My Steve Gerber Comics - Part Thirty
Tales of the Zombie
Zombies.
Urggh.
I’m not really much of a fan of zombie stories (sorry, Tania). But, wait a minute. This is a zombie series that involves voodoo. Voodoo? What about the zombie apocalypse and shambling living dead eating people’s brains and turning them into zombies? Oh, this is pre-George Romero zombies. OK. Continue.
Tales of the Zombie was one of Marvel’s black and white “magazines” from the 1970’s. They had a few. And we’ve read a few in our Gerber reading (Monster’s Unleashed; Rampaging Hulk; Vampire Tales). This one centres around - (guess. I dare you) - a zombie (you wouldn’t have guessed that, would you?).
What makes the story of Simon Garth more interesting than the “eat-your-brains” zombies is we’re constantly reminded he was human. His first few stories involve his daughter trying to find out what happened to him. He also encounters quite a few people who “knew him when” (particularly, in the last few stories, the woman who zombified him). The other thing that makes Simon Garth-zombie more interesting than apocalypse-zombies is he has only one desire. To die.
These stories do still have the issue I feel is inherent in all zombie stories (especially the modern style zombies) in that the story is only as interesting as the non-zombies in it because zombies on their own are pretty dull. But Gerber finds enough variations on a theme in his 8 issues to keep it entertaining.
I did wonder if Simon Garth had a place in the recent Marvel zombie craze. I mentioned this to jack-ryder who looked it up. Apparently he does. Fortunately, I was only wondering. I don’t care enough to read them.
Next - Gerber reading: The End featuring Total Eclipse, Toxic Crusaders, Vampire Tales, Void Indigo, Weird War Tales and WildCATS
Zombies.
Urggh.
I’m not really much of a fan of zombie stories (sorry, Tania). But, wait a minute. This is a zombie series that involves voodoo. Voodoo? What about the zombie apocalypse and shambling living dead eating people’s brains and turning them into zombies? Oh, this is pre-George Romero zombies. OK. Continue.
Tales of the Zombie was one of Marvel’s black and white “magazines” from the 1970’s. They had a few. And we’ve read a few in our Gerber reading (Monster’s Unleashed; Rampaging Hulk; Vampire Tales). This one centres around - (guess. I dare you) - a zombie (you wouldn’t have guessed that, would you?).
What makes the story of Simon Garth more interesting than the “eat-your-brains” zombies is we’re constantly reminded he was human. His first few stories involve his daughter trying to find out what happened to him. He also encounters quite a few people who “knew him when” (particularly, in the last few stories, the woman who zombified him). The other thing that makes Simon Garth-zombie more interesting than apocalypse-zombies is he has only one desire. To die.
These stories do still have the issue I feel is inherent in all zombie stories (especially the modern style zombies) in that the story is only as interesting as the non-zombies in it because zombies on their own are pretty dull. But Gerber finds enough variations on a theme in his 8 issues to keep it entertaining.
I did wonder if Simon Garth had a place in the recent Marvel zombie craze. I mentioned this to jack-ryder who looked it up. Apparently he does. Fortunately, I was only wondering. I don’t care enough to read them.
Next - Gerber reading: The End featuring Total Eclipse, Toxic Crusaders, Vampire Tales, Void Indigo, Weird War Tales and WildCATS