Comic Book Features
What's with the Zombies?
By Juan Carlos Marvez Apr 3, 2009, 4:45 GMT
I just thought, “ok... the 90’s were the Vampire decade, (thank you Anne Rice) and now the 2kays are the zombie decade (thank you 28 Days Later)” and that it was just a lot of people being hack, but then I found myself asking “Well, what is it with the zombies?
"Crossed" (Ennis, Burrows; Avatar Press), "The Walking Dead"(Kirkman, Moore; Image Comics), "Zombie Tales"(Various, Boom-Studios) “The Stand" (Aquirre-Sacassa, Perkins; Marvel)
A non-comic book fan person walking into a comic book shop today (maybe spurred on by a recent viewing of “WATCHMEN”) drawn in by all the really cool, colorful comic artwork grouped into superhero, fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, might notice that there are also many covers depicting gruesome rotted corpses shambling towards them, that they make up a genre unto themselves.
They may find themselves asking, “What’s with the zombies?”
Good Question.
I will try to make some sense out of this not-so-new phenomenon, but first I have to come clean. You see, I thought I was above this zombie craze; this cheep band wagon jumping fad that seems to be over-used to power the premise of any video game (Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, Dead Rising) or comic book and many movies this decade.
I just thought, “ok... the 90’s were the Vampire decade, (thank you Anne Rice) and now the 2kays are the zombie decade (thank you 28 Days Later)” and that it was just a lot of people being hack, but then I found myself asking “Well, what is it with the zombies?
Why does it still work so well? Why does it still sell? People just really can’t get enough of that delicious scary zombie goodness?” Why now? And so I found myself wading into these waters to see if there was something I could find to help me understand this craze.
I know that for many of you, I am behind the curve on this, but there are still a lot of people who just walked into this who need to be filled in.
Touching upon only a few books in this genre, mostly through random chance, I found myself flinching for the first time in a long while just from reading, and I think I got my fill of zombies, so I apologize in advance if I don’t mention your favorite (out of the many) zombie comic books out there (a fellow can only take so much), so feel free to leave the name of the zombie book you recommend at the end of this post.
Now I understand that writing about “The Walking Dead” (Robert Kirkman, script-Tony Moore-art; Image Comics ) a comic book that is going on issue #60 soon (which is five years in monthly time) undermines the notion that I review comics.
Good. I don’t want you to think I’m reviewing these books, so much as using them for a guide to a world I want to understand.
And besides I’m not well known enough to receive advance previews of anything. I like to think of myself as being more like Adrian Veidt a.k.a. Ozymandias, standing before his bank of Television sets tuned to all the world’s channels, trying to discern important trends that can reveal the ‘collective unconsciousness’ or the ‘zeitgeist’ of a society – ok, that’s a little lofty, in the case of comic books it’s more like picking through entrails, but you get the idea.
Like any fad that returns for a revival, zombies never went away (just like swing dancing prior to the mid 90's - and anytime there is a, yes it still happens, yo-yo craze at American public schools).
Originally the zombie was a person under the spell of a powerful sorcerer who could reanimate the corpse of a victim in order to control it like a mindless automaton, as a laborer or slave. This is an ancient African mystical belief that was brought to the new world with the African mystics who were brought as slaves, and forms part of the basis of what is now identified as “Voodoo” - first centered in Haiti, but since spread to other Caribbean islands that had large slave populations.
At first this idea of a controlling sorcerer remained in western importations of the zombie myth, so before mentioning George Romeo's seminal work, let me briefly point to the example of a traditional depiction of zombies in the Bond movie "Live and Let Die"(1973), a more mainstream point of beginning.
Set in the Caribbean islands and Louisiana, the film replaces the super technologically equipped villain who usually serves as Bond's nemesis with a traditional "Bokor" or voodoo priest, who not only employs zombies for henchmen but also attempts to go as far as trying to ‘zombie-fy’ Bond’s girlfriend of the moment before being stopped by our favorite MI-6 agent with his signature heroics.
But yes, it is George Romeo’s movie “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), made half a decade earlier, that is universally regarded as introducing the ‘modern’ zombie into western pop culture. A very simple movie that eschewed the usual story structure of protagonist/antagonist (and the ultimate defeat of the latter by the former as climax), and instead leaves the viewer with no resolution.
By retaining the “rising from the grave” element of the zombie mythos but discarding the idea of the controlling sorcerer, Romero introduced the first two basic elements that have become staple in all modern “zombie dawn” stories.
First, the idea that the bite of a zombie turns a person into a zombie, without the traditional device of a Bokor Priest Romero needed to account for the origin of his zombies and so perhaps consciously (or unconsciously) established the second crucial idea of this genre, that the controlling force behind the zombies or the reason for their existence is unknown.
Both of these ideas return powerfully in Stephen King's novel “The Stand”, which while not being a zombie story per se - the zombie bite is replaced by exposure to the super flu, and results in death not “zombification”, but stay with me - the novel did “flesh out” and add to the implications tactilely eluded to in Romeo’s film.
But King added the crucial third element - the “in medias res” opening, the “all of the sudden it’s happening now and nobody knows why” that starts every current zombie horror epic.
King also introduced the idea that it is scarier when we suspect the unknown force behind the sudden rise of corpses is not a sorcerer but earthly powers and subservient science, that through callousness or neglect has suddenly loosed grim horrors upon an unwitting population (less subtlety – “it’s a MILITARY/GOVERNMENT experiment gone bad!”).
The importance and resonance of this concept cannot be over stated. In a way it can be said that the entire crop of zombie-themed comics and movies of today appropriate these Stephen King ideas, and that the prominent distinguishing characteristic that helps to sort them out is the degree of subtlety or brazenness used when borrowing these concepts.
At this point it is impossible to not mention the movie “28 Days Later”, its 2002 debut serves as a coincidental or inspirational starting point for the current zombie craze (Quickly followed by Simon Pegg’s prescient spoof “Shaun of the Dead” 2004).
Communications Majors in college are taught that during a time of war there is a rise in Horror movies, and so returning to our idea of Ozymandias watching all those TV sets tuned to every channel, we would be forced to ask ourselves if the sudden interest and depictions of zombies on so many “channels” –retail entertainment distribution channels that is- video games (Dead Rising – Left 4 Dead), comics, movies, etc - isn’t our ‘collective unconscious’ trying to tell us something.
Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead” with art by Tony Moore debuted in 2003, and is still lumbering along relentlessly much like the zombies portrayed within its covers.
Kirkman makes the point in his introduction to the Vol I “Days Gone Bye” trade paperback collecting issues 1-8, that his intent was not to scare but to give rise to ‘cautionary’ questions.
The back cover blurb asks the reader “How many hours are in a day when you don’t spend half of them watching television? – When was the last time any of us REALLY worked to get something that we wanted? – How long has it been since any of us really NEEDED something that we WANTED?-”.
The obvious symbolism is apparent, and is illustrated through out with great dexterity by Tony Moore. The story is quite traditional in it’s inception, complete with protagonist police officer being shot on page one and waking up alone in a hospital some days later on page two, to a world taken over by Zombies.
Again, I am NOT suggesting a lack of originality on Kirkman’s, part. At this point the plot elements of a zombie tale should be looked upon as having the same role or significance as the rules of writing a haiku- absolutely required or the poem is not a haiku. Kirkman’s book actually has a lot of subtle mercies of character development and relationships when compared to, say, Garth Ennis’s “Crossed”, but it is a gory frightening zombie tale none the less.
Spared only perhaps by the black and white line art – an appropriate light and fast style that fits the tone and ‘seriousness’ of the work. The reader is exposed to the now common elements of a world suddenly gone mad without explanation, where the ‘un-infected’ try to survive surrounded by the mass of mindless cannibals that beset them at every turn. It is a book that explores the full range of implications inherent in such a setting.
Obviously, the Zombies are a metaphor for a great indifferent population that succumbs to the ultimate extreme in anti social behavior, reduced to worse than animals. The zombie is mindless, serving no purpose other than feeding on other humans to infect them with the ultimate malaise adding to the members of a population that is no longer a society.
But that’s the easy allusion to make, deeper messages arise and their meanings are enhanced by looking at the particular ways in which the ‘zombie dawn’ or the behavior of the zombies is portrayed in each individual offering
Particularly when it comes to Garth Ennis’s “Crossed” (Garth Ennis, script with Jacen Burrows art; Avatar Press) published monthly (or best effort). This is a new book which is not even up to issue 5 yet and is worth getting in on if you can find it – (and I do mean buying all the back issues). It just so happens that “Crossed” and Marvel Comics adaptation of “The Stand” both hit the stands at around the same time, thus giving me the idea for the obvious comparisons I make here.
First off, let me say this about “Crossed” – It is a most offensive and decadent comic book (which is par for the course for Garth Ennis).
It shocks my sensibilities and gives me no small shame from the fact that I cannot wait for the next issue and cannot put it down until I’ve finished reading it in about seven breathless minutes usually in my car before I even get into the front door of my house with the comics that I have brought home to read. Garth Ennis has really ‘out Garth Ennised’ himself this time.
Perhaps the most popular writer to ever depict John Constantine, Garth Ennis has been famous, or notorious if you will, for visceral plots that have crossed the line for more than one publisher who has dropped him, plots that defy even the most jaded movie producer’s desire to bring to life on the big screen.
The list of credits for Garth Ennis goes on and on (Preacher) and he doesn’t need me to convince you of his critical success and well known detractors. It’s as if he has a dial that he can set from ‘slightly uncomfortable but inherently worthwhile plot’ ’to ‘absolute visceral cringing with no underlying message.’ For “Crossed”, he has set the dial to a position I cannot discern, or perhaps he is constantly twisting it for best effect.
The ‘zombies’ in “Crossed” are never referred to as such and are instead referred to by the (infectious?) markings on the skin of their face, a rash that appears as a reddened cross down the nose and across the eyes. Ennis takes elements inherent in the genre and gives them new twists or expands on their implications.
In Issue 0, in a scene reminiscent of the Texas Gas Station at the beginning of “The Stand”, we, like the characters, are introduced to the Crossed without any preliminaries, an ordinary day of ‘regulars’ is interrupted suddenly by chaos crashing in.
