.  You get the inner glow of helping to keep the lights on around here…)

 

 

Recommended?

The Zombies That Ate the World v1 cover by Guy Davis

Yes, I enjoyed the short story nature of it, plus the twist on the tried-and-true zombie formula.

The series lasted for six books.  Davis drew the first four.  I’m looking forward to reading the rest now…

— 2018.093 —

 

Buy It Digitally Now

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