iZombie Volume 1: Dead to the World written by Chris Roberson, art by Michael Allred, and colors by Laura Allred
Gwen Dylan is a gravedigger at a "green" cemetery in Eugene, Oregon. They don't embalm the corpses so the environment doesn't get polluted. It's a handy job for her because she is a zombie and needs to eat at least one brain a month or else she will turn into a shambling, mindless, flesh-eating scavenger like in all the b-movies. The only catch is that she starts seeing the dead person's memories, which can be annoying. Sometimes they want her to do some unfinished business or right some wrong. The latest brain she ate was from a murdered man, so he wants some vengeance.
Gwen has two friends--Ellie, who is the ghost of a 1950s-era teenager and hangs out at the cemetery (where she was buried long ago, so no weird brain-eating connection) and Scott, who is a very much alive young male and not a werewolf, he's a wereterrier. His backstory is not explained but he meets up with the girls at a local diner when he's not working his tech-support job at a high-rise for seniors. They help her investigate the crime, which leads to a house where they trick-or-treated (as a joke) last Halloween. The homeowner turns out to be from ancient Egypt who has been keeping himself alive and fresh-looking (hardly any bandages on this mummy) for millennia by eating other people. He claims he only kills guilty people. He's had to stay one step ahead of a monster-killing cult by moving often (well, often for a 3000-year life span). He wants her to help him. Gwen doesn't buy it. He tries to convince her that her system isn't working--he asks her how she died and she can't remember, so the brains aren't keeping her as fresh as she supposes. She needs to think about his offer.
Meanwhile, a local paintball course is run by a group of female vampires who try to get by with snacking on one or two customers without killing them. One of the vampires goes rogue and kills a guy in town. Before the head of the vampires (a very domineering type) can get to her, a pair of monster-killers from a millennia old group gets the rogue vampire. They are in town to eliminate undead problems. One of the monster-killers stops in at the local diner where he bumps into Gwen and they hit it off romantically. Too bad they are not on the same side in the bigger picture!
The story is fairly interesting and fresh. At one point, the mummy character explains to Gwen what's going on. Each person has an "oversoul" that runs their higher functions and an "undersoul" that runs their appetites and instincts. When someone dies, both souls are supposed to leave, but sometimes one stays with the body or one of the souls stays without a body. A bodiless oversoul is a ghost like Ellie. A bodiless undersoul is a poltergeist. A body with only an oversoul is a vampire. A body with only an undersoul is a zombie. Also, the bodiless souls can "infect" a living person, including bodiless undersouls of animals, hence werewolves and wereterriers. An oversoul in someone else's body is like demonic possession. So the authors have a fairly well-developed system to explain what's going on. The interweaving of various plot strands is also skillfully done, making the story both entertaining and easy to follow even with a myriad of characters who are not immediately connected together.
The comic series was popular enough to get turned into a TV show, which had an interesting first season but not all the supernatural complications of the print version. The show, which started as a riff on the police procedural, turned into more of a soap opera in subsequent seasons and I lost interest. It's fun to go back to the comics and re-experience the creativity of the original.
Recommended.
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