Book Reviews; Empire of the Dead

 

 In memory of George Romero who introduced the zombie genre to a mainstream audience. 
 

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Empire of the Dead 

Author:                          George Romero

Publisher:                      Marvel Comics

Type:                              Hard Cover

Pages:                             336

Genre:                            Graphic Novel

Published:                      2016

ISBN:                              9780785185185

This book is well made but does suffer the problem of a lot of hardcover comics in that it can be difficult to see the inside parts of the panels. It has a dust jacket that has different art to the actual cover.

 This book centers around a city set in the living dead universe that is ruled by vampires and holds gladiator style games pitting zombie against zombie. 

 The art is pretty good, and has that realistic cartoon look to it. I did have to look twice at a few of the faces to remind myself who they were though. I am not sure about the colouring, it looks very dated but may have been a design choice to show that mot of the panels take place in darkness or shadows.

 The story is cool, who doesn't want to see vampires verses zombies, but this doesn't really give us that. Its still a good story though and shows how some of the humans of the living dead universe have taken back a city from the dead, but perhaps not without some help from an altogether different kind of undead horror.

 Now i would recommend this to a fan of zombie comics, or Romero's work, but the hard cover is a little pricey. Wait for a sale and snap it up with unholy delight.

 

Book Review: Toe Tags

 In memory of George Romero who introduced the zombie genre to a mainstream audience. 
 

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Toe Tags

The Death of Death

Author:                          George Romero

Publisher:                      DC Comics

Type:                              Soft Cover

Pages:                             144

Genre:                            Graphic Novel

Published:                      2014

ISBN:                              9781401249533

 Toe Tags was a DC mini series gathered here in one paperback.
The book is well built and colourfull. I am not actually sure if this work exists in the living dead universe, it seems like it could though, as it shows zombies with variable degrees of intelligence, tool use and comprehension. 

 The story resolves around a man who may or may not be an actual zombie and his elephant friend, He, the man, not the elephant must make a choice as to whether he belongs with the living and the dead.

 The art is pretty consistent thorough. Its kind of got that realistic cartoon feel to it in my opinion. Sadly i did have to wonder what the hell was going on in a few of the panels, as i felt what was being shown was not entirely clear.

 The story is an interesting one, it has a lot of good concepts and elements. But unfortunately i don't feel these elements are fleshed out enough, people seem to be introduced for no real reason, and alliances seem to change suddenly. It really feels rushed to me, like if given maybe double the number of issues the story would really shine.

 Its cheap enough to pick up for any zombie, or Romero fan, but there are better zombie comics out there.

Book Review: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Omnibus 1-7

 Buffy The Vampire Slayer OMNIBUS 1-7

 

This is going to be a little different as we are going to look at an entire series of books. I won’t go too in-depth into each story or each book, this is a guide to help you decide if you want these or not. All these graphic novels are published by Dark Horse.

The Buffy the vampire slayer omnibus comes in seven volumes, starting off at a retelling of the original movie and moving all the way to the end of the television series. I should note that pretty much everything in these comics happens “off screen” in relation to the TV show.

The books themselves are well made, with bright colourful art, they do suffer somewhat from the problem that a lot of graphic novels suffer from, and that is “hidden crack”, I am not sure if it has a real name, but this is where it is difficult to see the entire panels of art or dialog in the middle or “crack” of the book. This was not a consistent issue, which kind of made it more obvious where it did occur.

One of mine did have an issue with the binding, but I purchased it as “nick and dent” so that was expected.

The stories are a varied lot, with some funny and sad moments, the dialog was very good and I found myself actually reading with the TV characters voice.

The art varies a lot between stories and volumes, but is generally of a consistent quality. There are a few very simple short stories with very cartoony art, but these are the exception.  I was kind of surprised to see bat-like monsters hanging out with the vampires at first. Then I realised they were also vampires, being in comic form they could explore more the idea that the vampire grew more monstrous over time. Some lucky vampires started off their undead existence looking like man-bat from batman.

All in all this was a great read, and really made me realise how much I missed shows like this. I am happy I purchased this and can recommend it to any fan of the show. I don’t know how consistent or coherent the whole would be if I had not seen the TV show, I would definitely watch that first.

 I am seriously thinking about grabbing the continuation of the TV show in graphic novel form. 

 Volume:              ISBN:                                PAGES:

1                                 978-1-59307-784-6                                          312
2                                 978-1-59307-836-3                                          316
3                                 987-1-59307-885-0                                          302
4                                 978-1-59307-968-0                                          368
5                                 978-1-59583-225-3                                          368
6                                 978-1-59582-242-0                                          388
7                                 978-1-59582-331-1                                          404