Review: Living with the Dead

Two boys, a girl, and seven billion living dead!

Writer: Mike Richardson

Artist: Ben Stenbeck

Cover Artist: Richard Corben

Two survivors enjoy the good (as it gets) life years after zombies have risen and the world as we know it is no more. Straw and Whip (they made up their own names after the Zombies took over) are relatively happy with the world they live in – sometimes they argue but the rest of the time they kick back and play instruments on the roof.

So what could possibly ruin a perfect friendship that has helped these two men survive while others perished? A woman of course.

Straw and Whip find Betty in a shopping mall and rescue her from a horde of living dead (though she seemed to be doing just fine on her own) and from then on, the best friends become rivals as they try to win the affections of possibly the last woman on earth.

Interested? You should be! This is a quirky little gem and simply a great read.

The artwork is of a high standard and compliments the comedic tone of the story and the gore is not over the top to the point of ridicule. This is a story about characters and the zombies need to take a back seat from time to time so less gore works well.

Quirky characters help to set up jokes and one liners but Betty is a relatively unbelievable character and most will find her annoying, however, this may have been something that was needed for the overall story.

There are two major flaws in the story that can’t really be overlooked. Straw is left for dead by Whip, who did this on purpose. Although this shows that there is rivalry and it is believable that Whip would leave Straw knocked out in a supermarket – It is not believable that he would leave no weapons or a zombie disguise (the zombies are easily fooled) for Straw to defend himself. The other flaw is the finale, it seems rushed and creates numerous plot holes.

The Living with the Dead graphic novel is a compilation of a three part mini series and due to this it is fast paced and fun but also leaves you wanting more…

Review: Smallville (S09E03)

Young Superman fights the dead in an episode called 'Rabid'

Oh dear, Smallville has been scraping the barrel for a few years now but this was a shambles. Somehow this episode was worse than the vampire episode ("Thirst" S05E05) which proves a light hearted, camp, comic adaptation series shouldn't try serious horror.

This episode features Zombies as a minor annoyance to the characters who just want to moan about how bad their life is.

The whole episode is very amateur and would scream 'student film!' if it wasn't for the fancy camera filters they always use. The make up is good but nothing special and blood is well hidden so parents won’t complain about what the kids are watching. The censors at the television network must have been all over the show as soon as they mentioned a zombie episode was in the works and watered it down to the drivel we have today.

*Spoiler*

The worst part of this episode is that some of the main characters turn into Zombies and look rotten, yet a cure is found (really quickly!) and the city folk are restored to normal – no rot what so ever. Just like in the episode mentioned above (Thirst) where Lana Lang turns into a vampire and even breaks her neck but a cure is found and she is fine. How convenient for her.

*End of Spoiler*

In conclusion – it was very bad.

Editors note: I actually like to watch Smallville, it is a fun and great to watch when you want some non-serious escapism. Whether you like or hate Smallville and you happened to catch this episode then let me know what you thought of it.

Play L4D2 Multiplayer for free

Ok, maybe not completely free, you will need an Xbox, a copy of Left 4 Dead 2, and an internet connection.

As of 5pm next Friday (15^thJanuary 2010) Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer will be free to play for all Xbox silver account users for the whole weekend. Good news if you don’t have a gold account.

Left for Dead 2 is a sequel to Last years massive hit from Valve Software about a group of four working together to survive in a world overrun by virus infected humans.

A review of Left for Dead 1 and 2 will be coming to Zombie News at a later date. However, in short, if you like first person shooters and zombies you will probably like Left 4 Dead.

Zombies attack Tweeter!

Plenty of Zombie fans out there will be saying "I wish I thought of that" as a man from Florida tweets his adventures in a real-time fictional zombie apocalypse.

Gus (aka manvszombies on Twitter)has been tweeting an ongoing battle against the walking dead for nearly a month. He has even started to upload images and videos.

George Romero made a social commentary about social networking and the use of the internet during a zombie uprising in his 2007 film Diary of the Dead.

Twitter has been going from strength to strength recently and creating ongoing stories through the social networking site could create a new platform to help it grow even further as long as the writing is engaging enough.

Get Stephen King on the Phone and tell him he‘s missing out on a writing platform.

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