iZombie, Vol. 1: Dead to the World

This is just great. With Northlanders, Scalped and DMZ all winding to a close, you always start to worry about Vertigo as an imprint without a few successful new titles on the go. Unwritten is doing well, and I really, really want iZombie to do well, too. Set mostly in and around a graveyard in Eugene, Oregon, our heroine is Gwen, a gravedigger and zombie, who is forced to dig up the freshly dead to eat their brains or risk losing her memory and turning into a shambling mindless monster. Her best friend is a ghost, her other friend is a were-terrier. Elsewhere, a coven of vampires is running a paint-ball game and a pair of monster-hunters are in town, hunting for monsters. Gwen's latest meal comes with an unpleasant set of memories: show more namely the murder of the deceased. To calm the dead she promises to track down the killer, but quickly discovers that nothing is as it seems.

Okay, remember Buffy? Remember how cool Buffy was, with her adorable friends and her heavy burden and complicated plots and clever stories? Well, iZombie is nothing like Buffy other than the obvious supernatural stuff. But it's got a vibe to it that fans of Buffy will recognise and appreciate. Strong female characters. Witty script. Dodgy romance. A weird world that promises to get weirder. Mike Allred's beautiful, distinctive pop-art. laura Allred's colours - seriously, lovely colours on a Vertigo book. It's like a goddamn miracle.

It's also, last but not least, a surprisingly fresh take on zombies. Who knew there was still meat on those bones? No? Um. Bringing a dead genre back to shambling life! Better? No? Okay, try: this zombie has beauty as well as braaaains! Oh, feck off. Write your own stupid damn pun. You think this is easy? Huh? Well it ain't. Can't get any apreciation around here, I swear. show less

Pop culture has been in zombie/vampire/werewolf overdrive the past few years, and it’s pretty rare to find a story that has a unique twist on the mythos. iZombie, an ongoing series from Vertigo by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, isn’t the savior of the genre, but it does at least have a few original twists on some tired old archetypes.

iZombie tells the story of Gwen Dylan, an undead gravedigger who has to eat brains once a month to keep from becoming a full-on shambling zombie horror. She doesn’t enjoy the taste at all, describing them as worse than “a cross between motor oil and someone else’s vomit”, but eating them keeps her sane and relatively normal, so she digs up the freshest grave once a month and does what she show more feels is necessary. One unfortunate side effect of brain-eating is that the memories of the deceased come along for the ride, and she finds herself compelled to finish their unfinished business. When the story opens, she eats the brains of a man who may have been murdered, and sets out to solve the mystery.

Gwen’s only friends are Ellie, a ghost-girl who died forty years ago and dresses like one of Austin Powers’ backup dancers, and Scott (aka ‘Spot’), who turns into a “were-terrier” during the full moon, which mostly just means he becomes embarrassingly hirsute. They live in a version of Eugene, Oregon overflowing with supernatural beings; the paintball place down the road is run by a coven of vampires that look like former sorority girls, and a mysteriously menacing man wrapped in bandages may be an ancient Egyptian mummy. Naturally, there are also monster hunters thrown into the mix, one of whom becomes a possible love interest for Gwen, which will surely lead to further complications down the line.

The art, done by the inimitable Michael Allred, is gorgeous, full of thick black lines and his signature Madman style. One particularly impressive spread in the middle of the book shows Gwen walking through the memories of another character. The memories are shown as individual panels in the comic, but are printed in an exaggerated halftone. Gwen seems to exist above the panels, standing between or on top of each individual memory. Allred’s art is easily my favorite part of this book.

