Rebel Blood is a clever book, telling the story of Chuck Neville as he fights through the zombie outbreak to get to his family.
This book jumps around a lot, so it is by no means accustomed to linear storytelling. Often, the main character plays out various scenarios, which are depicted in his head, and how each of them could go horribly wrong. This is an interesting device for the story, it not only speaks volumes about Neville as a person and his though process, but it allows artist Riley Rossmo to stretch his zombified legs for the proverbial What if scenarios.
The comic was plotted by Rossmo and Alex Link, with Link officially credited with the script, and it shows. This book is a team effort. You can tell that this wasn’t conceived in the mind of a lone writer and then handed off to an anonymous artist to draw. A lot of time and planning went into this and it certainly does show.
Neville as an interesting character because he fits well into empathetic categories. He has girl trouble, not a lot of motivation, and fantasizes about being the hero.” He is, in essence, almost every stereotype that is associated with typical comic readers,” but this is not a slight against him. These characteristics make him a good choice for the focus of a zombie story, because we all think about the things he thinks about so it’s good to see them put into practice.
When I saw the early previews I was psyched about the artwork. It had the kind of Ben Templesmith flair that I feel helped catapult 30 Days of Night into the spotlight. Not only does the art continue to have that purposefully roughed up look, which adds a certain type of charm to it, it also plays with a lot of the psychological aspects of the story. This is where the comic stands out from a lot of work being done, the dependence on words to further the character and plot are not needed because the art has picked up the slack and advanced it in the most subtle of ways.
People that don’t regularly buy comic books are usually intimidated by the idea of getting into them. There’s always a fresh place to start, there’s always something new to try, and horror is one of the most popular genres that is consistently tackled in the form, except, of course, superheroes. Rebel Blood is the kind of book that will make a big splash one day, be it a Hollywood adaptation or television series – this has the potential to be a big centerpiece of American horror culture for a while. Fans of the undead and the bizarre must seek this one out, it is not only up their alley, it has moved into their house.
Was I disappointed that Rebel Blood wasn’t what I had built it up to be in my head? Not at all. The mark of a great story is one that can take you somewhere you weren’t expecting it to. There is a lot of material that can be mined out for this comic and so far it’s off to a good start, I hope that in three months we’ll be clawing for more of it.
