Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Comic Book No. 2 Review from Eibon Press!
Issue number two of this superbly done comic comes at us with more flare than what Fulci had intended in his original cult classic. Eibon Press’s flagship Fulci comic books are in full swing with plans on doing House by the Cemetery, The Beyond and City of the Living Dead aka The Gates of Hell. In this second issue of Zombie we get pages from The Gates of Hell comic which is the next in line for the Fulci Comics roster. From the sneak peek pages The Gates of Hell might even surpass the intense art and tweaked in depth story Zombie has managed to do thus far.
By introducing in depth character development, the reader really gets more of a sense of what each character in the comic is thinking, from Dr. Menard to his wife Olga to Peter West himself. In this issue the focus is put on Dr. Menard and his hot naked and bush bearing wife Olga as they take terrifying steps closer to their fates. In this case if you are familiar with the Zombie movie, you know Menard’s wife takes a huge ass splinter to her retina — a scene of memorable ocular madness which is renowned in the movie, and one of the segments which made the movie so infamous.
The scene in the movie is terrifying as we get an intense close-up scene of Kartalos fighting desperately to free herself as her hair is pulled, and head forced upon the sharp protruding wood by a bloodthirsty zombie. The comic manages to make the scene even better by making it a terrifying artistic explosion of bright red gore and terror. In the movie when the splinter initially goes into Kartalos eye, there is a lack of blood but the comic makes sure the red stuff gushes in glorious amounts. The other kicker of a scene involves the infamous zombie versus shark segment, and the comic does it more than justice with the ocean turning red as the zombie and the shark take equal gory bites out of each other. The scene in the movie always suffered from poor effects work but the comic’s ability to capture and authenticate it in crisp art with bright colors gives the underwater battle its much respected due.
I believe issue number two surpasses issue number one with those two scenes alone. That is a challenge within itself because the first issue was very well done. By loading up the second issue with the splinter in the eye sequence, and the zombie versus shark battle they have filled this book with so much cool shit that Fulci fans can’t help but smile with the homage and justice that is done within its pages. It’s also cool how they add in little bits that I notice, such as Dr. Menard referring to himself as Dr. Butcher M.D. or on one page we see a bottle of Old Crow, the executive publisher Shawn Lewis’ booze of choice.
They also seem to focus on a voodoo priest so I’m interested in seeing how this angle plays out because this is an element which was never touched upon in the movie. The viewer was only ever given hints of voodoo and an ominous force bringing the dead back to life. Again, this issue comes with cool stickers, bookmarks and extras. I opted for the cheaper unsigned edition but I believe you can still buy copies of both, or at least the unsigned second issue. They come in that very cool cardboard sleeve, something which I can’t stop raving about. It really adds that extra touch if you have collected comics in the past. The rugged look of the comic on the inside is super cool. It makes it look worn and used, which is another creative touch.
At the end of the book we also get some writing from Stephen Romano on how popular the Zombie books have become and some storyboard’s for issue two from Michael Broom. The collectors market has always been a US market, so as the Canadian dollar languishes in despair, the books are pricey for us Canucks but if you’ve got the coin they are well worth your time and money because you can tell the love and passion put into them. They come highly recommended and now I will continue to collect them all.
Comic: Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Comic Book
Issue: 2nd Issue
Written by: Stephen Romano
Penciled by: Michael Broom
Inked by: Derek Rook, Gerry Coffey
Colored by: Fatboy, Austen Mengler
Lettering by: Stephen Romano
Edited by: Stephen Romano
Cover by: Michael Broom
Year: 2017
Published by: Eibon Press