The story is good, but mostly setup. The mystery established at the start doesn’t amount to very much, and many of the plot threads in this initial volume are not resolved. However, the explanation of the overal supernatural mythos is thoughtful, and most of the creatures are given an interesting twist. Only the vampires seem particularly cliche – too-beautiful women preying on lonely men. I think there’s potential here, however; Roberson establishes enough interesting threads that I look forward to reading future volumes. show less

Gwen Dylan isn't what one would normally think of when zombies come to mind. She holds down a job, sure, it's as a gravedigger but how else is she supposed to get access to brains? The brains taste awful but eating them is a small price to pay once a month to hold onto who she is and to keep her memories intact. If only her monthly diet didn't also come with the memories of the deceased. It's particularly a pain in the ass when Gwen eats the brain of someone who has unfinished business and wants justice. Gwen feels compelled to help and fortunately, being part of a great scooby group which is made up of her ghostly best friend Eleanor and Spot/Scott the wereterrier makes giving the dead their desire easier..

I chose to pick up this comic show more after falling in love with CW's I Zombie. Naturally the basic premise of a self aware zombie surviving in our world is very much a part of this graphic novel. Even certain things, like Gwen's getting the memories from the brains she eats remains the same; however, there are several characters in the graphic novel which aren't in the show. It's still light, irreverent and a joy to read.

In Roberson's version of the story, the world is much larger. He includes the aforementioned were terrier, ghosts as well as vampires and mummies. I personally love Scott/Spot though he spends way too much time mooning over Gwen. When he is not actively hoping that his relationship with Gwen will turn romantic, he works in IT and uses the internet to hunt down clues to help Gwen give closure to those whose brains she has eaten. Scott/Spot is the classic socially awkward geek but seems to have a bit of a sense of humor about the fact that of all the supernatural creatures he could possibly be, he's a were terrier. Gwen doesn't seem to respect Scott/Spot and I think that it's a stretch to call her feelings friendly. Gwen seems to have no problem using him for his expertise and accepting gifts from him yet, she's absolutely dismissive about his feelings for her and even ditches him when she thinks she sees someone she knows.

Gwen is a much better friend to Eleanor, her ghost bff, who died forty years ago. Eleanor is a a dreamer and would love to see the world but unfortunately, ghosts can only travel to places where they went in their lifetimes and since Eleanor never got far from home, this means her options are really limited. Even with her limitations, Eleanor is not content to just waste the night away at the graveyard with Gwen. Eleanor wants to go out and experience the parts of the world that she is able to. Just because Gwen is better with Eleanor than Scott/Spot doesn't mean that she's great. Gwen never tires about going on about how flighty and emotional that Eleanor is. To me it feels as though she is discounting Eleanor's feelings.

Thus far, the vampires we have all met are women. I like that they stick together and that they are smart business women. In order not to attract attention, they women up a paintball business and then separate their prey from their friends long enough to feed. It's a smart business if you think about, 'cause the food comes to them. It allows them to take enough to survive without leaving any bodies behind. I would really like to know more about the organization of their society.

Roberson does take the time to explain exactly what makes an immortal. We learn that there are two different kinds of souls and depending on which one remains on the earthly plane, or which soul inhabits your body will determine what kind of immortal you will end up being. Unfortunately the explanation was so quick, that I'm not sure I really understood it. We also learned that there's been an organization throughout the years which has actively hunted beings it views as impure, determined to put them back in their graves. Clearly a storyline is building here, particularly given an instant attraction between Gwen and one of the hunters.

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In an era littered with countless zombie stories, mostly mediocre to terrible, Roberson and Allred successfully morph the tired undead concept into a superior 21st century slacker neo-gothic. Eugene, OR grave digger Gwen Dylan lives a most unusual existence. Her closest friends include a ghost and a were-terrier. Her recent crush hunts monsters for a centuries-old secret society. Beautiful, bitchy vampires threaten Eugene. And to top it off, Gwen must eat a fresh brain at least once a month or become a shambling monster straight out of a Romero flick. After consuming a brain, Gwen acquires the deceased's lifetime of memories. Her most recent meal, a victim of foul play, haunts Gwen until she finds his killer. Beautifully rendered by the show more popular Allred, his unusual stylings lend the perfect off-kilter vision required for this oddball concept. The acclaimed Roberson, author of over a dozen prose books and several comic book series including Superman, Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love, Stan Lee's Starborn, and Elric: The Balance Lost, delivers some of his finest and creative comic work to date. The unpredictable and excellent iZombie: Dead to the World deftly recycles and collects over-used ideas into a superior and wholly original graphic novel. show less

You'd think zombies were done to death, right? But this is fresh! A sexy zombie!



iZombie is pure brains candy. And the art is otherwordly: Mike Allred's illustrations are delicious enough to eat. And Chris Roberson’s writing is bone chilled out. This isn’t scary monster land, this is a charming monster party.

The main character, Gwen, is a gravedigger in Eugene, Oregon. She looks relatively normal—mildly goth with ghostly pale skin. Only problem is—she has to eat brains or she'll lose her memory and turn into a shambling terror. Her best friends are a retro-fifties styled ghost (think Goldie Hawn* when she was on Laugh-In) and a were-terrier nerd (as in, a werewolf who was crossed with a terrier instead of a wolf) who plays D&D show more with his buddies. Currently, she’s dating a kung-fu master monster-killer from a CIA-type organization who doesn’t know that she’s a zombie. Also, a gang of tough vampire chicks are running the paintball course outside of town and using it as a way to suck frat-boys dry.

Lovely to look at and playful to read, iZombie is a guilty pleasure for monster-baters everywhere.

*Corrected from Terri Garr who was outstanding in Young Frankenstein even if she wasn't in Laugh-In. Thanks Brad! show less

The opening interlude sets the story up well. In a haunted looking house, an strange urbane guy has a bound-and-gagged young man upstairs and is about to do something awful to him when the doorbell rings. Downstairs are three trick-or-treaters. They are dressed as a very pale shop girl, a ghost in a sheet, and a humanoid Welsh terrier. They have a rude encounter.

Well, how unsurprising. The costumes aren't costumes. The ghost in the sheet is a ghost, a 60s girl with the clothes and IQ to match. Wait, I recall there was more than one kind of 60s girl. This one is a perky girl, thankfully. The Welsh terrier is a were-terrier. Poor kid. Bad enough to have a curse that turns you into a monster, but a curse that turns you into a joke?

The pale show more girl of course is our heroine, Gwen Dylan. She makes a living as a gravedigger. Seriously. She does need to eat brains and she does get memories from her meals. In this story, she eats the brain of the unfortunate young man, discovers the details of his death, and goes after the strange guy. Here is where the resemblance to the TV procedural ends, sharply. Strange guy is an kind, urbane man. The murdered young man was a fiend. The strange guy mentors our girl, laying out the book's rich, fascinating mythology. And then the story ends, abruptly, leaving me wanting more.

Well, it doesn't end before Gwen gets involved with a monster hunter who wants to kill her kind and doesn't know what she is and yawn. It also ends before Gwen and her gang meets a local den of beautiful young women vampires who run a nighttime paintball camp so they can feed in moderation without killing anyone. show less

Read this after watching season 1 of the show on Netflix. Given that the show uses comic book art in its opener and scene wipes, I wasn't expecting the comic book to be so very, very different from the show. Almost everything except the basic premise of "cute zombie girl" was changed! I'm experiencing feelings normally reserved for the inverse experience of seeing a book adapted into something strange!

Did I like or not like? My enjoyment of the show is intruding, I think. I'm not sure what to think of vampires, were-terriers, ghosts... The story did feel like it lost steam during Amon's backstory/world building dump. Shortly after, there was a laughable series of panels when Gwen realizes she doesn't remember her death that was just show more stilted. The art is nice enough, at least.

I guess I'll read another volume of it. It took no time at all to get through and I didn't hate it, so why not.

In the realm of "suspension of disbelief is a funny thing": supernatural stuff, great! Teams of people digging graves by hand without a backhoe in sight? Pfft, yeah right. show less