Marvel's Max imprint has already done a Zombie series with art by Kyle Hotz.  It came out a year ago, and featured a character called Simon Garth, in a nod to the 1970s series Tales of the Zombie.  The similarity ended there.

But zombies are doing well for Marvel right now, so here's a sequel, confusingly titled The Zombie: Simon Garth.  This time, Hotz is writing as well as drawing.  Eric Powell is credited as co-writer, although he claims that he merely offered to help with the dialogue if needed, and never actually contributed anything.  They've put his name on the cover anyway, though.

Kyle Hotz is certainly a good horror artist, and the issue does just fine when it comes to visceral gore.  He's fine with atmosphere as well.  There's an odd sequence with two incredibly ugly characters who apparently aren't zombies, admittedly.  When I can't tell the living from the dead, something's not right.  But visually, he's got just the style you want on a story like this.

As for the story, though...  well, that's not so good.

It's a confused and confusing plot, in which a bunch of characters run around a wood, some of whom are apparently infected with a zombie virus.  Simon, the title character, is a full-fledged zombie for this series, which makes him a rather limited protagonist.  He doesn't talk, and he shuffles slowly.  He's not the most dynamic figure in the world, and I don't get any real sense of personality from him.

The big problem, though, is that I don't really care that much about any of the characters.  There are maniacs, there are zombies, there are generic scientists participating in an evil conspiracy, and there's an off-the-shelf policeman arriving to investigate.  Oh, and there's a woman looking for her daughter - I presume it's her daughter, anyway - who's passably sympathetic but too generic to hold my interest.  And then they all run around being violent to one another.

I've read worse, but ultimately I just didn't care.  And then I read it again to be on the safe side, and I still didn't care.  I'm afraid all I was left with was a sense of indifference, despite the impressive art.

Rating: C-

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