Tag - Book Review

Tag - Book Review

Post
Subscribe

Posted 2020-01-04 by Jennifer Muirheadfollow
"Want to know what's worse than waking up in a hospital emergency room with no memory of how you got there? Realising the docs weren't expecting you to wake up at all."

Mitch is about to break up with his girlfriend, Izumi, when a homeless man lurches out of an alley and touches him. Mitch collapses and wakes up in hospital to find that he is technically dead. His body has already begun to rot and he learns that he has until it fully decomposes to "tag" someone who has wronged him in order to lift the curse.


%%
Tag is written by Keith Giffin (writer for Annihilation: Conquest and Blue Beetle) and illustrated by Kody Chamberlain (of 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales, which looks a lot better than the original 30 Days of Night ) The art is creepy, in a good way, with a muted colour pallette to suit the noir vibe. The premise is an interesting one, similar to the Japanese horror franchise Ring or the 2014 American horror film It Follows%%.



Unfortunately, I found it a bummer to read because Mitch is such an unpleasant character. I found it hard to understand by the end why Izumi didn't just kick him out to take his chances running from the police and trying to find his target on foot. She deserves better than a surly, decomposing ex-boyfriend stinking up her flat.



The "deluxe edition" of Tag includes as a bonus three issues of another zombie comic called Dead Meat, also by Keith Giffen. It's the story of a mercenary named Zack Brannigan who comes back from the dead after a fall from a cliff to find himself surrounded by other zombies, whom he keeps killing for a while for some reason. It's a load of macho nonsense which I could have done without, but at least I didn't pay extra for it.

Tag is an interesting take on the zombie genre, with evocative art and a good story if you can get past the general unpleasantness. I'll be interested to see where the story goes from here.

#book_reviews
#books_writing
#comics
#misc
#pop_culture
%wneverywhere
85474 - 2023-06-11 07:09:56

Tags

Music
Free
Arts_culture
Film_tv_reviews
Outdoor
Random
Nightlife
Family_friendly
Festivals
Community
Food_drink
Fundraisers
Educational
Holiday
Markets
Copyright 2024 OatLabs ABN 18113479226