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Raise the Dead #1
“The Beginning of the End”
Book Released: 04 Apr 2007
Posted 02 May 2007
Writer: Leah Moore and John Reppion
Artist: Hugo Petrus
Letters: Simon Bowland
Colors: Ivan Nunes
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
3.50 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Matt Yocum
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Somehow they did things right in Raise the Dead using the
ingredients of every standard zombie cliché. This story from Dynamite
Entertainment starts with a group of disparate people stranded in a
café as they fight off a horde of zombies. Some back story is
offered as the living recount what they heard on TV, that an outbreak
started in Pittsburgh and rapidly spread.
So many clichés make up this story. But writers Leah Moore
and John Reppion make it work as they tell the tale in a Lost
kind of way, adding characters’ back stories throughout the
comic, giving depth to the nameless faces of the living we see in the
“So many clichés make up this story, but writers Leah Moore
and John Reppion make it work.”
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diner. This method of flashbacks works well in Raise the Dead,
but from time to time the jump from past to present proved a little
bumpy and could have used either some setting captions or a different
coloring scheme to indicate the two timelines.
The best part of the book was the art. If this book is any
indication, Hugo Petrus is a name that will rise. He finds the right
balance between incredible detail, great facial expressions, and
flowing action. And he’s able to do one thing that’s very
difficult for artists — he makes little kids look like real kids
and not like tiny versions of adults. The other part of the art that
stood out was the work by colorist Ivan Nunes. I’ve not seen
colors this dynamic outside of the Big Two. He reflects everything
from the glow of a TV screen to a sickly hue on the skin of the dead.
The worst part of the book is displayed on the back side of the
front cover. Depicted there are five different versions of the cover
for Raise the Dead. You have: standard Cover A by Arthur Suydam
(Marvel Zombies covers), Cover A black and white incentive
cover, Cover A negative incentive, standard Cover B by Sean Phillips
(Marvel Zombies interiors), and Cover B enhanced cover.
I’m not drawn into the ploy of buying all copies since the 1990s
crushed that phase of my comic collecting career. I’ll stick to
one copy and focus on what’s between the covers.
Overall I liked Raise the Dead enough to keep it on my pull
list. I genuinely grew interested in this group of survivors, and I
want to see what happens next as they exit the diner and enter a
strange, horrible world.
I just hope readers don’t burn out on zombies quite yet.
There’s still a little juice in the genre. If you like horror
and deep characterization, feel free to wander over to my own little
story called Devolution.
Comments about my comments? Feel free to email me at myocum@comiccritique.com.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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