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WAKE THE DEAD #1
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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IDW Publishing
Writer: Steve Niles
Artists: Milx & Chee
Colorists: Milx & Travis Walton
Letters: Robbie Robbins
Price: $3.99 US |
Somewhere in the artist collaboration on this first issue, there's an Evan Dorkin joke to be made. However, skipping over the unusual names of the artists and the unusual circumstances by which there came to be two of them seems a good way to get the review focused, so instead I'll talk about Waking the Dead as a general concept. Steve Niles has become sort of the go-to guy for horror, especially at IDW, and Wake the Dead forms the second leg of his triad of horror stories that explore vampires, zombies and Frankenstein's Monster. Unlike 30 Days, which took the vampire concept and put a really new spin on it, Wake the Dead seems more like a modernization of the Frankenstein story, and it's approach is different from 30 Days, focusing less on mood and atmosphere and more on gore and disturbing imagery, which makes it read sort of like a lost George Romero story. It's not quite as fresh as Nile's other horror work, and at first blush it comes across as too predictable, but Niles's work generally reads better when you can read it all at one go, and while the artistic variance between Milx and Chee is certainly noticeable, both artists are quite talented.
Rather than focusing his story on a lone demented scientist, Niles has chosen to give Wake the Dead a more youthful vibe, as the would-be resurrectionists in this story are three college-age boys. The artwork by Milx isn't always clear on that, and in fact they start off looking much younger, but it becomes clear in the context of the story that Victor, Will and Iggy have college age problems to go along with their more unreal problems of trying to raise the dead. Certainly the interaction between Victor and Will, the moral doubter and the crazy fanatic, isn't something we haven't seen before in scientific experimentation stories, and the addition of a third party in the form of the weak-willed Iggy is likewise familiar, but it's well-done for all of its familiarity.
Niles's main problem with Wake The Dead thus far is that it's so predictable. The bickering between the lab partners, the untimely death that provides them with guilt-free test material (guilt-free in terms of the readers, none of us are going to miss those bullying shits), the notion that the scientists are really close to success, it's all been seen before in B-grade horror flicks. The cliffhanger on the last page, deliberately vague as to the alive or dead status of the character in question, is the big surprise, though, and it gives me hope that we might see a little more unpredictable spirit in future issues.
While the story may not have enough suspense or surprise to really shock, though, the artwork definitely carries its weight. There's a clear change between Milx and Chee, and each artist has different strengths and weaknesses. Milx's work can be a little inconsistent, as the protagonists change appearance and seemingly age from panel-to-panel, but he's got the atmosphere and mood down. The shot of the dead pig running its bloody guts out around the room is freaakkky, and the head-on collision in the center of the book (which I believe is Milx's work) is like a combination of Geoff Darrow's Hard Boiled and any given Simon Bisley work in its gross attention to detail. Chee, meanwhile, has a style that is not dissimilar to that of Steven (Hawaiian Dick) Griffin, although his expressions can seem a bit too outrageous, lacking in subtlety. At any rate, though the art has its flaws, it is pretty impressive stuff, and no doubt will get more impressive as the relatively new artist tapped to take over grows into his role on the series.
Wake The Dead looks so far like an unpretentious horror story, not as spooky as 30 Days of Night or Uzumaki but with some creepy imagery and subject matter that could make it a fun read nonetheless. The characterization that Niles is doing, focusing in on the politics of friendship or romantic relationships, make the characters seem more real in the context of the unreal plot, and if we can get a little more surprise along with the solid base of characterization and art that this first issue has, Wake The Dead just might turn out to be another IDW horror gem. Or it could limp along as a teen movie version of the classic Frankenstein story. Honestly, it's too early to tell, but given the track record of Niles and IDW, I'm inclined to bet on the former.
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