"Everything Dead and Dying," is a new comic series published by Image. Written by Tate Brombal (who did a fantastic, "Barbalien," series) and featuring art by Jacob Phillips (I loved his work on the, "Newburn," comic), it is a horrific zombie tale with a clever twist. Jack Chandler is the only person who survived a strange virus that quickly turned everyone in his rural Canadian farming town into a zombie. He found himself bitten, scratched, and everything else, but didn't change. So, he just kept life going and made sure the town, "Survived," thanks to how he was immune.
He gets up, cares for his zombie husband and adopted daughter, drives through town, tends to the crops and (living) animals on his farm, goes home, and keeps the zombies fed with some of the ground-up animals when he isn't cooking food for himself or eating his crops. The zombies seem to almost have some kind of built-in muscle memory, so they go about their days paying Jack little mind. It is an interesting take on the post-post apocalypse, AKA what happens after the World ends and life settles into a new rhythm. Without giving away too much (although even the solicitation for the series itself spoils a lot), Jack may not be the only one who survived the end of the World, and I definitely look forward to the next issue and its exploration of whether Jack is less alone than he initially believed.
Brombal's writing makes us really care for Jack and see the mix of emotions he has being essentially left behind when everyone else got sick and suddenly changed. A town full of people that didn't accept or like him now is solely reliant on the one immune person present to keep stuff running (including a hydroelectric water mill that powers everything). Jack knows his family aren't human anymore, but he still loves them and the town. Phillips' artwork is superb as well, flashing between the happy past and the dreary present with clever touches that give a weird calm to both the, "Before," and the, "After," of everything going wrong. It is surreal how Jack's life didn't change too much, through a lot of effort for sure, even if everything else went to Hell. Phillips really sells the quiet and eerie horror of going through the motions day after day when there is nothing else left to do.
"Everything Dead and Dying," #1 is an excellent start to this series. It establishes everything we need to know, gives us the routine, and then ups the stakes at the issue's end so as to make it clear we're in for wild ride. In this day and age, when you'd think every possible take on zombies has been done, it is exciting to get a new twist on the formula!
5 out of 5 Stars.
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