Bogus Dead (2002)

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Edited By Jerome Gaynor

Zombies, zombies, everywhere! One hundred and fourty-four pages of them to be exact. The story is a familiar one: The living dead have begun to rise from the grave and violently and indiscriminately attack and eat the living. Within weeks, society has collapsed entirely. Small groups of human beings desperately fight to stay alive. Bogus Dead explores the stories of these human survivors in 42 short comics by some of today's brightest independent artists and storytellers. Most being around 1 to 4 pages in length.

As editor of Bogus Dead, Jerome Gaynor managed to pull together quite a variety of comics for this, his second anthology. Obviously obsessed with human extinction, Gaynor's first anthology dealt the human race the unlucky hand of death-by-aliens in Flying Saucer Attack. What better way to follow up an alien invasion than an attack of hungry flesheaters? That's right, there is no better follow-up.

Not having seen it's predecessor, I wasn't sure what to expect from this anthology. Considering that only a couple of the names attached were, at most, vaguely familar to me, I came out of the whole thing pretty impressed. What first impressed me was the fact that there was very little wasted space in the book. Gaynor crammed as much as possible into the thing, even using the inside covers. So rest assured that the page count doesn't include any blank pages or unnecessary fluff. Even the artist bio pages are sprinkled with doodles of zombies doin' their thing.

The talent level of the artists in Bogus Dead is, for the most part, very high. You'll find many unique styles throughout and I was a fan of almost all of them. I was particularly fond of Jeff Wilson's 'Night of the Living Dead (The Prelude)', Paul Lyons' 'Tool Shed', and Matt Shultz's 'Here Kitty Kitty', although many more deserve to be commended. Bogus Dead isn't perfect, as there are a few stories that fall flat and/or whose art just didn't excite me. However, there's plenty to love and I think that almost everyone will find more hits than misses inside, just as I did. You'll find humor, like Ariel Bordeaux's 'My undead body is, like, SO embarassing!!!'. You'll find some thought-provoking seriousness, such as Robyn Chapman's look at love beyond the grave. And there's also that bit of oddness that completes the mix, like Megan Kelso's story of one of America's founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton...as a member of the undead.

RATING

(Out of 5)

WEBSITE

www.jeromanempire.com

REVIEW POSTED

July 12 2003

DEAD KEV'S ADVICE

Lots of bang for your buck! Lots of comics and everyone is sure to find something to love inside!

ZOMBIE LESSONS LEARNED

1. Sloppy Joes can apparently fool zombies into thinking they're eating brains. 2. Hats are still fashionable in the zombie society.

FAVORITE QUOTES

- "I thought that the afterlife would be great, but this sucks!" - "Dying does not have to be a one-way ticket to eternity of cannibalism. We can rise above to live in harmony in a perfect world." - "I played with zombies when I was his age."

WHERE TO FIND

Get your copy on Amazon.com. Order directly from Jerome Gaynor's Jeroman Empire website.

PUBLISHER

Jerome Gaynor

February 2002

144 Pages

ISBN

1-891867-19-9

COPYRIGHT

2002