Review: The Disease

Before this review begins, I’d just like to welcome our new contributor onboard. I think this is a pretty good review and I look forward to more reviews (and other great things) in the future. – David F

Review by Heather Taylor

Sometimes it’s difficult to start writing a review, especially when you’re writing to a new audience. I think the best place for me to start is at the beginning.

Introductions first, my name is Heather. Some of you may have read some of my work before. I used to work for Uproar Comics up here in the big city of Derry-Londonderry in Northern Ireland. Working with them gave me some great experience in reviewing comics, but I will stress that when I review it is just my opinion. What I think may be different to what you think, and I thoroughly encourage everyone to try something first before forming their own opinions. This is what I do with every review I have ever written.

Now onto the review, and I was given the one shot comic “The Disease,” written by James Mulholland and art by Daniel Romero. When I first got the comic and looked at the front cover I immediately felt some joy. The Disease is a zombie/horror comic, and what better way to start my reviewing for ICN, than by reviewing one of my favourite genres. The front cover looks like any other front cover of a zombie comic; dark, sinister and promising gore. I think I literally rubbed my hands together in anticipation before I started reading the story.

The story itself is in black and white, which I will admit disappointed me a little bit, as I do love epic colours in a zombie comic. However this doesn’t take away from the story in the slightest. The first pages see’s the main character in our story waking up in a filthy, rundown room after what you are made to think was a rough night out on the drink. He’s confused, dishevelled and more than a little foul mouthed. Our main character does like to say the word “feck” a lot. In fact it does seem to be the only swear word he knows. For my own personal preference, I would have preferred a little bit more swearing, or maybe just a little variation, however by only using the word feck it does make this comic more age friendly.

Getting on with the story, the main character (who you later find out on about page 16, is called Gerry) starts to look for his family. He believes they are playing a prank on him, but when he discovers that they are not around, he goes in search of them. From here the story does become a little stereotypical. Gerry is walking around a deserted Dublin, looking for someone, anyone to explain what is happening. He is attacked by a ravenous zombie and is saved from death by another surviving human. The whole “person wakes up from sleep having missed the zombie apocalypse and now has no clue what is going is,” is an old, tried and tested method when it comes to zombie stories. It’s a great method, and when you think about it, it’s creepy as hell and you would not want it to happen to you. The trick with this tried and tested method is to put a good twist, or spin on it in order to not make it stale and boring.

I’m not going to reveal too much about the rest of the story, because I don’t want my first review to be filled to the brim with spoilers. I will say that until about half way through, The Disease reads like nearly every other zombie comic out there, until the twist is brought in. Gerry hears about his saviours struggle with the loss of her family and how she is dealing with the zombie apocalypse, and he hopes that he can find his family before it’s too late. I will admit I kind of did guess the plot twist a page or two before it was revealed, but when it was revealed I did a little dance at the fact that I was right, and the fact that it was a really cool and intriguing plot twist.

The twist does change the story up and brings in what is happening into a whole new light. You don’t get to find out how the zombie apocalypse starts, but really you don’t need to know. This story is about Gerry and his struggle, and at the end of the story you genuinely feel for him as a character. I would like to know a bit more about what happens to him, however with the plot twist, I already have a good enough idea.

Now I’m not an artist but the art work for this comic is pretty damn decent and I really like Romero’s style. He draws a pretty gruesome looking zombie! To him I say keep up the good work and keep drawing zombies.

If I were to give The Disease a rating out of 5, I would give it a solid 3.5 and say that it is definitely one you should pick up. If you’re a zombie/horror comic connoisseur then this is one you’re going to want to read because of the great little plot twist.

You purchase The Disease here.