Zombies.
We all love zombies, and we all hate zombies. Moreover, we all love to hate zombies. And as the team behind FUBAR knows, there isn’t much that sells quite as well as a good zombie book. Heck, zombies probably outsell Deadpool when it comes to comic books.
With this in mind they’ve created an anthology of interest here, all circling around WW2 with zombies. With it’s release down the road (it’s in the September previews, with the Diamond Order Code above!), I was graciously given a copy to review. Behold my thoughts after the cut.
In very short terms, this is the Inglourious Basterds of zombie comics. The basic premise connecting all these stories is a what if scenario revolving around the dead returning to life during World War II. I’ve read anthologies before, but rarely have I been as entertained throughout as I was while reading FUBAR. This is some damn good zombie fun.
The book also focuses on having it’s cast of writers and artists all hail from the small press world. Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of many of the talent within the book, but don’t be surprised when you hear more from them in the future. In many ways, FUBAR is like a little book of “to watch” talent that I’d like to see more from. There are tons of stand out stories contained within – Mother Russia (my personal favorite), Kilroy Was Here, and Severed, to name a few. It’s a very impressive group working in the comic, all with different takes on one of the most established horror icons today.
Of course, that’s the interesting thing about zombies – as much as they are mindless horrors wandering wastelands in search of their next meal, the zombies have always been an opportunity for writers to explore human nature. Zombies are often used as the fulcrum to larger ideas and commentary. There is plenty of that in FUBAR. Two of the stories, The Valley of Death and Stalemate, create interesting scenarios based around the idea of opposing sides being forced to work together in order to fight off the zombies. Each story brings about very opposing ideas of the nature of war as well as the inherent rivalries contained within. Another story, The Brief, postulates what exactly one is willing to sacrifice when placed in an impossible situation. Zombies aren’t the only monsters at work here.
Unfortunately, there was one story which I didn’t really connect with, entitled Bearer Of Secrets. The story deals with Jews about to be gassed in Auschwitz when a zombie outbreak “saves” them. To be honest, I felt that while every other story in the book did a good job of maintaining a steady walk between infusing itself with “history” and good natured zombie bashing, this one took it a bit too far. It crossed a line for me. As a Jew who has grown up in a community that frequently references the horrific nature of the Holocaust and what it means to us as a people, the story felt rather insensitive. When mentioning this to someone else, I did notice that my sour nature towards this could be due to the fact that we are currently in the middle of Rosh Hashana/Yom Kippur, so perhaps I’m a tad temperamental, but I think there’s a big difference between simply having zombies in war and having zombies in such a specific element of war.
Aside from that one story, though, the 160 or so pages you have of zombie stories and pin-ups make for a very entertaining read. The last time I read a zombie anthology, it was created out of Max Brook’s Zombie Survival Guide. Well, FUBAR takes the really dry and stale nature of that comic (Recorded Attacks) and matches the far more entertaining nature of World War Z with a WW2 flare. If you want to enhance your comic collection with zombie stories beyond just the Walking Dead, FUBAR is the collection for you.