In “The Stand”, it’s a car driven by the dying ‘patient zero’ of the ‘super flu’ and in “Crossed” it is one of the facially disfigured infected ‘crossed’ striding into a dinner to attack patrons.
Ennis is a master of taking an idea and ‘cranking it up to eleven’ and he gives the ‘zombie dawn’ the same treatment. Throwing away the waking ‘stranger in a strange land’ device and ‘upgrading’ the creeping subtlety of King’s secretly spreading super-flu with a sudden unknown trigger that is switched on with pervasive instant chaos and anarchy resulting. Ennis keeps to the traditional idea of not explaining (at least not in the beginning) how and why? Chemical weapon unleashed? Biological accident? – It’s not important, not in the face of survival from the Crossed.
Not content with carrying out the premise of the ‘zombie dawn’ to it’s ultimate manifestation, Ennis’s ‘crossed’ are a new breed of ‘zombie’ that have been cropping up here and there- so called ‘fast zombies’, but Ennis ups the ante further by making them cooperative and ‘tool using’. “Whatever a crossed could do before it was crossed it can still do ... if it could drive a car or operate a tank, it still can”.
The metaphor of the zombie as representing the indifferent masses is taken a step further here, these are not icons for a consumer society represented as mindless cannibals, Ennis’s “Crossed” seem to symbolize a corrupt indulgent society actively interested in depravity and debasing victims for pleasure.
Beyond mere killing the “Crossed” seem to have succumb to an evil allure, becoming more powerful symbols of everything the zombie is meant to represent. The crossed don’t just want to eat you, they want to make you one of them and apparently they make you like it as we see the transformation on the faces of the crossed AND THEIR VICTIMS succumbing to base pleasures at the hand of their tormentors or killers as they cross the threshold from victim to ‘crossed’..
I mean everything that is implied by the last paragraph, I will not spell it out here – read the comic, it is as ‘bad’ as it sounds.
That brings me to the rest of the ‘review’ part of this posting. Read “The Walking Dead” if you want the one book that encapsulates everything about the zombie craze in one title. It’s available in collected anthologies that reproduce the entire monthly run, 8 issues per volume very reasonably priced (it’s in black and white).
Pick up a copy of “Zombie Tales” Vol. I published by Boom Studios if you want to dip your toes in the water but are reticent to commit to an ongoing series. Even though there are several volumes in the series each one is more or less self contained and like all Boom Studios trade paperbacks, always an absolute pleasure from a book lover’s point of view. The size, heft, and feel of the edition and the tactile sensation of the quality paper used are as satisfying as the art and story contained.
I cannot recommend highly enough the series of mini-series that Marvel is publishing to adapt “The Stand” for comic book form. By breaking the book down into several 5 part mini-series, writer Roberto Aquirre-Sacassa and artist Mike Perkins are presenting a faithful rendering of the King novel.
The first series “Captain Trips” which covers the first, oh, quarter of the novel, has just concluded with issue 5. But thanks to wild popularity and second printings, it is still available in its entirety at most any comic shop (and it’s just been released as a hard bound trade edition). The second mini-series has already been launched with “The Stand: American Nightmares” no. 1 available now.
So what are the zombies trying to tell us? Or rather, what is our collective unconscious trying to tell us with so many zombie tales everywhere?
Why the resurgence now? “28 Days Later” drops in ’02, “The Walking Dead “ in 03 and we can download the new Steam title “Left 4 Dead” where we can meet up with our online friends in groups of 4 as either zombies or zombie hunters fighting each other.
Will it go on and on or abate as we see the peak of it before our eyes? How much longer before there is some cute CGI movie about lovable misunderstood zombies released from Disney-Pixar?
The idea that zombification is the ultimate culmination of the perils of “individualistic” society is part and parcel of the entire zombie ethos and invites all kinds of insights that range from the astute to the ‘ham-fisted’. It’s easy to see the zombies as a metaphor for the indifferent in a detached society, to see ourselves as the protagonist, the only thinking person surrounded by the mindless masses. How can a nation go to war while its population is not paying attention? How could a Prime-Minister, who told flagrant lies about biological weapons being 45 minutes from ready to launch, be re-elected?
Did the streets of Fallujah look like a scene out of a Zombie movie on the fateful day White Phosphorus started falling from the sky? Like the people in these stories did we find ourselves surprised to wake up in a world that went mad while we weren’t looking, a world that had become so devastatingly violent and so far out of our control that we believe ourselves to be powerless survivors?
We are all familiar with the popular aphorisms to ‘stop being a zombie’ the comparisons of doing what everyone else does, following the same trends that everyone else does, listening to the same popular music that everyone else does, to being a zombie (“Can you believe before I met you I actually listened to Creed –gawd I was a zombie!”), but I think this time we are trying to tell ourselves something new.
WE are the zombies, not the corpses that we will suddenly be surrounded by; if we do not wake up and take control of the earthly powers that lately, it seems, we’ve mindlessly ignored.
http://www.avatarpress.com/titles/garth-ennis-crossed/
