28 Days Later 1: London Calling

Comic Info

28 Days Later #2

Reprints 28 Days Later #1-4 (July 2009-October 2009).  England, Scotland, and Wales have been quarantined due to the Rage Virus, but reporter Clint Harris plans to lead a team from the islands of Scotland to London to report on the situation.  Clint has convinced Selena to return to England as the party’s guide…despite her misgivings.  When the plan goes sideways, Selena, Clint, and Derrick find themselves in a fight for survival…and the Infected want them dead.

Written by Michael Alan Nelson, 28 Days Later Volume 1:  London Calling is a comic book continuation of the 2002 film by Danny Boyle.  The series features art by Declan Shalvey and has also been collected in an omnibus edition.

28 Days Later was a great movie with a ton of action and horror.  The movie really reinvigorated the zombie genre (for better or worse) and led to a change in perspective on zombies by introducing the “running zombie”…and a new level of horror.  Much of 28 Days Later’s thrills came from the kinetic nature of the movie.  Here that energy has to be brought to the page.  It doesn’t quite reach that level.

28 Days Later #4

I have a hard time with the basic set up of this story.  Having seen the horrors that Selena endured to survive the Rage Virus, there is no way in hell that she would return to England regardless of some unfinished personal business (like some Christopher Walken war survivor in The Deer Hunter).  I wish that Nelson had come up with a more realistic way to force the character back into the story.

This first volume does have some great art.  Declan Shalvey was an up-and-comer at the time and does some great work trying to build suspense within a comic.  The biggest challenge Declan has is that adaptations like this limit the artist a bit in that they already have imagery assigned to the zombies and Selena, but he does a good job here.

28 Days Later isn’t a bad comic, but it doesn’t compare to the movie.  The story unlike the film takes a lot of set up and there isn’t the get up and go you came to expect from the film.  While 28 Weeks Later was a big disappointment, this series falls somewhere between.  It isn’t disappointing, but it also isn’t the thrill a minute you’d hope for.  28 Days Later 1:  London Calling is followed by 28 Days Later 2:  Bend in the Road.

Related Links:

28 Days Later 2:  Bend in the Road

28 Days Later 3:  Hot Zone

28 Days Later 4:  Gangwar

28 Days Later 5:  Ghost Town

28 Days Later 6:  Homecoming

28 Days Later:  The Aftermath

28 Days Later (2002)

28 Weeks Later (2007)