The Graphic Novel Archive Blog

Essential Tales of the Zombie may sound like a masticating Marvel monster title, but the stars here are more the old-school shambling, work 24/7, in-need-of-a-union, creatures than the revamped George Romero flesh eaters.

That said, of all the Essential books, Zombie is my favorite. Part of its charm lies in the memories of after hours Saturday nights in front of a flickering 13″ black and white television with the rabbit ears pointed just right to catch Count Gore DeVaul broadcasting on UHF 20 out of Washington, D.C. Or sleep overs at my cousins’ near Pittsburgh, Pa., with Chilly Billy serving up a creature feature straight out of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Though these years seemed to stretch out like a cat in a sunbeam, they were short lived, but still greater in number than Zombie that ran 10 issues with one annual of reprints.

The Essential’s other appeal is the near page-for-page reprint of the originals.

Zombie is a direct result of Stan Lee’s love of magazines and the Comics Code Authority of America established in the 1950s. When the self-governing body imposed a mandate on what was obscene, horror titles either fell in line or by the wayside. Atlas and DC changed format and took the teeth out of terror with anthology books before jumping on board with Hollywood’s newfound BEMs that menaced the mid west.

When Lee reinvented the super hero genre, horror returned to the shadows as mystery men in spandex replaced them.

It was also about this time that Warren Publishing began working outside the CCA’s reach with Creepy and Eerie, black and white magazines giving a nod to the EC titles of a decade before. Others joined the pack and soon horror titles began peppering the magazine racks in legion. As sales increased with lurid covers often more interesting than their contents, comic publishers began to decry the double standard.

The CCA relented in the early 1970s with DC retaining its anthology books and Marvel working with a more serial format. But, not before testing the magazine waters.

Initially there was Dracula Lives and Monsters Unleashed. With a more mature look and higher price tag, stories took on a adult theme. Rather than explore relevant issues, most took a lower road and began showing more skin. For the most part hair and shadows hinted at a pubescent boy’s dreamland, but a gratuitous butt shot was often a favorite every so many pages.

For most of Zombie’s run, the talented Pablo Marco handled artistic chores rendering robust women in issues two through six and returning for issues eight and nine with the help of Ron Wilson.

Steve Gerber scripted most of the stories fresh off scribbling advertising copy for Madison Avenue. Gerber became Marvel’s premiere supernatural writer most recognizable for his work on Son of Satan, Man-Thing and the muck monster’s spin-off Howard the Duck. The author was very verbal in his dislike of the horror genre, but handled the job, taking Zombie’s alter ego Simon Garth from New Orleans coffee magnate to shambling Bill Everett nightmare.

Co-plotted by Gerber and Roy Thomas with layouts by John Buscema and finishes by Tom Palmer, number one begins with a flourish of voodoo ritual with a flashback to Garth’s origin and transformation into the Zombie and back to a monthly quest for revenge and understanding..

A loveless man more intent on fattening his bank account than fulfilling the intentions of his lovelorn Creole secretary or spending time with his daughter, Garth is zombified and the resulting eight issues tell a tale of a man who finds his soul after only losing it.

It ends with a “one-more-day” scenario in which Garth regains his humanity for 24 hours to witness his daughter’s wedding and make verbal amends to his estranged ex-wife.

While Zombie is the head liner, each of the books feature B backups and short fiction and sensationalized info-articles on the occult, zombies and all things creepy and crawly as written by some of Marvel’s more notable mainstays like Chris Claremont and Doug Moench.

One of the real gems is an article by Tony Isabella introducing Brother Voodoo, then set to begin a five-issue run in Strange Tales. For some reason, the storyline involving the Black Talon actually ends in Tales from the Zombie No. 6.

He returns for a one-shot story in No. 10 when Marvel scrambled to fill the missing 30-page Zombie story that was somehow diverted to Guam prior to print.

And, though Zombie deadends there, an advertisement at the back of the book previews issue 11 slated to hit the stands March 11, 1974.

Whatever the reason - though when money fuels the engine, poor sales are usually the culprit - Zombie ended with issue 10.  Garth was laid to rest until last October when Marvel dusted off their moldering monstrosity for a four-issue mini-series.

Five out of five voodoo dolls for this collection that will have you growing one of those Bela Lugosi White Zombie Fu Manchus.

Review by Barry Harter.

ISBN 0-7851-1916-7
First Printing 2006

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 11:43 pm and is filed under Marvel Comics, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.