Pop Culture Gadabout | ||
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 ( 9/30/2009 07:37:00 AM ) Bill S. ![]() It is real or commercial artist Rick's overactive imagination at work? When a demon figure pops out of a computer monitor to smash our hero's head against the keyboard -- and nobody else notices -- we can probably assume the latter, but maybe not. For Rick, his physical degeneration represents his unwillingness/inability to stand up and say nay to his unsatisfying lot in life. The only way he can turn things around is to do something extreme. Zombie un-life as an existential crisis, in other words. White's work has more of an indy comics feel than it does a Romero-esque series like The Walking Dead (though Dead scribe Robert Kirkman shows up with an intro to the book) with its twenty-something creative type wallowing in his own ineffectualness until he finally reaches that breaking point. S'all very angsty, though White keeps things from being too oppressive by telling his story in a agreeable big-headed cartoony style. Doesn't fully keep his hero's core whininess from becoming irritating, however. I did like the moment when our hero bites the head off a yippy little shit dog. If the cartoonist had given us a few more such moments, becoming a zombie wouldn't have looked like such a bad deal, after all -- which I guess would've undercut his point. Labels: modern comics # | |
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