Big surprise. What with THE WALKING DEAD reigning supreme on TV, Artist’s Alley is deluged with zombie books. Well, it usually is, anyway, but considering the ubiquitous nature of this trend, perhaps it taxes one more than usual this time around.
Yet somehow, HOW WILL I DIE sets itself apart, just a little bit. In this world, it seems that not just anybody can be a zombie; you have to be a kid. That’s right, zombie children. Another differentiating factor? The sense of humor. It’s not necessarily a comedy, but it injects just enough irreverence to make it seem real in a way other zombie books just can’t seem to do.
For example, the main character is an unnamed slacker who spends his days eating shitty pizza, smoking weed, and playing video games, rather than working. In fact, when we meet him, he is trash talking a kid on the other end of his online game. When the storm troopers break down his door, his first thought is to shout, “It’s all medicinal, I swear!”
You see, he has no idea that the zombie apocalypse is happening because . . . well, he’s been busy with meaningless things. Later on, when he’s being taken to a safe zone, he jokes that it had better be the zombie apocalypse out there . . . .
And that’s another thing that separates this book from the rest. In most zombie stories, we watch the characters out in the open, doing what they need to survive. You hear about safe zones, but by then, they’ve already been overrun and destroyed. Here, creators Kevin and Megan Bandt (neither is credited with writing or art or anything) give us what it’s like to be in one of those safe zones from day one until the end, when the zombies inevitably win. The safe zone here is a stadium, which brings to mind Hurricane Katrina. After all the rumors of what had happened during that disaster, this husband/wife creative team has a smorgasbord of possibilities open to them.
But one hopes that they’re quick to explain the most baffling part of this book: why is it being narrated by a man living in 16th Century Roanoke?!
HOW WILL I DIE
Created by Kevin and Megan Bandt
Published by CuddleFish Comics
14 pages
$5.00
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