Written by Dan Abnett
Illustrated by I.N.J. CulbardAnother vampire/zombie comic? Really, Vertigo? Trust us. This is different.In post-Victorian England, nearly everyone of the upper classes has voluntarily become a vampire to escape the lower classes who are all zombies. Into this simmering cauldron is thrust Chief Inspector George Suttle, a lonely detective who’s got the slowest beat in London: investigating murders in a world where everyone is already dead!But when the body of a young aristocrat washes up on the banks of the Thames, Suttle’s quest for the truth will take him from the darkest sewers to the gleaming halls of power, and reveal the rotten heart at the center of this strange world.THE NEW DEADWARDIANS is brought to vivid life by fan-favorite writer Dan Abnett (RESURRECTION MAN, LEGION LOST) with art by newcomer I. N. J. Culbard (At The Mountains of Madness).
Well, looks like Vertigo successfully out-snarked me with their own solicitation. Guess there’s nothing left but for you to follow the cut and see my thoughts on their newest miniseries.
Purposeful or not, one of the things that makes the first issue of “The New Deadwardians” stand out is the complete lack of any terror. The issue opens with a grisly murder scene, and our protagonist, George Suttle, does not even bat an eye. His manservant and the police that arrive do show some disgust, but not nearly enough to be proportionate to the horrific acts going on on-panel. It makes sense, though – zombies and gruesome deaths are probably not quite as off-putting when you are one of the more elegant and glamorous members of the living dead. If anything, the lack of any sort of dread makes the issue that much more discomforting; the readers find themselves in a world where their own perceptions don’t fit in, making the landscape seem even more alienating. Unfortunately, this is both a blessing and a curse: yes, this allows the book to reach a tone that no other vampire, zombie, or even vampire/zombie hybrid book on the market has, but it also makes it hard to care about Suttle and the problem he is facing. It is not pronounced enough to discourage the audience from reading, but it certainly does not make for the most exciting read.
Dan Abnett seems exploring the roots of zombies and vampires in this miniseries, and aligning them with aspects of their literary history that are directly opposed to each other. Since George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, and made even more apparent in Dawn of the Dead, zombies have been associated with consumerism, or gluttony, while vampires have consistently been considered creatures of lust. Abnett, however, is interested in themes that, while long present, have not been given as much consideration. The idea of vampires as nobility has been there since the beginning – Dracula himself, while not necessarily the first vampiric antagonist, was a count – and even though not all vampire stories feature creatures of the night that are from the upper class, it is still a common trend. Likewise, if zombie movies are saying something about the problems of consumerism, the zombies themselves are simultaneously victims and perpetrators of said consumerism – otherwise known as the working class. This awareness and consideration of the history behind the two horror staples makes the series clever, rather than the cash-grab that a vampires versus zombies story might have been under anyone else’s pen.
Artist I.N.J. Culbard seems like a very unique choice for a series like this, but a look at his bibliography shows that he has also worked on adaptations of tales by both H.P. Lovecraft and Arthur Conan Doyle – an excellent background for someone working on a comic that blurs the lines between horror and mystery. Culbard’s line work is highly stylized yet clean, looking more like a New Yorker cartoon than a mainstream comic book, and ideal for the tone of the writing. Many artists with similar styles suffer from a lack of motion, but Culbard has no such problem; even the panels that are similar in composition have enough of a difference in posture and the like to make it clear that movement has occurred (take note, big name DC/Marvel artists who draw the same head three panels in a row). Eisner Award winner Patricia Mulvihill does an equally excellent job with her coloring, perfectly complementing Culbard’s style. Culbard’s art is the kind that would quickly deteriorate from over-rendered coloring, and Mulvihill’s use of typically only two shades of a color and minimal blending are essential to making Culbard’s art sing as well as it does in this issue.
At first, I was highly skeptical of this series, but the first issue reveals that there is a lot more depth lurking behind the core idea than originally believed. There is only one problem, but it is a big one: the aforementioned distance between the protagonist and the reader. No matter how interesting Abnett’s take on vampires and zombies might be, it is hard to remain interested when the main character and the narrative itself are not equally interesting. Still, this is only the first issue; there is still plenty of time for Abnett to get the reader invested in more than the concept. Hopefully it and Culbard’s delightful art are enough to carry readers to that point.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Buy it!
