After a long, hard day of intense labor and incredible angst, I have found the common desire to sit down with a comic book, relax, and try to ignore the pain from my pulsating sunburn. Enter: Zombie Outlaw by Brian J. Apodaca and B. Paul Jordan.
The story (so far) follows Matt Naismith, K.T. and Will Simers. Matt is a student at Irvine State University who is romantically interested in K.T. and Will is Matt’s resident advisor. Matt asks Will for advice on woo’ing the dear K.T. and Will agrees, conditionally. The condition is that Matt help him in his research for a thesis. This research lands them in a crypt, where they steal the hat from the corpse of a local legend, Will is bitten by said corpse, and the insanity begins.
While this issue is very short, it does deliver on what a first issue should. Vibrant art, introduction to the characters and story line, and teasing just enough at future content that you will want to pick up the second issue. The art style is very humorous, with thick, exaggerated line work, unique and interesting body shapes and sizes, and a good mix of (contrasting) dark atmosphere stirred in.
The issue itself is full color, and the colors are very well done. The high gloss cover features a biting zombie head that I would expect to see inked as a tattoo eventually. It asks the question “What if your resident advisor was a part-time zombie??” Which, to me, hints that Will is going to become a self-aware, if not friendly zombie. I guess we will have to wait for future installments to find out!
You can buy it at comixpress.com, check out the official website, and they have a myspace.
I leave you with this parting shot of the moment just after Will was bitten:
Make you want to see more? I thought so.
