Building Up Towards The Climax
After surviving a zombie attack, Anita Blake continues her investigation to find the killer zombie on the loose and the animator responsible for raising it.
My Thoughts:
This is the second volume of the three part story arc "The Laughing Corpse" which was adapted to comic format by Jess Ruffner. The story definitely picks up and becomes more and more interesting as it progresses. The last volume ended on a pretty good cliffhanger where Anita was being attacked by zombies she believed to be sent by Dominga. In this comic we find Anita dealing with the aftermath of that as well as the persistent Harold Gaynor who seeks Anita's skills. I really thought the writing was powerful on a few different levels in this volume. First we witness the hectic and stressful life Anita leads and how it personally effects her. From zombie attacks to murder scenes, her life is moving so fast and at times it's almost too much for her to take in. But through it all we see her morality never wavers. The part where she talks to Jean-Claude about the prostitutes and pimps was very moving. Jean-Claude wanted to feed on them, looking at them as scum. Anita wouldn't allow it and the dialogue during their interaction was nicely written.
Most of the story is building up towards the climax where we'll finally find out for sure who the animator responsible for setting the killer zombie loose is. All signs point towards Dominga but I wouldn't at all be surprised if we're hit with a curveball and find out it's someone else. Either way I look forward to reading the end of this story arc.
The art is once again drawn by Ron Lim. He has a great style which I think is a perfect match for this series. The coloring is always superb and the covers always maintain a high quality.
I would recommend comic readers to check this series out. This wouldn't be the ideal jumping on point. I would just start at the very beginning. If you don't want to go back that far then at the very least start at the beginning of this story arc. Jumping in now would be very confusing for any new reader.
Rating: 4/5