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Death Valley
A handful of high school seniors plan a rave in a bomb shelter. When one of them knocks the door closed, they get locked up for the weekend. When they emerge, the entire San Fernando Valley is populated by zombies...
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 22, 2010
I found the main stories of the book, "Death Valley 1 and 2", to be pretty typical. The story was common and the art was mediocre, disappointing for the most part.
The other contributions, however...those are completely different. The art was engaging, visually appealing, and the stories were memorably interesting. "For Pete's Sake" being my personal favorite, they all run with a clever juxtaposition of dread and hope, struggle and perseverance, all carrying similar strands of the redemption issue. These stories, moreso than the book's namesake, make it worth purchasing. Well worth the read for those other additions.
The other contributions, however...those are completely different. The art was engaging, visually appealing, and the stories were memorably interesting. "For Pete's Sake" being my personal favorite, they all run with a clever juxtaposition of dread and hope, struggle and perseverance, all carrying similar strands of the redemption issue. These stories, moreso than the book's namesake, make it worth purchasing. Well worth the read for those other additions.
March 26, 2022
cw: violence, gore, sexual themes
This book holds both parts of the titular Death Valley and then a couple other stories by the authors.
Death Valley ***
In the Death Valley series, we follow a ragtag group of high schoolers who emerge from a bomb shelter (which they were hoping to use for a rave) and find the world taken over by zombies. The cast of characters was fun and quirky, and I liked a lot of the humor. But the story quickly glazes over monstrous events (an unfortunate commonality with action comics) and had quite a few “uh what?” moments.
The Bakemono and the Cranes ***
This one is a little eclectic, and honestly I’d need to read it about three more times to understand more deeply what happens in these few pages. Quite a bit of it reads like poetry and feels familiar, but it’s definitely a weird one.
For Pete’s Sake **
Another eclectic one. This one tells the tale of a young Christian woman who lives through the apocalypse and is trying to assimilate back into daily life and re-explore her faith. Theme is off the wall, art is all over the place, scenery confused me, dialogue confused me, ending confused me, but it was okay?
Zoombies **
Not sure what this story was trying to tell me. Unless it was just to deliver the line at the end. Not sure. Anyway, Zoombies seems to be set in a zoo and shows us how the animals try to escape from the zoo. There is not a lot of dialogue here and the dialogue we do get feels like background scenes and then we miss all the action. By the end of the comic, something happens. But we don’t see the main action happening so it feels rushed?
Matthew 21:22 Script ***
I think this is the first time I’ve ever read a comic book script. I’m not sure how to describe this story honestly (themes of religion mixed with zombies/vampires/something), but I would definitely read this as a comic.
This book holds both parts of the titular Death Valley and then a couple other stories by the authors.
Death Valley ***
In the Death Valley series, we follow a ragtag group of high schoolers who emerge from a bomb shelter (which they were hoping to use for a rave) and find the world taken over by zombies. The cast of characters was fun and quirky, and I liked a lot of the humor. But the story quickly glazes over monstrous events (an unfortunate commonality with action comics) and had quite a few “uh what?” moments.
The Bakemono and the Cranes ***
This one is a little eclectic, and honestly I’d need to read it about three more times to understand more deeply what happens in these few pages. Quite a bit of it reads like poetry and feels familiar, but it’s definitely a weird one.
For Pete’s Sake **
Another eclectic one. This one tells the tale of a young Christian woman who lives through the apocalypse and is trying to assimilate back into daily life and re-explore her faith. Theme is off the wall, art is all over the place, scenery confused me, dialogue confused me, ending confused me, but it was okay?
Zoombies **
Not sure what this story was trying to tell me. Unless it was just to deliver the line at the end. Not sure. Anyway, Zoombies seems to be set in a zoo and shows us how the animals try to escape from the zoo. There is not a lot of dialogue here and the dialogue we do get feels like background scenes and then we miss all the action. By the end of the comic, something happens. But we don’t see the main action happening so it feels rushed?
Matthew 21:22 Script ***
I think this is the first time I’ve ever read a comic book script. I’m not sure how to describe this story honestly (themes of religion mixed with zombies/vampires/something), but I would definitely read this as a comic.
February 19, 2023
A generic zombie comic based on the plot of Night of the Comet from the 1980's. It's about a group of dumb high school kids who are the last humans in Los Angeles after everyone else is changed into zombies. There's also some backup zombie stories at the end that are completely unconnected. The backup stories had better art.
August 19, 2008
As post-apocalypse zombie stories go, this one isn't bad. It has a few horror-movie cliches, but also has enough variations on the common themes that it was worth reading. Like many horror stories, it leaves much unexplained. The strength of this is that the writer doesn't have to explain what happened, but the weakness is that sometimes, as in this story, it doesn't quite make sense in spots. Still, the action was interesting, and would make a decent B-movie if someone cared to adapt it.
Oddly, the best material in the book is contained in three short stories at the end, unrelated to the main story other than the post-apocalyptic horror, of sorts. One, a brief religious and philosophical examination of the concept of zombies, turned out to be unusual and interesting. My favorite, though, was a short piece called "Zoombies", which I can't explain without giving away the plot.
Oddly, the best material in the book is contained in three short stories at the end, unrelated to the main story other than the post-apocalyptic horror, of sorts. One, a brief religious and philosophical examination of the concept of zombies, turned out to be unusual and interesting. My favorite, though, was a short piece called "Zoombies", which I can't explain without giving away the plot.
February 13, 2012
This would have worked much better as a movie. The story isn’t helped by comic format since it relies more on suspense and scares. The art was bright and energetic, but I think that kind of worked against the comic. Bright happy doesn’t really mix with zombie destruction. These are the same writers that did X Isle. It seems more like that are putting together a movie pitch as opposed to taking the comic format with any seriousness. If you want a good zombie comic book, check out The Walking Dead. It really takes the zombie genre in an exciting direction.
Reviewed by Chris for Book Sake.
Reviewed by Chris for Book Sake.
May 19, 2012
This is a good zombie graphic novel, it has one big story and then a few short ones at the end. Although I enjoyed the main more humourous tale I was very intrigued by the other slightly more serious short stories and would have liked a few more.
The drawing styles differed greatly for each one but all of them were engaging. I recommend anyone who likes zombies and graphic novels to check this out.
The drawing styles differed greatly for each one but all of them were engaging. I recommend anyone who likes zombies and graphic novels to check this out.
July 7, 2012
14.99
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews