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Published by: Image Comics
Released on: Oct. 08, 2014
Writer: Mark Kidwell
Artist: Kyle Charles
Cover artist: Nat Jones
Purchase at Amazon
The zombies are getting closer to the high school pep rally, while Harmon Love the funeral home owner is making his way to get his bitten wife to the hospital. She's bleeding bad and dying, so he decides to stop at the house of a local doctor. Doc has problems of his own with Shirley Jenkins closed up in his house, all zombified after her dead son bit her. Doc is shaken up and tells Harmon what must be done with his wife.
Meanwhile, Harmon's greaser son Johnny Love and his girl make their way to the rally, only to be met by her old boyfriend and another asshole jock. The lovebirds show up amidst an attack and high school kids die, but sadly the jocks still want to kill Johnny despite monsters attacking them. Just when things look their worst for poor Johnny, the cavalry arrives in a hearse and starts tearing it up.
And then it ends. This series is two stories told over two issues, something new to the '68 line of comics, but sadly neither one continues the story of the apparent Zodiac killer that cliff-hangs at the end of the last series, '68: Rule of War. But the news in the back of the issue reports that will be coming in 2015. Next issue we get to see how things are going with the fine folks in Canada, as this is of course a world-wide apocalypse. It's going to be maple syrup and Mountie mayhem.
Kyle Charles' replacement of Jeff Zarnov for this series' art chores is pretty seamless and his work is just as gooey and nasty; the thick inks give his art a certain power. He puts down some neat visuals too, like looking out through a torn-opened zombie ribcage; or his use of reflective surfaces. His style fits right in with Kidwell's script and maintains an artistic consistency so often lost when using different illustrators. And while to this reader the action stateside isn't as interesting as the action over in Vietnam, the book is still a fun one. And how can't it be? It's the type of sex and intense violence that we immature adults love.
