Paranormal shit has hit the paranormal fan. And it’s time to check in with the working stiffs tasked with containing all that necro-carnage. Wes Craig and Toby Cypress call to order the first meeting of the Local 606.
The Gravediggers Union #1Cover by Wes Craig
Written by Wes Craig
Illustrated by Toby Cypress & Wes Craig
Colored by Niko Guardia
Lettered by Jared K. FletcherDEADLY CLASS co-creator WES CRAIG launches a new series with art by rising star TOBY CYPRESS (Omega Men)! The supernatural world has gone crazy! The apocalypse is coming, and only the Gravediggers Union can stop it! How? Well, first their leader Cole has to find his estranged daughter. But is she the one behind the apocalypse? Wild comedic horror with steroid zombies, monster gods, swamp vampires, ghost storms, and space monkeys! OVERSIZED FIRST ISSUE!
Of all the eldritch evils to befall humanity and plunge us into the wastes of armageddon, none may be so nefarious as bureaucratic red tape. Beneath the late-night double-feature, splatter-house veneer of “The Gravediggers Union” #1, seethes a simmering tension between the boots in the muck who get things done and the asses in office chairs who seemingly tie their hands.
“You tell me you’ve had a number of emergencies at the cemetery. Lots of zombies… You’re concerned about this recent… shall we say, escalation? And so… You want to see a witch about it, see if she can provide some insight?” says Leroy as he sits plump and comfortable behind a desk covered in loose papers and a half eaten hoagie. “Well… I don’t see a problem with that. Sure… Go ahead. Go see this witch, see what she says.”
“You serious, Chief?” replies one of the three gravediggers across the desk. It’s probably Cole. Toby Cypress draws him with a wearisome lean – hard weathered both by age and the sheer brunt of endless undead bro-dude hordes just waiting to get shovelled in the neck – while Wes Craig has characterized him as the seasoned vet whose gut and seen-it-all level headedness have kept him alive through the struggle. And it’s Cole’s gut that’s brought him and the others to Leroy’s office.
“Of course not,” Leroy snaps back. “I’m being sarcastic you dummy. There’s no %$#@ way you’re gonna go see a witch.”
“The Gravediggers Union” #1 seems to be setting up shop as more than just the 7-to-5 grind of the living versus the living dead. And it’s more than the dire, talking-head prognostication in recurring news reports warning of ghost storms and jungle vampires. No, Craig and Cypress stage their ’70s slaughter-flic aesthetic with a lining that’s much more blue-collar in quality. It’s not quite the Haves and the Have-Nots, it’s closer to the Want-Tos and the Can’t/Won’t-Let-Yous. That clever little injection of class struggle brings all the arcane chicanery back down to earth, while helping to distance this debut from the heaps of generic, paranormal stories that collect in comic shops like lifeless corpses. And forget about that old bringing-a-knife-to-a-gun-fight cliche, this one literally has a gravedigger bringing a bucket-scoop excavator to a zombie fight. Its touches like that where this book really lights up.
Visually, Toby Cypress’s art is a mixture of frenzied, gestural violence and world-weary impressionism. There’s a barely-contained chaos to the rhythm of his storytelling that feels as though Jim Mahfood was forcibly made to color within the lines. The sketchy, yet refined linework brings a visceral immediacy to the sequence where Cole and his compatriots shuffle-off a dozen or so (un)mortal coils using spades, pick-axes, and the aforementioned piece of heavy equipment. Yet as scattered as the lines look on the surface – it’s actually evocative of the frantic pace, but I can see how that’s a matter of personal taste – there’s instant clarity to what transpires beat to beat within the battle. It’s as energetic and clear a melee as you’ll see this year.
Ben-day dots abound and thick, inky scribbles douse “The Gravediggers Union” #1 in shadows, grime, and atmosphere. But it’s colorist NIko Guardia who really breathes life into the grindhouse feel. The drab olives greens, tan, and earthen browns are all applied roughly to mimic grainy film stock. And there’s splotches of overexposure and desaturation across all kinds of panels, as if the cheap, worn out film was in danger of melting through on the reel.
Continued belowThere’s interplay between the creators that makes for some dynamic foreshadowing. Catching their breath after the initial fray, Cole sits with fellow old-guard gravedigger Ortiz and theorizes that the recent uptick in undead activity might be signalling the start of something big and might include his daughter somehow. As Cole speaks, the conversation panels are dissected by a series of three images cutting downward diagonally. That these images take a snapshot of a cobweb in the background and close in onto a black widow ensnaring a fly should not be lost on anyone. And not to be outdone by Toby Cypress, Wes Craig takes on art duties for a near wordless prologue of prehistoric primates hauling sacks of neon-green larval goo for what appear to be towering chthonic entities. It’s an unnerving mix of Lovecraft and Kubrick, but any excellent way to get primed for the story to come.
“The Gravediggers Union” #1 is a dirty, working-class ditty. Oversized as it may be, it never overstays its welcome. Craig’s script flails with buoyant abandon before getting stomped down by the weight of union charters. And Cypress’s art is a flourish of sketchbook chic. We all know Cole and his buddies are going to see that witch. We all know more shit is going to hit that fan. And now we all know that this series will be a damn fantastic voyage along the way.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Bro-dude zombies taking selfies – who wouldn’t want to run them through with an excavator?
