Review: Fanboys Vs. Zombies #1

Fanboys Vs. Zombies #1
Written by: Sam Humphries
Art by: Jerry Gaylord
Published by: BOOM! Studios
Cover price: $1 

I love zombies. They are, in my opinion, the scariest of all the monsters and the most versatile which is proven every time a new zombie property is introduced.

So as a fan of zombies (one who tries nearly everything zombie-related), I was eager to check out this book that mixed zombies and fanboys.

I have to admit, I was a bit let down here. While the book looks fantastic – Jerry Gaylord’s art is vibrant and lively giving this book a fun feel that helps downplay some of the gore – the story seems to be struggling to find itself as the issue progresses.

What we have here is a group of friends calling themselves ‘The Wrecking Crew’. Shades of the Marvel Comics group of villains? Who knows. But they meet every year at the San Diego Comic Con and go through their motions. But this year is different as two of the friends, Rob and Kyle, are now at odds with each other after having both taking a liking to Jenna, a female Wrecking Crew. Jenna is there with the final Crew member, muscle-bound blond boy J-Mac.

Yeah, there’s a lot of drama going on and not a lot of time to digest it all.

The whole zombie outbreak stems from convention food, which if you’ve ever been to one isn’t that much of a stretch, and the next thing we know – while our ‘heroes’ are continuing their infighting – there are zombies everywhere.

Again, storywise, this book doesn’t have much going for it. With characters talking with ‘hash tags’ and using terms like ‘WTF’ in conversation (I don’t know anyone who actually talks like that) it’s not easy getting behind these guys. On top of that minor annoyance, these people really aren’t that likable. Petty fighting is just as annoying in comics as it is in the real world, folks. By the time I was done with this issue I pretty much had already forgotten what it was I had read.

Now, having said all that and never wanting to be one of those guys who criticizes without giving something positive back, this was just the first issue and it is just a dollar. That makes the let down of the story much easier to digest and makes me more willing to come back and at least try the second issue. It’s also worth supporting BOOM!’s $1 first issue program because things like this make it easier to get these books into the hands of new readers. Of course, the $3.99 price of each subsequent issue does not help, but if the first issue is awesome that does make it easier to at least push the trade paperback collections.

I can see where Humphries is trying to go here and, again, this is just the first issue, but for a debut issue, especially one with the hype this one had, this was a letdown.

I’ll be back for the second issue because I feel this has great potential and can be a highly entertaining and very fun series, but this might be one Comic Con that I may not return to on a regular basis.

This issue also sports at least five different covers from different creators and these are fun to look at. If anything, the $1 cover price would be worth it to have these covers!