“Everything Dead and Dying” Issue 1 Review – An Incredibly Engrossing Zombie Apocalypse Premise

There’s no shortage of zombie apocalypse stories out there. However, Everything Dead and Dying issue 1 introduced me to a fictional setting that has made me want to read the second issue ASAP!

From writer Tate Brombal and artist Jacob Phillips, with colors from Pip Martin, Everything Dead and Dying issue 1 opened with farmer Jack Chandler telling his young daughter Daisy about his past and how he fortunately grew up to find love with his husband Luke as a closeted queer man in a farming community. It was a nice way to introduce readers to Jack, Luke, and Daisy, while laying the groundwork for their loving family dynamic without the backstory feeling forced. For Jake, being able to have made such a family for himself was nothing short of a fairytale. So, it made creative sense for his past and present to be told as a bedtime story to Daisy.

However, knowing that this was a tale about zombies when I picked up the first book in this 5-issue miniseries, I was aware something wasn’t quite right while reading the fairytale-esque opening sequence. While Jack’s daily routine looked nice at first, I quickly got to see how that’s not the case. Jack’s daily routine was more or less a trap he had created for himself. It began and ended the same every single day. No changes whatsoever. And that’s how Jack wanted it to continue because otherwise he would lose more than just his family, he would lose the “world” he knew.

I liked how Brombal explained Jack’s perspective and his motivation to keep living his current life. Jack’s a farmer. And the thing Jack’s father told him when he was very young, about how the farmland was the only “world” worth any meaning to guys like him, even though there’s more out there, stuck with Jack over the decades. For our lead character, Caverton Farm was it. He did not need the outside world, especially after the zombie outbreak.

Yeah, the big reveal in the first issue of Everything Dead and Dying was that every Caverton Farm resident had turned into a zombie, except for Jack, who was somehow immune to the flu that had caused such a change in humanity. Instead of trying to escape the farm, Jack wasn’t ready to give up on the life he had worked so hard to build. This led to Jack going through the same routine of being woken up by a zombie Daisy every morning, heading down to meet his zombie husband Luke, and walking around the community to keep the rest of the zombies fed. Apparently, the undead retained muscle memory of their last healthy day. As long as Jack kept them fed, they didn’t attack him.

Having a human feed zombies isn’t anything new. We have seen such people exist in post-apocalyptic narratives and similar genres. However, they are portrayed as evil people that the protagonists have to defeat to save themselves or the lives of the humans that were about to be used as zombie chow. However, Brombal decided to focus on Jack in a different manner by having him stick to his “humanity” and feed chicken and other livestock to the undead around him. Jack’s not a murderer. He’s just an emotionally troubled queer man unwilling to let go of his pre-zombie life. He’s content with looking after the zombies without any outside interference.

But a story’s got to story, and the closing moments of the first issue showed a group of human survivors entering Caverton Farm. It’s clear the survivors won’t be keen on the idea of keeping zombies fed. That’s why I’m very excited about how Jack will manage to keep Luke and Daisy safe. Having Jack possibly kill humans to protect the undead is likely going to be used by Brombal to offer some interesting moral commentary.

Jack’s been keeping the zombies fed for 12 years. He’s aware he’s gotten old and won’t be able to keep doing so for long. So, perhaps the arrival of the survivors will give him the required push to move on from Caverton Farm? If a possible zombie cure gets introduced in the story, I highly doubt Luke and Daisy can be cured after having been zombified for so long. That’s why I’m ready for Everything Dead and Dying to be one of those stories that’s engrossing yet gut-wrenching.

The art style, while simple, was incredibly impactful for me. I liked how Phillips went all in to make the zombies come across as nasty, decaying human bodies, their grossness amplified by Martin’s color palette (using a lot of reds, blacks, browns, and other darker colors). The letters by Aditya Bidikar also played a role in elevating the art and Brombal’s script. The zombie sounds made by Daisy and Luke (visualized a certain way by the letter bubbles) made me feel for them, even though I knew they weren’t actually alive.

If you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic zombie stories, I highly recommend picking up Everything Dead and Dying. The first issue opened strong, and I have my fingers crossed that the remaining four issues also deliver.

Have you read Everything Dead and Dying Issue 1? What did you think of it?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary