Book Review, Graphic Novel (sort of): ZOMBIES

Contrary to popular perception, zombies weren’t invented by George Romero in 1967. The idea of a zombie is much older, though Romero is mostly responsible for institutionalizing the idea that zombies were mindless creatures that just want to eat flesh and brains. Before Romero, zombies usually weren’t considered mindless creatures, but instead, were often viewed as intelligent creatures raised from the dead for a particular purpose or to serve an evil master. Many times, these creatures could talk and think. This can clearly be seen in ZOMBIES: THE CHILLING ARCHIVES OF HORROR COMICS the latest collection of classic horror comics from IDW. The book brings together some of the better and a few of the not-so-good zombie comics from the 1950s.

Some of the art in this book is quite impressive and some of the artists went on to much bigger things, such as Wally Wood, Jack Cole, and Gene Colan. Many of the stories (though not all of them) contain some sort of moral, an idea later carried over into the hugely influential EC Comics. A few of the stories feature adventurers or detectives who run into an army of zombies.

The paper of ZOMBIES is of a higher quality than normal and though the images are reproduced in stellar detail, they retain the look and feel of the original and sometimes grittier comics.

Overall, this is a great collection of comics. Recommended for comic collectors and fans of the zombie genre.