The comic details the What if… scenrario that the title says, and what better place for the setting of such an event that the San Diego Comic-Con? On paper, it sounds like it has potential to be one of the coolest forays into the geek lifestyle that one could think of. Though this is only the first issue, I can only help but think that the execution could have been better. While I can appreciate the story for what it is, it just didn’t do it for me like I hoped. This is a great premise and could have been the next big thing,” but I feel like it fell short of that.
Fanboys vs. Zombies perpetuates the most ludicrous of nerd stereotypes that is almost unreadable. Sometimes it felt like the story was being written by someone who only knows about nerds from the things they’ve seen in movies. While I’m well aware there are actual people that act this way in life, the amount of tropes pile up so frequently and so fast that until the zombie action gets started it is a chore to read.
Trust me when I say I realize the comic has this very tongue-in-cheek style to its writing, but that doesn’t mean that it’s done well. The characters in this comic are largely annoying and about as empathetic as a toaster. I often found myself reading the balloons quickly and then spending more time trying to figure out what little Easter eggs were hidden in the art work.
While I might not enjoy the tone of the comic, I will say that the art fits it well. It has a very Saturday morning cartoon feel to it, which feels monotonous up until the zombies attack wherein it starts to actually look good. In that regard, the art succeeds by feeling like a routine comic and then catapulting itself into the realm of gore and body parts. This is really the only achievement the comic harbors.
I cannot hammer it in enough that this is one of the corniest and hyperbolic comic I’ve ever read. After the initial read through I was interested in what happened next, if only so that we can get more zombie action, and so that I can see some of the more irritating characters get torn to shreds and devoured.
Maybe I’m in the minority and you’ll dig it. Perhaps you like excessive representations of nerds going back and forth about topics that seem like they were constructed from throwing darts at a wall full of nerd topics, personally, I don’t. The pre-zombie affairs were not what they could have been and I’m hoping the zombies will make the dialogue easier to swallow, but I doubt it.
