Ginger Stein: Rise of the Undead Review

Heads up horror fans and fans of the undead, Ginger Stein #1: Rise of the Undead has arrived! Rise of the Undead features classic B-movie violence, 80s horror, and monsters that H.R. Giger would be proud of. It tells the tale of Ginger Stein, an actress in B-movie horror movies, who winds up actually fighting the real undead.

The comic is pure 80s horror fun with blood and sex galore. The art is done in a realistic style created in association with Iron Dead Studios and Comic Book Divas, which means that the characters are portrayed by real models. The result is a very interesting style of art, which I think really lends itself well to the Hollywood inspired story. There are actual models playing the actresses in the art, which might sound strange, but it actually works. The art is incredible as well, and has plenty of one page illustrations that are quite amazing to behold.

Although loaded with action, there’s also a lot of dialogue involved. This comic is pretty dialogue heavy, despite having a character on the cover shoving a shotgun down your throat. It has some pretty great one liners as well. One of my favorites is when Ginger Stein is being interrogated by the FBI over the tragedy that happened on set and warns if they don’t let her go, she’ll have a big tragedy on their chair. The creator has called Ginger Stein the female equivalent of Ash from Evil Dead. That’s the most accurate description of her; she’s full of one liners, firmly cemented in the B-movie horror genre, and has a love of shotguns that Ash would be proud of. But she also has a much more human side which is nice to see. Ginger’s career seems to be on the rocks. She’s getting old, and this is set to be her last movie, which might prove to be true, since the real undead does end up showing up.

Issue #1 begins with Ginger being interrogated by the FBI over a mass murder on her latest movie set.  Then we go back to before the bloody massacre with Ginger and her sister (who also wishes to be an actress), dealing with a zealous director who wishes to be called God. The annoying director seems like the most of their problems, until a prop from the set unleashes a wave of evil. “Something was waking up. A long slumbering titan who’s arrival was heralded by a wave of blood red death and torture of the mind. ”  The evil takes control of her sister, and she unleashes a wave of carnage on the movie set that any horror fan will truly appreciate.

Ginger Stein has one of the best comic based websites I’ve seen in awhile. It’s loaded with features like Ginger Stein inspired music, plus you can head on over there and pick up a copy of the first issue while you’re at it. If the first issue leaves you wanting more Ginger Stein kicking more undead ass, don’t worry, Issue #2 and #3 are already in the works.