Revival Compendium

Revival #1-8

by Tim Seeley, Mike Norton (illustrator)

The beautiful 'farm noir' that puts a new twist on the zombie genre, now collected for the first time in one complete paperback volume.

For one day in rural central Wisconsin, the dead came back to life. Now, it's up to Officer Dana Cypress to deal with the media scrutiny, religious zealots, and government quarantine that has come with them. In a town where the living have to learn to deal with those who are supposed to be dead, Officer Cypress must solve the brutal murder of her own sister. Now everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect, while Em Cypress, murder victim, keeps getting in Dana's way.

The sell-out hit series created by New York Times bestselling author Tim Seeley and Eisner-winning artist Mike Norton is collected in this Image Compendium featuring Revival #1-47, the Free Comic Book Day short story, the crossover with CHEW, a Jenny Frison cover gallery, plus many behind-the-scenes bonuses and other features.

Genres: Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels, Adult Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

1200 pages, Paperback

Published November 5, 2024

About the author

Tim Seeley is a comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Batman Eternal and Grayson. He is also the co-creator of the Image Comics titles Hack/Slash[1] and Revival, as well as the Dark Horse titles, ExSanguine and Sundowners. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

(B+) 78% | Good
Notes: Review pending re-read. Individual reviews for included volumes can be found here:
- Revival, Vol. 1: You're Among Friends.
- Revival, Vol. 2: Live Like You Mean It.
- Revival, Vol. 3: A Faraway Place
- Revival, Vol. 4: Escape to Wisconsin
- Revival, Vol. 5: Gathering Of Waters
- Revival, Vol. 6: Thy Loyal Sons & Daughters
- Revival, Vol. 7: Forward
- Revival, Vol. 8: Stay Just a Little Bit Longer

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all the characters or story choices really hit for me (the "Chew" crossover was pretty flimsy stuff) but where it was good it was very good indeed. Worth spending time with this 1200 page beast.

[Chr*s Browning]

Entertaining and mostly compelling throughout even if it starts to suffer from “wanted to be a TV show” syndrome about halfway through with a plethora of side characters and side plots that ultimately get trampled for a climactic (in scope) anti-climax (in emotions) centered around the power of motherhood and written and drawn by two men. Resolution of the central mystery also has a whiff of “process of elimination failure” where the only person it could be and still be someone the audience has met turns out to be the baddie (and then gets the ending’s partial forgiveness?) and we all have to act shocked. More I think about it the more I think it doesn’t quite hold up, especially everything starting with the military governor coming to town. It’s no Locke and Key and I don’t know that it even holds up to the strongest sections of The Walking Dead but still fun to read a whole series in a few days. Don’t think I’ll need to watch the TV show though.

[David Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rural farm noir, I didn't know this was a thing. When the dead come back in rural Wisconsin it's a miracle! It maybe a curse? This book gives a nice blend of the supernatural and what a real world response might be. We've got government crackdowns, internment camps, religious nuts, anti-government people, scammers, police, the army, families, the whole spectrum of the human experience is shown here.

We mostly follow the Cypress family, the patriarch of the family Sheriff Cypress, his daughter Officer Dana Cypress, and his recently revived daughter Martha aka Em. They navigate the story, trying to hide Em's Reviver status from Sheriff Cypress and the town, then trying to find her killer.

The ending wasn't wrapped up as tightly as I'd like, but it was still satisfying. Overall I really enjoyed this massive book. The back third really picks up the pace and drives you to the ending. The exploration of body and soul and what it means if death is avoidable make this book pretty great.

[Xroldx · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me a while but it is the collection of all 48 single Revival comics in one massive book.

This is not your average zombie tale. This is more of a slow burn crime tale with supernatural elements. I enjoyed it.

[Sebastian Lauterbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first of my spooky-season reads this fall. What a strange book.

The pitch of this series is that the dead return to life in a small rural town in the middle of nowhere and there's a murder mystery to be solved.

I'll start with the good: This volume collects all 47 issues of this long-running series and it held up incredibly well. These Softcover Compendiums offer fantastic value in my opinion and I prefer these editions over collecting 3-4 thin Deluxe hardcovers.

