NowaDays

by Kurt Martell

The gritty, atmospheric tale of a small group of people amidst the emergence of ... something... horrific. The dead are rising, and they need to feed. Some seem to be mindless monsters while others retain their minds and perhaps, their humanity. Follow the victims and the monsters, the innocent and the terrible, the living and the dead as they fight for survival, travelling across NW Ontario, searching for hope and answers.From writer Kurt Martell and artist Christopher 'Merk' Merkley.Based in NW Ontario in such areas as Beardmore, Nipigon and Thunder Bay and the long, lonely highways in between.The artistic approach to Nowadays is unique, combining manipulated photography and traditional pencil & ink comic techniques. Facebook

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror

308 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2012

Reviews

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zombie fiction always sneaks up on me. I never consciously seek it out, but I end up reading it nonetheless. Nowdays is different from any other zombie fiction I’ve read so far in that it’s a graphic novel, a medium I enjoy but don’t necessarily follow as much as I could. It’s also notable in that its authors are from my hometown, and they chose to set the story in that area. Whereas most zombie fiction focuses on the survivors of a zombie apocalypse as a kind of microcosm for the remnants of society, Nowadays decides to turn most of its main characters into zombies. The twist is that, provided they aren’t too badly injured, zombie!you is pretty much the same as human!you, except with a thirst for blood.

The book opens with a kind of prologue: a man wakes up to discover he has had a heart attack and is now a zombie. So he eats part of his dog. Then his dog becomes a zombie. Together, they dig up his wife and daughter, who died in a car crash, and find blood to help regenerate them. We meet this character again later in the book, but the action quickly jumps to follow the main cast: a group of young tree-planters and their boss, Tree, as well Ray, who escaped from alcohol rehab and joins up with them. They quickly fall prey to zombies, and as they begin to operate under the principal that, once you’re bitten you’re doomed to become one of them, the group begins to fracture as some people prove to be more ruthless than others.

Eventually they discover that a sense of self remains intact after zombification. This is a neat twist that introduces a number of new dilemmas. Should you still kill all the zombies when they can talk and reason? Will we instead have to find a way to co-exist with zombie-kind? Merk and Martell don’t really address these bigger issues, preferring instead to focus on what the apocalypse does to a small group of people thrown together by the outbreak. Their different reactions to the revelation that life doesn’t end after zombification offer a glimpse at what might be happening in the wider world.

I love that this was set in Northwestern Ontario, if only because I get a kick out of reading place names that I’m familiar with. The art in this book uses a combination of drawing and photo manipulation (the latter mostly on background scenery), which creates an interesting, surreal effect. I have to admit that I’m not overly impressed by the style of the drawing; it lacks a certain flair in favour of a simple colour palette and blocky depictions at a distance. But that doesn’t mean the art is bad—the style is clearly a deliberate choice that I’m sure will work for other people.

I really enjoyed the story. At first I was a little sceptical, both because of my general wariness towards zombie stories and because nothing grabbed me at first. So I was surprised when I turned the last page and found myself hungry for more. In part this is because of the kickass cliffhanger at the end—without spoiling anything, I am really interested to find out what the military are really up to in the cordoned off Thunder Bay. And, of course, what’s up with that weird voice uttering "Blood is power" in Latin to everyone who wakes up as a zombie? Nowadays tells a satisfying story on its own while still setting up enough to keep the series going into several books.

I’m not sure that if I truly hated zombie stories this would be enough to win me over (or maybe I’m just going soft in my old age). It helps that the authors don’t try to do too much here. They focus on the conflict created within the group by each person’s differing priorities. They aren’t afraid to split the group up and bring it back together after creating a certain amount of tension and exploring subplots. For example, both Ray and Tree become separated from the main group at different points, and it seems like they are “goners”, if you can say that about a world where the dead rise as zombies. But they both find their way back to the group (first after finding each other), both changed in different ways—Ray a zombie, Tree oddly sympathetic to the dead folk. Meanwhile, the rest of the group is holed up in a hotel, where one of them is going crazy and wants revenge. So it goes.

Nowadays is some good zombie fiction and a good graphic novel. It’s something new, something different from what I often encounter when I dip my toes into this sub-genre from time to time. And that’s always good.

[Jason Town · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This was an awesome graphic novel! Very action/thriller driven, art was fantastic, the only problem with it was the long wait for it to finally come out:P

[J. Rock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, where to begin? I wanted to like this graphic novel, I really, really, did. I met the authors, at a local signing, they were very cool, and I could tell they put A LOT of effort into it. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. First the story. More or less, this is a run of the mill zombie outbreak story, taking place in NW Ontario, Canada, and follows a group of mostly unsavory tree planters, on a make work assignment. Not very many of the characters are likable. Ray was my least favorite. His actions were so off the wall bizarre at times, I could hardly identify with him as a real person. Tree was the most likable, but also the most stereotypical-the wisened old man, acting as a guide for the rest of the characters. The authors claim the story is a morality tale, but that is not really what we get. Yes, some zombies retain their humanity, but we see very little struggle with what they have become. The story starts with Brenden, a newly made zombie with a painful past, then quickly joins the tree planters, and Brenden becomes an ancillary character. The writing needed some serious polishing-there were typos, and in a graphic novel where there really isn't all that much actual text, this is unforgivable. The dialogue was cheesy at times, and uncompelling...and hard to follow! The speech bubbles were often placed haphazardly and often I found myself reading the text in the wrong order. Ugh. Now on to the artwork: the authors took a gamble, combining traditional artwork and manipulated photography...unfortunately, this did not pay off either. Some frames looked extremely cheap and photoshopped, and often times it was hard to tell what was going on. I found myself having to go back and study certain pics to see what was going on. The artwork itself was inconsistent; every once in a while, I'd come across a full color, hand drawn frame that blew my mind with greatnes-but they were very few and far between. The authors should have taken their photos and traced actual drawings of the backgrounds overtop, to keep a sense consistency. Overall, I cannot give this graphic novel anything higher than a 2 out of 5. The ending was intriguing, and I may check out future volumes to see what happens, but it won't be at the top of my reading list.

[Bonnie Ferrante · Rating 3 out of 5]

I seldom read graphic novels but I used to be a huge fan of comic books so I enjoy picking up one now and then. Nowadays grabbed my attention because it was written and illustrated by two local authors and featured locations around my community, Thunder Bay. Considering how much financial support the creators received to publish this book, I was a little daunted at the cost but realized that full-color illustrations on glossy paper is pricey. Unfortunately after reading this book, I don’t think I would pay that much for a second.

The artwork was an interesting combination of full-color drawings, black-and-white sketches, and merged Photoshopped photography of Northwestern Ontario scenes. I did find there was a wide variation in the quality of the artwork.

However, it was the story that disappointed me. I do love a good zombie book or movie. I like that the authors try to make their zombies unusual in that they could speak plainly, think clearly, and rationalize their behavior. As with most horror stories, plot was rather thin. While it is unfair to compare a short book with something the scope of The Walking Dead, I do feel the characterization was superficial and I didn’t really care what happened to anyone. The story jumped around quite a bit and at times it was difficult to follow. Periodically the reader was expected to follow events showing only by graphics, which didn’t always work. I also found the dialogue occasionally stilted, unrealistic, and inconsistent.

Sadly, I can only recommend this book as a quirky little gorefest.