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Review – The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks

By | October 20th, 2009
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Zombies. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re a big part of our modern day pop culture. People LOVE these undead buggers, and ultimately they are the single most popular “villain” of the modern day horror era, no matter what medium you go to. In comic books we are most familiar with Robert Kirkman’s sprawling epic, The Walking Dead. Outside of comic books though, ask anyone what the most popular literary zombie book is and they (if they are in the know) will most definitely tell you it’s Max Brooks’ World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide. Max Brooks is the world’s most knowledgeable source of zombie survival, thus making his book the most trusted survival guide in zombie history. So it’s only natural that, at some point, there would be a natural progression from the strictly written medium to the comic book medium, before undoubtedly being adapted into a feature film or TV series (Brad Pitt’s production company owns the rights to the World War Z film). That transition begins with The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks.

If you read Survival Guide in it’s entirety, then a lot of this will seem very familiar to you. Basically, this book takes a select moments out of the “Recorded Attacks” section of Survival Guide and animates them in all their gruesome history. Starting as early as the Stone Age with a Cro-Magnon man fighting off a virus and using a stone as weapon of choice all the way to the modern day, when the zombie outbreak occurs in the good ol’ US of A. As you read through what is mostly an illustrated tale, you’ll see how people all across time have learned to deal with the zombie outbreaks with little to no information on what they’re up against. You’ll see angry Serbian cossacks eat and murder a town only to find out they’ve eaten the plague, as well as see the post WW2 communist Russians try and utilize the soldiers for warfare, but ultimately every story ends in disaster as all men underestimate the capabilities of the virus.

The writing itself is what we’ve all been used to by Brooks. In fact, it essentially is just copied and pasted from the Survival Guide into this, just broken up into various panels. If you read the Survival Guide, it’ll all seem incredibly familiar, and perhaps somewhat unnecessary. We’ve had two works by Brooks now, and we all know he’s a great zombie story writer. To see his old work simply taken and re-done in this fashion is interesting, but the writing is nothing we’re not already used to. I found myself enjoying the book, but ultimately when I put it down I felt a bit unfulfilled in the writing department. I mean, it’s nothing new. Max Brooks is the world’s “first and foremost zombie expert,” so does anyone else think we could do with some new material? Maybe? I realize that that might not have been the original plan, but it definitely is what I would have preferred. A book of old material with a new face is good and all, but a book of NEW material would have been MUCH better.

What really sells the book is the artwork. While it might not seem familiar, Ibraim Roberson is actually a fairly accomplished artist in comic books today, and you can see why with this book. Ibraim does an amazing job with the book, absolutely solo. His pencil lines are done very well and all of the shading is magnificent. In fact, I can’t get over at how well the man shades. It’s really interesting to read this book knowing what his full colored work can look like, such as his contribution to the X-Men Origins series with the Gambit book. I like seeing artwork before the inner illustrations, and this is what that book essentially is in regards to the art. I absolutely love his artwork, and this is where the majority of the book thrives. In actuality, there isn’t a lot of writing. Each “chapter” is rather short and is made up mostly of the artwork, and this is how we see all of the stories. Ibraim’s ability to translate the few Max Brooks’ words there are into the stories they need to be is uncanny and really quite incredible to read. There are many two page spreads held within the book involving men from different ages killing legions of zombies that are just worth sitting and staring at for a bit in true awe. I can easily say that if it weren’t for the work of Ibraim Roberson, I would definitely find the book to be somewhat of a rip off, even for a fan of this type of work such as me.

Ultimately, if you read the original book, you don’t need this. This essentially is a companion to the last part of the book, offering a visual component to what is already a great read. If you’re into the artwork, like I am, then it’s a nice little addition to your collection, but otherwise it’s not worth the money. However, if you’ve NEVER read the book, then this is a great place to start. It’s an incredibly easy read, well paced and with great art by a very talented artist. I enjoyed it, but I can see why most people already familiar with Brooks’ work wouldn’t need this book. If you really want a zombie comic, stick with The Walking Dead.


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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