I Zombie #16 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Michael Allred (artist), Laura Allred (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Shelly Bond (editor)

The Story: Many plot points crash into one another as the zombie outbreak afflicting Eugene, Oregon comes to a climax.

What’s Good: Honestly, the best thing about this comic (and series) is the artwork.  I’ve heard podcasters and bloggers toss rocks at Mike Allred because he always draws the same way, which is true, but if I drew this attractively I’m not sure I’d be in a huge hurry to change things up.  His softer style is the perfect fit for this title where the lead character is a female zombie because he makes Gwyn look soft and feminine (as compared to the statuesque superheroines with the bulletproof bossoms and shiny butts we see in other comics).  Even the guys in this comic are soft and kinda emo.  I’m not sure if that’s just how they appear with Allred’s art or if Robertson tailored the characters to Allred’s strengths, but it gives this comic series a very unique feel compared to anything else on the shelf.

Kudos also to Laura Allred for her wonderful, mostly flat colors.  She has many touches throughout this series, but one of my favorite is the way she colors Gwyn.  Since she’s a zombie, you’d expect her to be kinda grey, right?  Well Allred colors her lavender!  Ordinarily, you’d think, “Why would a zombie be pinkish/lavender?  That makes no sense because they shouldn’t have blood flowing around!” but it works well because it shows that Gwyn isn’t human without making a hideous monster.  I guess Allred could have made her greenish too, but then she wouldn’t be attractive and Gwyn’s ability to be pretty is an important part of this series.

From a story standpoint, a lot of threads come crashing together in this issue.  One of my complaints about the series is that way too many things are going on for a 20-page comic, but at least most of those stories are starting to interweave.  In this issue, Gwyn, Horatio & Spot get out of the sewers and run into those freaky/cool Dead Presidents who we’ve seen in the back-up stories for the last few months.  So, that is two stories pulled in.  Then Diogenes (Horatio’s monster hunter boss) shows up to address a dangling plot point about how Horatio is dating Gwyn (who is a zombie).  And Spot’s grandaddy (who is trapped in a chimpanzee body) shows up with Spot’s geeky friends.  It is all coming together and next issue should be even better.