You may or may not be aware of the fact that zombies have become big business in comics, TV, and other media in the last few years. Perhaps you're aware of this. The problem is that zombies are pretty one-note. That is not to say that there is not some terrific zombie entertainment out there (I love The Walking Dead as a comic, and enjoy it as a TV show), but the variations on the theme are not all that diverse.
Enter Riley Rossmo and Alex Link, who in this trade paperback, tell a zombie story that is different on two levels (although discussing one of them would constitute a spoiler). What makes this story stand out is the inclusion of zombie-fied animals.
Chuck is working in a forest fire station, welcoming the isolation after having had problems working on a small town fire force, and going through marital problems. Chuck gets tipped off, over his radio, to weird goings-on, and descends to find that all animals and people alike are infected with some kind of disease that causes them to grow some hideous external tumors, and to attack anything living. The people still talk and show cognition, similar to the creatures in Crossed, without as many depravities, but it's the animals that make the horror feel more horrific. Maybe I've just always found large groups of rabbits to be creepy...
Anyway, this is a decent story. Rossmo's messy art works best on books like this, where his scratchy pencils suggest horror more than show it. It's a quick read though, and I'm not sure that the big revelation that comes at the ending is given enough space to really breathe.
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