Comic Info
Comic Name: iZombie/House of Mystery Halloween Annual
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Writer: Chris Roberson
Artist: Michael Allred/Gilbert Hernandez
# of Issues: 8
Release Date: 2011
iZombie #7
Reprints House of Mystery Halloween Annual #2 and iZombie #6-12 (December 2009-June 2011). Scott reveals the truth about how he became a were-terrier and finds that his grandfather might be suffering another troubling condition. As Diogenes and Horatio work to root out the vampire problem in Eugene, Oregon, Gwen is forced to confront aspects of her past when she eats the brains of someone that she knows. Ellie recalls how she ended up a ghost as she works with Amon to expand her horizons.
Written by Chris Roberson with illustrations by Michael Allred (who also aided in the story’s development), iZombie Volume 2: uVampire follows iZombie Volume 1: Dead to the World. The series was part of DC Comics’ Vertigo line.
The first volume of iZombie was a little weak. The series felt like a riff on the UK series Being Human which featured a werewolf, vampire, and ghost living together. Here you have a ghost, zombie, and were-terrier all hanging out. It is similar but this volume begins to develop the series’ own tone.
iZombie #12
Much like True Blood, this series does suffer from a problem. It tries to add too much to it. Unlike Buffy the Vampire Slayer which seemed to smartly add different supernatural themes, this series just has added too many supernatural characters too soon. The addition of Scott’s grandfather inhabiting the body of a chimpanzee was a little too extreme. The series only is in a few issues and there are zombies, vampires, werewolves (or terriers), ghost, mummies, and cadres of assassins. It is a bit much, a bit too quickly.
The series (to me) hinges on the art. I would read this series simply because of Michael Allred. I love his style of art and his art only works with certain types of stories and this is one of them. With tons of great character designs and a fun look that caters to his art, Allred’s illustrations make this comic work checking out alone.
iZombie 2: uVampire is an improvement on the first volume. It still has some problems, but they seem to be ironing them out. I look forward to reading more. With the new iZombie TV series in development, there is renewed interest in a series which deserved more looks in the first place. iZombie 2: uVampire was followed by iZombie 3: Six Feet Under and Rising.
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