Bra, men inte riktigt lika charmig som tv-serien. ( )

The story of a hot zombie heroine (Gwen) who must eat brains to remain in human form, but then is forced to see the past life of the deceased’s brains. (The basic story here is her trying to bring a murderer to justice.) She has an interesting group of sidekicks, including a were-critter (terrier) and a ghost, and has to interact with monster-hunters and vampires. There is an interesting existential discussion of undersouls (appetites and emotions) and oversouls (memories and personalities), where various combinations result in ghosts, poltergeists, vampires, or zombies. Sadly, there is less action than dialogue, saved in part by a good twist at the end and excellent artwork. 2.5 stars. ( )

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 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. ( )

I really liked this graphic novel. These are the first 5 issues in TPB.

It's nothing like the episode of the TV show I saw.

Gwen, a zombie who looks human (but eats brains from a corpse once a month) lives in a graveyard with various supernatural friends. She's a gravedigger and she absorbs the memories of those whose brains she eats. She, however, doesn't remember her former life, or at least not all of it (from what I could tell in these issues).

I really didn't expect this to be so good! I loved the art work and the stories. There are immortals and vampires and monster-hunters. And lots of humor. ( )

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 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. ( )