Book Review: A IS FOR ASTEROIDS, Z IS FOR ZOMBIES

Told in rhyming verse, A IS FOR ASTEROIDS, Z IS FOR ZOMBIES is actually a story within a story. Timmy, a young boy, is having trouble sleeping because of his fears about asteroids and zombies. His dad wants to help him and remembers a book that Timmy's aunt gave him for Halloween. Timmy's Daddy finds the book and reads it to himself to see if it's something that might help Timmy. The book is A IS FOR ASTEROIDS, Z IS FOR ZOMBIES and the book not only leaves the father shocked, but utterly frightened himself.  Zombies get more than one several stanza in the book and seem to be the book's main focus. Personally, I liked the entry for "L" best:  "L is for legions of lawless marauders who'll come for the family: Mom, pop, sons, and daughters."  I enjoyed A IS FOR ASTEROIDS, Z IS FOR ZOMBIES. It's the type of book just right for people with a warped and slightly wicked sense of humor. Although it won't be an issue for most of the people buying this book, it should be noted that the book does have a slight left political bent (the "T" entry is for Trump, for instance).

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.