Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got two new comics, a sketchbook, plus two hard cover collections:

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

”iZombie – Volume 1: Dead to the World” by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred

I’m a fan of Michael Allred’s work. I’ve bought many issues of “Madman” and “The Atomics” over the years plus various other things he’s written or drawn. That’s why I picked up this volume from Vertigo comics. Allred doesn’t write this one so I was a little apprehensive if I’d like it or not especially because I’m not usually fond of the comics that Vertigo publishes.

“iZombie” is the story of a girl who is a zombie. It pretty much tries to do what I expected it to. It tries to make being a zombie cool. She works as a grave digger by day and has to occasionally eat the brain of one of the people she buries in order to stop from getting all stupid and zombified. SO she’s pretty much a zombie who is not a zombie. Plus she’s a cute young woman. There’s a way to make a zombie cool. Make them smart, sweet, and pretty.

At the graveyard also lives another cute girl. This time she’s a ghost who has been dead since the 1950s and hangs out with the zombie chick. Their other friend is a were-terrier. He turns all shaggy during the full moon but otherwise is exactly the same as when he’s human. Plus there are vampires running around too. All this is unknown to the population at large and all the monsters like it that way. Most are really nice hipster monsters. There is also some ancient order of monster hunters trying to kill all the monsters.

I liked the artwork, of course, because Allred is really good but the story wasn’t up my alley. It wasn’t bad but I didn’t have much interest in it. It seemed to be aimed at the same crowd who likes all the other cool, hip, pretty monsters that have been saturating TV and the movies lately.

Another thing I didn’t like about the story was that they ran into some two thousand year old mummy character who explains the mythology of every monster. I’m a bit tired of such characters. I understand them because they provide answers to questions and can move the plot along but I’m a bit bored with that device. Once again it’s a taste issue more than a quality one.

Overall I’d have to say that “iZombie” just isn’t my cup of tea. It’s alright and I do like the Allred art but I don’t care about making zombies cool.