d e a d . w i n t e r
By S. Dave Shabet
Read: Spring 2010
Rating: Kickass
Zombie apocalypse. The scenario has been reworked again and again, and has become pretty predictable. Something spreads through the population, turning almost everyone into shambling, undead creatures in search of braaaaains. A ragtag group of unlikely companions hole up together to beat back the hoard. The odds are stacked heavily against them.
Luckily, S. Dave Shabet has put a new spin on the old story. He’s got one hell of a framing device. A mysterious corporate hotshot is simultaneously playing a game with the dozen or so bounty hunters, vigilantes, and assassins trapped in Zombie Hell. Every one of them has a price on his head. The more they kill, the higher the bounty. Oh, and that includes killing zombies.
Black Monday Blues is one such mercenary. He’s fallen in with the Ragtag Survivors, but he hasn’t let on that he knows he’s being hunted. …his head is worth a lot.
Monday is the mystery. Lizzie is the heart and soul, our everywoman. She’s a writer, but student loans and crappy wages have kept her eking out a living as a diner waitress. Her narration gives the comic weight, bringing out some great metaphors, and the gritty details only internal monologuing can reveal. Like the stink of dead bodies and gas fumes…
Poor Liz was fed up with her life to begin with. She’s sick of being everyone’s punching bag, but she was stuck in her shitty life without an exit plan. Now the world’s fallen to chaos, and she’s fighting an internal battle–pacifism and ethics vs. survival. She’s also taken a lot of hits, and the codeine is the only thing keeping her going, and going, and going…
Lizzie is what makes the comic so excellent. You could change the setting completely, and Lizzie would still carry whatever it was.
The larger arc, about the bloodsports, makes it not just another zombie story (which I find pretty damn boring). There is a larger mystery to be dealt with, and that gives me actual hope that these people just might survive.
The art is really nice, too, done in a soft gray shading, nice round shaping, with a lot of classic cartoon-y elements. But Shabet is setting himself apart by taking advantage of his medium–the internet. Every so often, when big shit goes down, he animates the page.
You don’t need to know what happens here on Page 300 (it kicks even more ass when you’ve read it through and do know), just watch the animation. And be fucking astounded: http://www.deadwinter.cc/page/300.htm
Most pages are static, but every so often, to make a point, one panel will loop, or a whole page will play out like that. Shabet knows exactly how he wants those to look, and he’s got the timing down pat. If you’re at all interested in new media, and mediums, and the potential of the web vs. traditional publishing, you need to read dead.winter.
If you like zombie stories, you’ll definitely like dead.winter. If you’re not overly keen on them, you’ll still like it. There’s a lot of humor without being campy, a lot of realism without weighing down on you TOO much, and the characters are wonderful. Even stereotypes aren’t flat, they’re just part of the character.
Go read it. Enjoy it. Thank me later.
