COMIC BOOK Review--iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson & Michael Allred

Told from a female zombie’s perspective, this smart, witty detective series mixes urban fantasy and romantic dramedy.

Gwendolyn “Gwen” Dylan is a 20-something gravedigger in an eco-friendly cemetery. Once a month she must eat a human brain to keep from losing her memories, but in the process she becomes consumed with the thoughts and personality of the dead person – until she eats her next brain. She sets out to fulfill the dead person’s last request, solve a crime or right a wrong.

Our zombie girl detective is joined by a radical supporting cast: her best friend Eleanor, who happens to be a swinging ’60s ghost, a posse of paintball blasting vampires, a smitten were-dog and a hot but demented mummy.

I decided it was finally time to read the iZombie graphic novels and whoa! Basically everything I know about iZombie came from the show. It was only shortly after it started that I learned it was based on a comic series. This first compilation was titled, iZombie: Dead to the World, it proves for a semi-decent intro into this new world, yet a few things aren’t quite explained and I hate not knowing things. Chris Roberson is the writer and Michael Allred is the artist behind all the amazing pictures.

In this first volume, I gather we had about 5 issues. It’s fun reading them all wrapped up in one book. Makes the cliffhangers less dicey. In this story we have Gwen who’s a gravedigger by day and zombie the rest of the time! Lol. We don’t know much about how she came to be a zombie, but the rules for her are that she must eat a brain once a month in order to stay sane versus mindless zombie mode. It was after she ate one brain though, that she learns through the victim’s memories that he was murdered and he wants justice.

Sadly there’s no cop friend along to help her out in the mystery solving department. Gwen has a best friend who’s a ghost and another who’s a were-terrier. Yes, were-terrier, lol. But she’s not the only creature going bump in the night in this town of Eugene, Oregon. There’s also a group of sorority-like vampires out and about draining people. So far, they don’t look murderous, but we’ve only see them for a little bit. And then there’s the weird mystery group of monster hunters that know all about the supernatural people.

I was a bit surprised with how things went with this first collection. The mystery doesn’t really get resolved and I say that because while it does get solved, the murderer is still free. He’s another puzzle that has yet to really been revealing. I’ll be interested in seeing where things go with that particular character. Though I can’t help but feel slighted because there was clearly other things/matters involved in this mystery that didn’t get any answers to. I can only hope that might change along the way with the rest of the issues.

The series isn’t without its romance either! Gwen meets a young guy, Horatio, who also happens to be a part of the monster hunter group, so that’s definitely going to present some issues down the road somewhere too.

The artwork was really enjoyable! It was colorful and vibrant and I loved the layout. There were times when the characters were just coming right out of the panels. It was really cool and something that just has to be seen to be truly appreciated.

All in all, this is definitely a fun series! I was a bit thrown by the complete 180 the storyline went in with its differences from the show, but I guess I should be used to that by now what with all the other TV shows and movies that don’t get it right, yet can sometimes make it work. There are a few that I feel like they butchered the original piece. But I digress.



Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars