Wake The Dead

Wake the Dead #1-5

by Steve Niles, Chee Yang Ong

Steve Niles, the acknowledged master of horror comics, turns his sights on the Frankenstein story in this terrifying tale, illustrated by new sensation Chee.
College student Victor works to reverse death, not knowing what a can of worms he's opening up. But he'll find out...

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2004

About the author

STEVE NILES is one of the writers responsible for bringing horror comics back to prominence, and was recently named by Fangoria magazine as one of it's "13 rising talents who promise to keep us terrified for the next 25 years."

Niles is currently working for the four top American comic publishers - Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse. He got his start in the industry when he formed his own publishing company called Arcane Comix, where he published, edited and adapted several comics and anthologies for Eclipse Comics. His adaptations include works by Clive Barker, Richard Matheson and Harlan Ellison.

Steve resides in Los Angeles in his bachelor pad with one cat. While there's no crawlspace, there is a questionable closet in one corner and no one is quite sure what is hidden in there...but we have an idea.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[Holly Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wake the Dead by Steve Niles, was a retelling of the Frankenstein story. It was promising in the beginning, and very gory. However, it felt extremely rushed. What started out at a good pace failed to give depth to the characters. Not to mention, from the moment the creature is awakened until the climax of the story, it goes too quickly. Instead of creating suspense, it feels more like a child telling a story, but getting bored halfway through and rushing through it.

Wake the Dead was ok. It's definitely not in my list of top horror comics. It really wouldn't even get an "honorable mention" spot. The gore and the art are pretty good, but what the story lacks overpowers any positives of the art. Oh well.

[Edward Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great modern retelling of Shelley’s classic tale, amazingly adapted by Niles and put to print by Chee. The art is somewhat simple, but the depth you get is worth the view. If you have read Frankenstein, you will see all the pieces of the puzzle in place, if not, enjoy. :)

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A totally solid Frankenstein-type story--the beginning was quite nice, with plenty of room to breathe, but you can tell that the writer got distracted about half of the way through, because the second half is disjointed and silly.

The art ranges from good to really moody and delicious, but it's constantly changing. This was nice and fitting at first, but that also got distracting towards the end.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! This is Steve Niles's tribute to Frankenstein. In my opinion, he did an amazing job retelling the story, while at the same time remaining respectful to the original.

I only wish it was longer. The characters seemed so interested, and I would have loved to explore their stories and relationships.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected so much from this when I saw that Steve Niles had worked on it. Frankenstein rip off, and badly drawn characters that look like angry midgits, and not real people.

[Masha Romanoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nop.....