OK, so looking at that title you may be thinking “Another zombie comic book?” After all, there are a number of them out there. Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead is probably the best known and most loved zombie comic, but let’s not forget the various Marvel Zombies series that hit the shelves as well as the zombie-ish creatures within the various Army of Darkness comics. But I think this one is different because even though it’s all about zombies – but in an era we have never seen them before… back in the days of the caveman.
In many cases when we see zombies, there is either some kind of mystical reason for them rising from the ground or else some mega-virus a la Resident Evil which creates what is affectionately known as the Zombie Apocalypse. Here, though, we have an era where verbal communication is – to the best that history can tell us – non-existent and we know that there is no Umbrella Corporation back then to cause the havoc of the zombie mutation onto the public. So how did the zombies come to be?
Well, that’s a question that may be answered within the pages of a Kickstarter program currently running for a comic called Zombie B.C. The Kickstarter begins with a 30-page book back in the days of the caveman, as the artwork and story depicts.
[pullquote_left]”This will be a violent story depicting a zombie outbreak within a primitive and amoral society.”[/pullquote_left]
The concept of the book actually intrigues me because there is no explanation of the zombie outbreak and no scientific lab to create it. Many modern incarnations of the Zombie Apocalypse are a result of some disease that is laboratory-focused; finding some other explanation for a potential zombie uprising is a little different in terms of what can happen. It makes it a little darker, a little more chilling. So long as we don’t get to some time travel experiment where the virus causing zombieism is sent back in time… That would be even more far-fetched than zombies on their own!
The story for the book is written by Stephen Void, a Minnesota native who has a passion for both comics and horror stories. He also recognized that the zombie world was saturated with what can be considered the “Standard fare” in comics and movies these days and although he had a story he wanted to tell, he wanted to do something different. Enter: cavemen. I can honestly say that I have no recollection of a pre-historic zombie outbreak anywhere, so that makes this an interested concept.
The artwork for the book is done by Steven Williams. In looking at some of the interior pages, we see some amazing visualizations for the book. Williams has a unique style which is appealing for a horror comic, and the story and art together provide a chilling effect. The zombies here are also not your typical walk-slow-and-shout “BRAINS” type. We can see the bloodlust in the facial expressions without the bits of flesh perhaps dripping from their bodies; they have a more human look and that’s what makes them all the more creepy. But the cavemen also have the look of how we envision our ancestors looking – larger foreheads, crooked noses. This is not just a modern description of humans today put into caveman times but a true visualization of the civilization of the time.
If you are one for horror comics and like a creepy story, head on over to the Kickstarter page for Zombie B.C. These guys look like they have something very interesting in the works here with a vision for the entire story. There’s not much time left on the Kickstarter so if you are interested pop on over and give it a look – and then contribute! This is something special and would be a great comic to see come to life!
