Everything Dead and Dying #1 is the first issue of a five-issue miniseries from Image Comics. It is written by Tate Brombal (Batgirl, Black Hammer, House of Slaughter) and drawn by Jacob Phillips (The Walking Dead Deluxe, News From the Fallout).
Zombies are the monster with a thousand faces. A good artist can do so much with zombies as a concept, and I’ve never felt everything that could be done with them has been done. Image’s Everything Dead and Dying #1 presents a wonderfully exciting and novel take on the undead. Everything Dead follows the life of farmer Jack Chandler in a rural Canadian town after a zombie apocalypse. The first issue switches fluidly between Jack’s dreams of happy family life pre-apocalypse, and the post-apocalypse reality. The setup slowly reveals the world, allowing us to learn about it in small, enticing bites. These morsels make it easy to assume you’re reading a standard zombie apocalypse. Until the twist: Jack is immune. And he’s not killing zombies, he’s co-existing with them.
On its own, the novelty of the story wouldn’t be enough to make it as excellent as it is. Brombal’s narrative tone is grotesquely fascinating with Jack wandering through the world in deadpan grief as he shuffles from one farm task to another. We’re numbed to the world until sudden moments of horror erupt on the page: a child’s rotting face, a chicken getting decapitated, all rendered in the lush inks of Jacob Phillips.
Phillips is an excellent artist for Brombal’s story. His powerful blacks, along with the atmospheric work of colorist Pip Martin (That Texas Blood) creates a lingering feeling of unseen things in the shadows, truths hidden in Jack’s nightmare-riddled psyche.
There’s a certain house style emerging in a lot of Image’s recent titles that falls loosely under the horror genre (Something Is Killing the Children, What’ s the Furthest Place From Here, Ice Cream Man). It’s characterized by heavy black line work and washes of color to create shadow, light, and ambience rather than finer linework. The style is a departure from the classic hyper-scratchy nineties Image comics.
Everything Dead and Dying does trend towards this, but, as with the aforementioned titles, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. The style is emerging in large part because it works well. Phillips’s brushwork stands out a lot on the page, although Martin’s color occasionally overwhelms it at moments when I’d love to see Phillips’s ink popping on the page.
From the start, Brombal’s narrative is as much drama as it is horror, so if you’re someone who was picking up The Walking Dead for Kirkman’s thoughtful character writing as much as for the gore, this is a good next read. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what this team does with the remaining four issues, especially as the end of the first issue really opens up the world and hints at a narrative less wrapped up in Jack’s head.
Creative Team: Tate Brombal (writer), Jacob Phillips (artist), Pip Martin (colorist)
Publisher: Image Comics
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