nasher's Evil Ernie #1 - Evil Ernie review

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    Evil Ernie 1

    In this review I'm going to review the entire first, 5 part, volume of Evil Ernie 1991, which was reprinted by Chaos Comics in 1996 as Youth Gone Wild with new cover art.

    The Cover  

    The original covers of Evil Ernie were something special to me. Back in the 1990's there were some horror comics for sure but the bold, heavy metal inspired covers certainly spoke me as young man with a taste for bands like Slayer and Megadeth. Indeed Ernie's look was based on the lead singer of the band Overkill. Have they dated badly? Well yes they have dated but not as much as the more mainstream comics of that period. the first 3 issues still look good but the last 2 suffer from less polished artwork and a change in style from Eric Mache to Tim Virgil.

    The Story 

    Even today the story seems fresh. When you compare it to recent series like Crossed and to a  lesser extend Hack/Slash & The Walking Dead & Bomb Queen you can feel the influence in the mixture of the traditional undead/zombie apocalypse and the deranged and off kilter humour.

    It's hard to find fault in a story that launched an icon of comics like Lady Death, retrospect just wont let you, as well as smattering of other characters that blossomed under the control of Chaos Comics.  

    If i had to find fault its in that there are maybe too many underdeveloped characters on the sides of the story and getting their place in the story is somewhat difficult, but thats mainly due to the fact they don't come into their own until future volumes. So you can take that two ways as it also provided the future writers characters to develop who were there from the start instead of needing any ret-con or creating from scratch. Even the anthropomorphic Smiley button, while he doesn't have a speaking part yet, is far from silent. the foundations are all there.

    Theres plenty of humour too. Ernie has a sense of fun and drama to his mayhem and seems to enjoy himself immensely in his work. Again traits that would go on to inform later outings.

    As a whole the series is a solid origin for a new character, a defined middle that doesn't feel like padding and a solid end with the required get out clause should his story continue.

    Artwork 

    The solid black & white pencil and ink work by Stephen Hughes is superb. His tone and skill renders the scenes perfectly. He crafts the looks of Ernie and Lady Death that would be how they looked for the next decade with little variation. This is one of those books that you remember being in colour when it was only in black and white, thats how brilliantly executed the artwork is.

    The pages aren't overly wordy as the story along with the visuals is at perfect pitch to convey the meaning without having to ram it down our throats.

    The face work is consistent and expressive and avoids being cartoony, making the threat of Ernie all the more vicious. But it isn't afraid to be more playful when Ernie is alone with his thoughts or taking out a group of enemies.

    Conclusion.        

    Even after years of zombie movies, books, comics and television Ernie still has something to say. Theres an originality to the story that has not been replicated elsewhere and for an anti-hero you are both rooting for him and against him. You feel for the victims but you also want to see Ernie get to take out his frustration on a world that hurt him just as much.

    Recommending 

    If you like zombies you should certainly give this series a good. Learn a little of how the modern age of zombie comics evolved and what you could get away with in print back in the 90's. Not for young readers due to the violence and adult themes but with no bad language but older teenagers should finds this their pace.

    Rating 

    8/10.     

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