Books: Zomnibus

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Zomnibus
Vol 1
Written by Shane McCarthy, El Torres and Chris Ryall
Art by Chris Bolton, Enrique Lopez Lorenzana, Yair Herrera and Ashley Wood
2009



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

Well - first of all - top marks for the name. I mean - wow - "Zomnibus" (heh): I was sold. But then - I tried reading the damn thing...

Normally I feel I owe it to you guys to read the entirety of every book I put up here - but with Zomnibus I just couldn't do it. A collection of three different stories (Zombies! Feast! by Shane McCarthy, Chris Bolton and Enrique Lopez Lorenzana; Zombies! Eclipse of the Undead by El Torres and Yair Herrera; Zombies Vs. Robots by Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood) each of which just kinda felt - I dunno - shallow. I love zombies as much as the next person (hell - probably even a little more): but I need my zombie stories leavened with something else besides just zombies - and yeah - I couldn't actually finish any of the three stories. Feast! was the one I got the furthest with - and it was pretty fairly written at the start: but halfway through I realised it was going to nothing more than go through all the basic - seen it all before zombie movie motions. Eclipse of the Undead I couldn't even get into at all - and just flicked through the pages... And Zombies Vs. Robots - which seemed the most promising featuring painted art by Ashley Wood (that I sure many of you would love) seemed amateurish and kinda half-baked. And the art was just too one tone (guys seriously needs to extend his palette beyond that kinda washed out grey).

I realise that this is a pretty damning thing to say: but the whole book somehow seemed like it written for nu-metal fans (they still exist somewhere right?). Kinda lugheaded and - heh - ever so slightly brain dead: like a TV movie instead of the real thing. Oh well.

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Links: Undead In The Head Review, Graphic Novel Reporter Review.

Further reading: The Walking Dead, Crossed, Blackgas, Marvel Zombies, Sweet Tooth.

All comments welcome