Battlemouth

Zombies are great, everyone loves them, even Jane Austen (because she IS in fact a zombie). Naturally, as a fan of all things horror, when a new comic book comes out dealing any amalgamation of monsters, I make sure to take a look. A short while back, a book came out written by a new name to comic books, but not a new name to me all together. The book “We Will Bury You”, was written by Brea Grant and Zane Austin Grant, and boasts a beautiful cover featuring the rabid zombies of Mr. Ben Templesmith.

Brea Grant played the super-speedy chick from Heroes a season or two ago, that has a relationship with that tool, Matt Parkman. I suppose I should note that after Season 2, I found Heroes to be the worst show on television, in league with other visual and mental assaults like “Two and a Half Misogynists”, or that show with Elaine from Seinfeld. Brea was always fantastic though!  Regardless… IDW, zombies, a Ben Templesmith cover, and being written by some comic book newcomers were enough to make me curious.

I have to say, that my curiosity paid off well enough. “We Will Bury You” takes place in 1927, and follows a troubled marriage between a lovely young dancer named Mirah (not ballet) and her quirky, jealous husband, Henry. Also introduced in this first issue is a… third member of the relationship… a Ukrainian girl by the name of Fanya. Apparently Fanya and Mirah have been enjoying each other’s company quite a lot, despite Mirah’s marriage to Henry.

Simultaneously, while the story focuses on these characters, riots in Manhattan are mentioned a few times as well, setting the stage for what will come. By the end of the issue, we find that the riots are no normal riots, but ZOMBIE riots to boot and our lovely bisexual heroes are stuck in the middle!

I can say that, while that description of the story might not sound all that compelling, it is only due to the fact that there are so many small events that take place in the book, setting the stage for coming issues, that to tell you them all would ruin your enjoyment of the book. Needless to say, there is quite a bit of setup in this first issue that leave me wanting more. The characters introduced, all possess strange qualities that make them quite odd, yet likeable. I don’t expect I will be drawn in to their world like you get with the characters from, say, The Walking Dead, however, it will certainly be fun to see what happens to them! Not to mention the effects of a zombie outbreak during the 20’s.

The art in the book is quite unusual. Kyle Strahm’s work reminds me a bit of old Tin-Tin books, mixed with something you might see in Cracked magazine. As a consequence of this, there are times this highly stylized art is far too busy to get a good grasp of what is taking place. Some characters look like zombies before they even reveal that there are zombies about. So much so, in fact, that I am still not entirely sure that this isn’t some type of world where the zombies exist with normal humans and are just now rioting?! There are many frames and characters that I very much enjoy, overall though, and as such, I have to say that Mr. Strahm has done well with this book. It is surely difficult to follow up a cover as awesome as seasoned artist Ben Templesmith’s is.

I’m not yet sure We Will Bury You will make it on to my pull list, but it at least warrants a look! I think issue two will certainly be a big one as to how this series plays out and weather or not it is indeed a success!