Review: “The Abandoned”

“The Abandoned”
Writer & Artist: Ross Campbell
Published by Tokyo Pop

There’s only so many ways to tell a zombie story, especially a beginning-of-the-end one: everything’s normal, then for no reason, it stops being normal and there are corpses attacking you. That’s pretty much it. Most recent work in this mini-genre has played with military or urban spins on the story, which sometimes work and sometimes just feel tired.

Ross Campbell’s grim graphic novel “The Abandoned” doesn’t try to do anything you haven’t already seen or read with zombie origin stories. However, where it’s strikingly different is in the writing – Campbell is remorseless with his characters, and his characters are flawed, indecisive young people who don’t know what the hell to do now that their lives are in danger.

The story takes place in a small southern island town in the days immediately following a hurricane. It’s the sort of place where outsiders and freaks stand out, and yet are oddly tolerated by the rest of the community. Rylie, the heroine, is not only black, but a teenaged lesbian. She’s short, super-curvy, and has a huge bat tattoo on her chest. On the other hand, she works at a small senior citizens center, helps out at her friend’s ice cream parlor, and is generally well-liked by at least some in the community.

When every adult in town dies without warning and immediately comes back with a taste for flesh, Rylie and her friends are left to fend for themselves. Isolated in a town half flooded by the hurricane, they barricade themselves together in a house and try to deal with the increasingly nasty situation.

The artwork is functional and straightforward. Occasionally, Campbell composes his panels so that time flows almost poetically, or at least cinematically, from one drawing to the next. At other times, it feels more like a storyboard. But this is a long graphic novel, and I think he gets the ratio of artistry to workmanship just right. The palette is only red and black throughout, which makes the gore pop violently off the page, and Campbell has a thing for drawing women with huge pouted lips and very round, fleshy breasts, which makes them all look both sensual and ordinary.

There’s no happy ending for Rylie, her love interest, or her motley crew of friends. None whatsoever. “The Abandoned” leaves enough open at the end for a sequel, but you’re not sure whether you need or want to see Rylie go through any more suffering – or that she’ll even manage to stay alive for another ten pages. It doesn’t seem written to launch a new money-making series for a publishing house, and it’s not even very camera-friendly, at least not according to commercial movie rules, which stipulate that the hero has to triumph or else the audience will leave depressed. However, it did make me care about the people in the story, and I felt genuinely bad as I read the last half of the book. That’s a compliment, by the way, and why I’d recommend it to anyone who likes serious dark horror.

February 18, 2007 | Filed Under Comics & Graphic Novels, Reviews, Zombies | View Comments 

Budget “Little Joe” torso relieves the boredom

Little Joe Torso What’s better than having an actual 16″ tall man to boss around? Being able to peel back his skin and take out his organs, of course. This “budget” model lets you relive your 4th grade science class without spending a fortune (runs around $40), stands 10″ tall (he’s cut off at the thigh), and doubles as a great Christmas centerpiece (just add green garland)!

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February 3, 2007 | Filed Under Decor, Shopping | View Comments