Broken Frontier

The living dead continue to plague a group of young hopefuls, as a deadly confrontation takes place between them and King Zombie.

Despite an uneven publishing schedule due to a change in artists, the third issue of the revamped Dead World continues to churn at a torrent pace. This time around new artist Dalibor Talajic debuts on a story to feature some monstrous reinforcements called in to aid King Zombie in his time of need.

The story opens with the gang barely able to flee for their lives from a scouting mission searching for food and supplies. They continue to travel the countryside in a school bus and manage to find a secluded spot near the river to hide from King Zombie and his troops. As they conceal the bus in the bushes, Dan spots an abandoned river boat just begging to be boarded. So as they embark on swimming out to the river boat, King Zombie’s new reinforcements (the Grakken) rear their ugly heads at the worst possible moment.

Now of course, the issue ends on a bona fide cliffhanger and I hate to say this, but I have a sinking feeling there’s going to be a few casualties next issue. I’m not sure what possessed writer Gary Reed to start offing the cast this quickly, but I take my hat off to him for dispensing with the formalities and getting right down to it. He sure knows how to pace his story and I have been enjoying the freshness he puts into every single character. Hopefully there are enough left over for the next issue!

So now I get to the other big change that started with this issue, and that is with Dalibor Talajic coming in. The Croatian born artist brings a much different approach to visuals and it didn’t detract here from the story at all. In fact I found his work to be quite polished and not as loose and frenetic as Vincent Locke’s was. I can’t say that I wasn’t saddened to see Vincent bow out from the series after just two issues, but the artist has too many other commitments to keep him from penciling this series on a regular basis. The good thing though is that Dalibor Talajic is an excellent replacement, so it’s safe to say the series is still in good hands!

Overall, this was an excellent issue despite the publishing delays and change of artists. I am totally endorsing this book to others just based upon how much of an emotional resonance you’ll find with all the characters. So I think it’s safe to say that Dead World will titillate to no end.