The bad: The story is creeping at a snail's pace for the first 35 issues, almost 3/4th of the book. It reads like a slice of life story, but it introduces so many characters and background mingles, that the overall plot is barely felt. Both the artwork and the dialogue makes me think that I was reading a TV script. A 'scene' most often spans 2 pages and then the story jumps to the next one. This disrupts binge reading and unfortunately a lot of these scenes aren't interesting. If I was interested in just the overarching mystery, I'd get less than a page of progression on average in a given issue.

The TV script aspect is problematic for me for another reason: Every character needs to have a secret and it won't be shared with others for the most selfish reasons. It makes most characters unlikable and frankly bad characters. I know that TV shows do the same nowadays and I simply can't get into them for the same reason.

In the last 10-15 issues, the tone of the book suddenly shifts by a lot. Suddenly there's action, betrayal and the urge to wrap things up. The shift in the plot often didn't make sense to me and characters behaved very strangely. The ending itself has some interesting reveals, but the fate of certain characters feels off.

The artwork is good, but it's done so realistic and so few experimental or supernatural panels are used, that I'm again reminded that I'm reading a TV series, that is operating under a budget. Again, this differs for the last 10-15 issues.

I wish this series was half as long and focused more on the supernatural and mystery aspects and less on the slice of life and interactions between the inhabitants of the town. I did have fun with certain plot points, but they are drowned in a plethora of scenes that ultimately didn't add any value to the story.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sprawling epic about a small town, the people who live there and how their lives get turned upside down when the recently deceased come back to life . . . hungry for the lives they once lead. So, this book has it all. Fantastic characters with incredible arcs, intriguing mysteries, sinister secrets, genuinely creepy stuff, and even over the top things like an Amish ninja that still somehow manages to be utterly grounded.

It all builds and comes to a powerful and poignant payoff that's executed wonderfully. And all the horror,laughter, action, intrigue, power, and poignancy is brought to life by an incredible art team.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this when it came out in 2012 at the height of the zombie “Walking Dead” madness that was everywhere. I stopped reading the monthly issues when I'd had enough of the zombie thing. When I saw a mention of the new tv show based on the comic, I decided to finish. I'm glad I did. It's not your basic zombie story. It's clever, weird, bloody, and the art is good. The last issues get a bit preachy, but they are satisfying.

Someday, I'm going to finish reading The Walking Dead #1

[Ernesto Jun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Supernatural premise combined with naturally written characters. I was fully convinced that this would be how normal people living in middle America would react towards the insane circumstances that they find themselves in.

The mystery was not neatly solved. I felt like there were some plot holes. But then again, real life also has haphazardly solved mysteries and glaring, but acceptable, plot holes.

I hope the TV adaptation will do this justice.

[Kaitlyn (ktxx22) Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

1200 page graphic novel read in under a week 👀 I guess you could say I loved this! I was absolutely captivated by this series from start to finish. Stayed up late many night and honestly it’s been since I read the Locke and Key series that I had this level of reading experience! So much so that I’m surprised more folks don’t gush about it all the time. So happy I read this I’ll definitely be thinking about it off into the future.

[Luis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Colour and line are average, and layouts are nothing special. The starting premise turns too convoluted rather quickly, ending all in a bit of magical nonsense, with a deus-ex-machina-driven plot, while the characters are mostly uninteresting (sheriff dad, gothic emo girl) when not outright a random mishmash (amish mercenary ninja???).

It's all just... average. Decent entertainment if you fancy something simple with no high expectations.

[Nick Belhomme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written story. Everything is woven perfectly into each other with no extra chapters.
Each chapter has a meaning and contributes to the overall plot.
Really well done.
It felt at times a bit like: Rachel Rising which is also great!
Highly revommend.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Revival started out really great. The dead rise, not as zombies, but as their old selves now undead. As the series goes on though the plot becomes convoluted and the mystery of why the dead won't stay dead is answered in what I felt was unsatisfying.

[Jonica Pagnucco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really looking forward to the TV Series adaptation of this !

[Katy Bergamo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had almost forgotten how phenomenal this series was. I'm happy to have refreshed myself and love both of these main creators.

[Zachary King · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up because I couldn’t put this down! Binge-read it every chance I got.

[Matteo G · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's interesting at the start, but it becomes boring and shallow past half

[Galen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sold at first on the story (art is solid throughout). Revival made me feel like I was marathoning a tv show on FX, which isn't a bad thing imo. My focus faded in a couple parts where the plot veered off, but overall as a whole I was pretty into this series, I’ll probably read it again sometime.

[Adolfo Couso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't wait for the TV series and read this wonder now.