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Art by Chip Zdarsky. Copyright 2002.

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REVIEW: ZOMBEE
by Dan Coyle

Writer: Miles Gunter
Artist: Victor Santos
Centerpiece: Kelsey Shannon
Logo: Anthony Schiavino
Book Design: Shannon and Gunter
Publisher: Image Comics
Available: Now
144 pg - BW - $12.99

Plot: A Samurai, a Zen Monk, and a Ninja walk into a bar... FILLED WITH ZOMBIES!!! It's a war with the undead in feudal Japan.

Critique: Near the midpoint of the Image graphic novel Zombee, there's a double page spread of the three heroes. There's no context for this, and it's almost like one of those commercial breaks you see on anime, that come up to remind you what you're watching. This is inserted at a point which could be called a cliffhanger, and it's indicative of the book's charm: Zombee has no aspiration than to be an action packed thrill ride, and for the most part, it succeeds.

One of my favorite books of 2002 was Bastard Samurai, written by Mike Avon Oeming and Miles Gunter, with art by the illustrator behind the aforementioned double page spread, Kelsey Shannon. God knows what "Pop Comics", a term being tossed around at that time, was supposed to be, but Bastard Samurai was very poppy: a tale of a young man trained to be a warrior for the Yakuza, who realizes he's just their pawn. Filled with fun dialogue, crazy action, and an intensity that rivals some feature films, Bastard Samurai is well worth checking out when Image releases a new printing in April. Oeming, of course, has gone onto bigger projects at the House of Ideas, along with several creator owned things, Shannon has moved from comics to film work, and Gunter is currently co-writing the acclaimed Image title NYC Mech with Ivan Brandon (who has also collaborated with Oeming, on last year's brilliant The Cross Bronx). But Gunter hasn't quite ventured out of the co-writing arena till now, with Zombee, drawn by Victor Santos, best known for drawing a short story in ACTOR Comics Presents Vol. 1 written by- hey, whaddaya know- Mike Oeming.

Zombee lets the reader know it'll be slightly off-kilter from a typical genre grind in the opening pages: the story's heroic samurai, Fumeaga, isn't on a quest for justice nor honor, but to look for a replacement doll for his lord's daughter, after it's inconsiderately destroyed by her brother. So Fume finds himself along the road to a neighboring city, when he's attacked by two characters which may seem quite familiar to fans of samurai manga, in a hilarious zombified parody. From there he follows Romero- esque arc of retreating into a domicile where several survivors of the "zombee"plague have holed up. Among those survivors are a ninja named Ishida who speaks rather anachronistically: when confronting a group of infected young warrior trainees, he sneers "You kids fight like old people screw!" Eventually, they hook up with a silent monk named Uzu (I cringed at the "silent warrior" cliche, but Gunter manages to put a cute spin on this in the book's final pages), to purge the land of the zombee plague.

While it's certainly spare on plot, Zombee is by no means spares on action- the trio of heroes are almost in a video game. Ever play one of those sidescrollers where the enemies get more ridiculous in design and more powerful with each level? Zombee is kind of like that, only less repetitious and more fun. The story makes no pretense of historical accuracy, so Santos is free to go hog wild with more and more elaborate designs- one of them looks like it wandered in from Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! One of the best parts of the book is seeing which weird thing Gunter and Santos have come up with next.

Granted, while no one would accuse Fumeaga, Uzu, and Ishida of being morally complex, deep characters, but Gunter makes them likable enough. Most of Ishida's one liners are priceless, and the contrast between Ishida's flippancy, Uzu's quiet badassery, and Fumeaga's stoic determination is rather appealing, and Gunter gets more mileage out of it than you would think.

Santos' art recalls a mix of Mike Oeming and Matt Smith, the former's kinetic energy and the latter's sense of melancholy, well suited to a violent horror story such as this. There's also a deep manga influence in the action- which can be problematic, however. When the fight scenes are centered on a few characters in a panel it's fine, but there are times- particularly in the final battle, which features an army and our heroes agains the true cause of the zombee threat- where it gets too cluttered and it's hard to tell what's happening. Which is a shame.

The comics world has experienced a rather long lasting zombie infestation, thanks to books like The Walking Dead, Toe Tags, Zebedaiah the Zombie Hillbilly Redneck, and the unstoppable sales juggernaut that is Marvel Zombies. With all that's out there, "Samurai Vs. Zombies!" may seem a high concept worth skipping. But while it won't win an Eisner, Zombee , as an old friend of mine likes to say, "Does what it says on the tin." If you're looking for a nice action adventure that'll put a smile on your face when it's over, take a bite out of this one.

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Dan Coyle is a regular contributor to PopImage.


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