Wednesday, May 4, 2016

iZombie #1 Special Edition



   Let's look at the facts: 
   
    I love Michael Allred. His art is so clean, so retro, so kitsch. 
    I love Laura Allred who colors and sometimes inks husband Michael's art.
    I've only read a couple of iZombie issues or stories and I love them!
    Yet for some reason, I've not been able to get into the iZombie TV show on the CW!

   I think the problem is that the show is live-action and with the exception of the opening credits, the series doesn't feature the artwork of the Allreds and I think that's the big selling point for me.

   This Special Edition reprint of the first issue of iZombie was released to co-incide with the premiere of the CW series in March of last year. But I wasn't able to get my hands on a copy until a couple of weeks ago when I finally found a copy in a dollar bin. It's not that I didn't look for this when it came out last year, I did. But at the two or three comic shops, I went on the hunt for this, they had sold out pretty quick.

     iZombie is the story of Gwen. By day, she's the leader of a grave digger crew at a cemetery. By night, Liv's digging up the bodies she buried earlier in the day in order to feed on their juicy delicious brains and to prevent from going full on zombie on somebody living. But when she feasts, she inherits some of her meal's memories temporarily. When she learns that one of the corpses she consumed was murdered, she decides to take it upon herself to solve his murder! 

     I think this is another reason I'm not into the TV series. Other than having the main character eat brains and use that information to solve crimes, the series and the comic are two different things. Why they don't even feature the same characters. The main character of this comic is named Gwen. The heroine of the TV show is named Liv and she works as a criminologist for a living! 

   I know some folks will say that I'm being too sensitive and that there's no reason why I can't like both. Well, that's just dumb, folks. That's like saying if I like steak, then I'll love liver. They might both come from the same animal but while steak is delicious, that irony piece of rubber called liver is just nasty. 

   That's kinda how I feel iZombie. iZombie: the comic book is now going on my wish list for my comic book collection: it's wicked fun. iZombie: the Series is on my to-do list if the show ever goes into rerun syndication but what little I've seen so far is a little too hokey and a tad too much like a Dawson's Creek for the undead. I'll probably get to it but it's on the backburner for now.

   As for why this is a Special Edition comic, this issue has a couple of articles about the making of the TV show and I think there were one or two pages of unused art from iZombie #1. But in terms of any director's cut added scenes, you will not find them in this book. But with the success of the show, the price of issue #1 has jumped to about $20-35 bucks, so this is a good starting point with this more affordable reprint.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

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