Nerds That Geek Comic Book Series Review: ‘Dawn of the Dead’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

​If there’s one thing that I love when it comes to geek/nerd culture and our endless love of comic books, it’s the fact that there are particular books that actually hold great meaning for all of us. Sometimes the first comic that we ever picked up is the one that is near and dear to our hearts and other times, it’s a powerful story or moments that were present in a book that gave us a special kind of pause. But one way or another, we all have that book, and for me…there are oddly several books that hold that incredible meaning for me.
 
If anything, those stories hold special meaning since they were a part of or remind me of certain moments in my life and the one book series I’d like to talk about today, is the comic adaptation of Dawn of the Dead, which came out in 2004, and I love this adaptation, simply because it reminds me, every time I pick it up, of the moment I truly fell in love with cinema. For Dawn is my all-time favorite motion picture and when I heard this comic book series was coming out, I made sure to get my hands on it as soon as I could. In part to add it to my growing collection of Romero related goodies, but more so, to see a different interpretation of this horror classic and man, I was definitely not disappointed once this trilogy of issues arrived in my hot little hands.
 
Because Steve Niles does a phenomenal job of creating a sense of claustrophobia within the pages of this book, something that I didn’t expect to find in a story that quite frankly is epic and sprawling. But once the group arrive at the mall, you feel trapped within its walls and the wonder of his work doesn’t end there. For Niles takes the time to toy with how the living dead look, removing the bluish tint that was present on the dead in the motion picture, instead presenting them with muted or washed out tones that show a flesh devoid of blood and life and he enhances that look further by giving the dead a slack-jawed appearance, reminding us that they are indeed bastardized versions of humanity.
 
Yet, what’s equally as important is that Niles finds a way to inject the dark humor present in the film, into this book, by way of the dead, since there are little sight gags present to give you a twisted chuckle. But what matters most, is that the spirit of the story is present here. Every single important moment from the film plays out on the page in the goriest of fashion and every single splatterly frame and gooey zombie feast, allows for me to vividly remember the wonder and gravity of the gore in this tale and how much the blood and guts terrified me the first time I watched this movie all those years ago.
 
If anything, this is truly a treasured piece of my Romero collection, and I honestly do pick this series up and scan through them more often than I thought I would in part because it’s cool to own the comic book adaptation of my favorite movie, but also because…this series serves as a wonderful trip down memory lane and you can never go wrong with a little personal nostalgia. Sadly, this is another set of comics that are out of print, so if by chance you want to read it for yourself, you have a little work to do, but…it is worth the hunt. For this is a beautiful and haunting adaptation of a magnificent horror classic.  

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