The Zombie Hunters is a online webcomic created, written and drawn by Jenny Romanchuk and it follows the life of some survivors of the zombie apocalypse - a life which has a lot more entertaining moments than I would have expected.

From its web page description: “The Zombie Hunters” is a comic which follows a team of zombie hunters as they go though life as survivors of the undead outbreak, earning their keep by collecting salvage, gladly trading the freedom of the wastes for the safety of the Argus Research Campus…

And it’s good - really good, professional level good, and free!

Jenny has created a unique world, with a unique spin on the Zombie monster which is very refreshing and entertaining.

The Meat

The character dialogue and responses to the various situations that crop up in this world are written fantastically, and I think realistically. The art is beautiful, dirty and gory and compliments the story perfectly.

The Zombie Hunters takes the undead horde that we all know and love and splits it into several different classes. The most stereotypical zombie class (our buddy from most zombie films) is known as The Crawler but this split has also introduced zombies with interesting twists - such as the Basilisk zombie who paralyzes their victims with a fear gaze and the Mercy Zombie - which… you will need to read the description for yourself.

The Bones

There is currently no way to buy the series off-line and that is very disappointing - I certainly will be buying a copy if she decides to release it in book form.  - (4/4/2009) There is a book in the works!

The webcomic generally updates once a week, and while that is the norm with webcomics and entirely expected when dealing with art of this quality - when the storys characters are stuck in a cliff-hanger situation (say, stuck on a rooftop swarming with zombies) for upwards of three weeks - waiting for the next comic gets exausting and frustrating.

This is not necessary a bone with the comic, as it boils down to me complaining that I can’t read all the comic - right now - but there you go.

The Taste

Click here to start The Zombie Hunters from the start of the comic.

…

Why are you still here?

The Meat

The Walking Dead is an American ongoing survival horror comic in which a small group of mismatched civilians and police officers try to survive in a world recently beset by a zombie outbreak.

Their story starts in Book 1 with Rick Grimes. Rick is a police officer, father and husband and is caught in a gunfight with an escaped convict. Rick is hit with a bullet and blacks out. He wakes up in hospital after an undetermined amount of time and finds that the hospital is infested with the living dead. Terrified and confused, his first priority is to escape the hospital and then to find his family. Rick Grimes eventually meets up with a number of survivors and with them they start a search for safety.

The Walking Dead story was written by Robert Kirkman who also wrote the wonderful Marvel Zombies comic series and is currently being drawn by Charlie Adlard.

Pick the Bones

Through this story Robert Kirkman explores the hardships and emotional distress that long-term survivors deal with, something which many other Zombie media gloss over. This exploration really brings this comic alive and its character portrayal has been done fantastically. Every character in the story reacts to the stressful situations (such as a surprise zombie attack, or running out of food) they encounter very believably and their personalities evolve and grow over time, characters overcome their fear, get complexes, fall in love, grieve, fight and generally act like people. Because of this human angle when they are not fighting zombies, or looking for somewhere safe to sleep, the survivors often end up fighting each other. This interaction and progression makes for extremely gripping story telling.

The Zombies are your classic zombie menace. slow, stupid and clumsy, but a real danger in great numbers. Its really refreshing to see a zombie menace which has not been re-imagined as being super fast or with superpowers by popular media.

The Walking Dead is a black and white comic and its this style that suits the story completely. The Zombies are grisly, bloody, decaying shadows of living creatures and beautifully portrayed. I have heard that many of the zombies are based on real people in the artists life, but even if this is untrue great care has been taken to make each zombie look unique.

Do not miss out on this fantastically crafted ongoing story of survival and Zombies!