Sickening Tales Of Horror: I, Zombie Review
I love the idea behind Vertigo's $1 premiere issues. They're a cheap gamble, and even if you don't pick a winner, you're only out a buck, like the lottery. It's a good idea for the Vertigo imprint, whose specialized material is likely to either strike a chord or leave you totally apathetic. So I took a chance on I, Zombie and found myself a little frustrated. The plot definitely has a sense of direction, but the storytelling isn't engaging and plods along, a dangerous trait for a debut issue. One of the many tests of a first issue is whether or not it's hooked you along for the rest of the ride. But that decision deserves a dissection.
Now Chris Roberson knows what he's doing in writing- it's obvious that he's worked out the life of a zombie who operates similarly to Tony Chew's "cibopathy". But the story takes its time to dally on the details of its cityscape and its characters, and ultimately achieves very little. There's little quirks in the details- the way the plain, four-letter names of the gravediggers contrast with those of the monster hunters Diogenes and Horatio, for instance. But there's nothing funny or expository in having the main character Gwen make a misnomer between Sisyphus and Syphilis. We do get interesting glimpses of her character, seeing Gwen as a painter, or in knowing she collects dolls who bear a resemblance to her ghost friend Ellie, but her supporting cast is made out to be only half as interesting. Ellie in particular breaks Kurt Vonnegut's rule "Show, don't tell", being called an action gal character but never saying anything that comes from beneath the surface. Her friend Scot is painted as genuinely awkward, but his alter ego as a "were-terrier" only gets a quick mention.
When it comes to the art done by Michael and Laura Allred, I've got the same mixed feelings. The inking is clear and sells its actors' emotions, but it frequently cops out of what could have been detailed panels. I'm not sold on the pop-art techniques that appear sporadically throughout the story; There doesn't seem to be any reason to its employ, it's there to shake things up now and then. For a book that revolves around "postmortem activity", it doesn't play up the horror element or explicitly dark imagery, so the art is actually well-suited, but there are moments, like Gwen's gory meal, where I would've loved to see a ripped spinal chord and rough-hewn skull fragments, instead of just being told how gross brains are while she eats a mass of red spaghetti that came from a clean black void of a victim's head.
Though recent Vertigo titles have previewed the concluding pages of the issue, Gwen's coming out as a zombie is presented as the big reveal of the issue (Oh, so that's what that cover is all about). And on the last page, she decides to avenge her dinner's murderer, though nothing of her character from earlier scenes indicates that's she's dedicated to justice or any kind of right-doing. This was the big sell of a story, and it could've just as effectively done it on page five. There's talk of a shadowy organization and a gang of vampires who like to be shown wiping their blood-stained lips, why not elaborate on your more threatening aspects and save the characterization for later? I, Zombie shows lots of forethought but poor actualization. I'll be giving this series one more chance to impress, to see if the story is actually capable of getting where it's going, but it won't be a priority read.
Rubber Justice
Posted to Comics, Review on 8 May 2010
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