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May 10, 2010 Web Exclusive By Jeremy Nisen

Vertigo has this habit of launching new books at a $1 price tag. I, Zombie is the latest to get this treatment, and it's certainly a better investment than other notable things you can get for a buck, like a McDonald's Double Burger, for instance. I, Zombie is far meatier, brainier, and goes down a lot better.

Commentary on the value proposition aside, I, Zombie has the bones and tasty flesh to be a satisfying series. This first issue does not suffer from the stiffness that first issues often do. The premise is seamlessly laid out before us, introducing protagonists, supporting characters, possible antagonists,

The story centers on Gwen, a fairly regular (if attractively quirky, cool and hip) girl except for being a zombie and needing to eat brains every so often to prevent her from devolving into a shambling, classic horror movie sort of zombie. Good thing that she works at a graveyard as a gravedigger; even better for her that it's "Green Pastures: Absolutely No Embalming Fluids Used; 100% Biodegradable."

But in eating brains of the recently deceased, she absorbs the memories contained in those brains, which evidently compels her to right a wrong on that deceased person's behalf. Seemingly, she'll do so with the help of her pal Ellie, a go-go 1960s-era ghost gal, and Spot, a were-terrier.

On the art side, it might be enough to say it's Mike Allred (with colors by Laura Allred). If you're not familiar with Allred's work, let's say it's a clean, distinctive, poppy style with expressive lines, creative flourishes, and an air of kitsch. If you liked Allred's work on X-Force and X-Statix, this should be to your taste. Gwen visually reminds a little of Dead Girl, one of the more compelling characters from those titles. And, while I personally always find Allred's art to be wonderful on his indie creator-owned books (Madman and especially The Atomics), the overt weirdness in I, Zombie is dialed back from those titles. So Allred is somewhat more restrained, but the result is fantastic: clothing details, facial expressions when Gwen smells something rotten, letting the atmosphere really stand out on the beautiful splash page where Gwen's gnawing on some brains. In fact, the whole sequence leading up to that splash page is breathtaking.

This book promises a great juxtaposition of the odd with the ordinary, of not-quite-human characters that are refreshingly human in interesting situations. My expectations are extraordinarily high for this book based on this first issue; staying cautiously optimistic that the subsequent issues will follow suit. (www.chrisroberson.net / www.aaapop.com / www.dccomics.com/vertigo)

Author rating: 9/10