Killer Zombies Everywhere!
Murder strikes the city of St. Louis once again. This time a gruesome murder scene involving multiple victims forces Dolph to call Anita Blake for her assistance. Anita quickly deduces that the victims were killed by hand and most likely the work of a zombie. Anita and Dolph begin to investigate who could possibly be powerful enough to raise a zombie to kill. They come in contact with the strange Dominga Salvador but don't quite find the answers they're looking for. As Anita continues working on the investigation, she is attacked by zombies.
My Thoughts:
Based off Laurell K. Hamilton's novels, this adaption was done by Jess Ruffner-Booth. It's the first of three volumes in "The Laughing Corpse" story arc. I like how the story started. This volume is called "Animator" as Anita and Dolph search for an animator powerful enough to have risen a killer zombie. This time around we're seeing a lot more zombie action instead of vampires. It was a nice change of pace and made for a very entertaining story. What I also enjoyed in this volume was we got to take a couple of short looks into Anita's past. We see the first time she came about her animator abilities and we see a nightmare she often has that happened a long time ago.
The addition of the new character Dominga Salvador was enlightening. You get the sense that she will very soon be a serious threat to Anita. I look forward to what happens next as this volume ended with a pretty good cliffhanger.
The artwork is done by Ron Lim. His style is a perfect match for this series. I really like his work. He's great at capturing facial expressions. The coloring is superb and matches the tone of the writing.
I would recommend this series to comic readers. This series has continued to surprise me and keeps getting better. If you like vampires and zombies, this series offers a fresh perspective on the two with plenty of suspense and excitement along the way.
Rating: 4.5/5