7 Days of Halloween Review: Day 1

Title: Shaun of the Dead Contributors: Chris Ryall Zack Howard Publisher: IDW Issue #: 1 - 4 Year: 2005 Pages: 104 Pages Age Rating: 18 (Violence, Gore, Adult Themes) Story Grade: C Art Grade: B

It's Halloween week. Being as it is, I thought it would be appropriate to review a horror comic in celebration everyday this week and to kick things off, I will review a comic based on one of the most beloved zombie movies of all time.

In 2005 IDW adapted the movie Shaun of the Dead to a four part mini-series. And while for the most part this is a scene by scene, line by line recreation of the movie, in comic book format, sadly it loses much of the dry british humor and sensibilities during the translation from screen to story. But, this is still an entertaining read for die-hard fans of the movie.

Ryall was not able to completely recreate the movie in the 104 pages allotted, there are some variations in many of the scenes and some new additions as well as some obvious omissions. I will get to those a little bit more. First let's break down the synopsis of each book.

Issue #1 introduces us to the main characters in the story; Shaun, Ed, Liz, Diane, David, and The Winchester (yes the pub is a character). This issue gets us to the point of the when Shaun and Ed confront Mary and the Hulking Zombie in the garden (backyard for us American folks).

Issue #2 picks up with Shaun and Ed kicking Mary and Hulking Zombie's ass and then making their way to his mum's house.

The book sticks to the movie well, but the book does have some deviations some of which work and some of which do not.

One instance is when Shaun and Ed are getting ready to get into Pete's car. Instead of accidentally setting the alarm off, which gets all of the nearby zombie's attention in the movie, Ed simply disarms the car alarm with a "bo-beep". And while the "bo-beep" has a similar effect, in attracting the zombies, setting the car alarm off is a key scene in the movie to reinforce the idea that Ed is a fuck up. A loveable fuck up, but he is a fuck up none-the-less. It is these little differences that are key to find in the book and any fan of the movie will spot them easily.

Outside of that one example, I won't go into any more specifics about the differences between the books and the movie. I think it is fun and worthwhile for you to find the differences yourself and decide if they work or not.

Issue #3 finds the group trying to figure out how get into the Winchester, which just so happens to be surrounded by a horde of zombies.

In the movie this particular plot arc is intense. You know that one mistake could cost them their lives and knowing that they are bumbling idiots, they are going to screw it up, which adds to the tension.

In the book, the tension of the scene is completely lost as the writer and artist plowed through it. The panels used to document their treacherous path through the horde are compressed to just a few panels. No tension, no anxiety, no relief when they finally reach the front door. This was likely done to fit the story into the four book limit imposed on the writer/artist, but this is a poor place to compress the story.

Issue #4 brings us to the conclusion. In the movie the last chapter of the story is fantastically tension filled. But in the panels of the book, it is like reading just to try and finish the book.

Additionally, the last book has an absurd number of ad pages tacked on to the end. This is particularly disappointing because that space could have been used creatively to fill in so many missing holes in the story.

The art in the series is consistent, nicely detailed and provides, for the most part, great characterizations of the characters which the fans already know and love, or hate (because everyone hates David).

All in all I graded this book a C+. While I understand the need to trim the story to fit it into the page limitations imposed by the publisher, I believe some of the omitted key elements should not have been sacrificed. Additionally much of the humor that comes with the movie is lost in the writing as dry british humor, which includes important pauses in dialog, doesn't translate well in this implementation. There is a way to allow dramatic pause to have an influence in the story, and that is to allow a panel for just a character's expression or posture or lack there of to be shown before delivering the punchline in a follow up panel.

While I believe that if you can't do it right, don't do it all, I will say that they gave it a good go in this series. If you are a die-hard fan of the movie, this is a must have series in your collection. But be forewarned that this is one of the rare cases where the book isn't better than the movie.

Until next time... Ed's got wood, yes he do. Ed's got wood, how about you?