Title: Revival Vol 1: You’re Among Friends
Series: Ongoing
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: 2012 - Present
Creative Team:
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Mike Norton
Colors: Mark Englert
Covers: Jenny Frison
Genre: Horror, Drama
I’m
not a fan of Hack/Slash. I know, I know. I reviewed Freddy vs Jason vs Ash, how can I
like that and not love Hack/Slash? I
love the slasher genre. I enjoy horror
comics. By all accounts I am exactly the
sort of person that should be head over heels for Hack/Slash but I’m just not. While there are a couple of stories I have
enjoyed, on the whole I think it’s just ok.
So what does any of that have to do with Revival, you ask. (Unless you already know in which case I have
a Kudos for you. Yes, the granola
bar.) Here’s the point. Tim Seeley the writer/creator of Hack/Slash
is the writer/co-creator on Revival.
That didn’t click for me until long after getting into Revival which is
good because I might have passed on it.
Luckily, there were great teaser ads for this all over the series of
tubes we call The Internet. Image comics
published various strange small town newspaper ads and articles that got me all
excited. So here I am today happily
reading the series and reviewing it for you fine folks.
Revival takes place in the
small town of Wausau, Wisconsin. For
some reason on January the 2nd, the dead are beginning to rise from
the grave. The phenomenon so far seems
limited to just Wausau and just to the recently dead. These dead are not your typical zombies. In fact, most of them seem completely
normal. You would never even know that
they had died unless they told you. Now
Wausau, is the focus of national attention.
The town has been quarantined but people sit at the road blocks day and
night hoping to get in and indulge in the miracle. The people inside the town are just
scrambling to try and understand what’s going on and dealing with their forced isolation. All of this would be enough to cause drama but
it seems the majority of Revivers, as they are called, came back a little wrong. Some are even deadly.
 |
| Ma proves that amateur dentists are just as good as the kind with degrees. |
One of the biggest draws of this series for
me is also one of the few negatives (if you can even call it that): The
characters. This requires a little
explanation. Revival primarily focuses
on the Cypress sisters. Martha Ann Cypress
is a college student with a bit of mystery surrounded her and Dana Cypress is a
police officer who works for the girls’ father, Sheriff Wayne Cypress. There is a sibling rivalry between Martha and
Dana which primarily centers around their issues with their father. Besides the Cypress family, there is Ibrahaim
Ramin, the CDC Liaison; Blaine Abel, the exorcist/snowmobile repairman; May
Tao, the fluff journalist who first reported on the Revival; and many more. All of these characters are interesting. The closer to the center of the series the
more 3 dimensional they feel. I have no
complaint in that regard. However,
despite being well fleshed out, I can’t quite shake feeling like these are the
exact characters you would see in Fargo or Twin Peaks or even The Killing. It’s not necessarily bad. It’s just that
sometimes I get the impression that Tim Seeley and Mike Norton said we’ll pull this
character from over here and that character from over there until they had a fictional
town full of people. Still even if the
cast doesn’t feel completely original, how they’ve been used and developed
feels real.
 |
| Martha Ann describes her circumstances writing for NBC's Heroes. |
When it comes to pacing, Revival has a slow burn that’s
refreshing compared to the majority of modern comics. A lot of the top selling comics need to punch
something hard or blow something up every few pages. Don’t get me wrong, Revival has action in
it. It is at least in part a horror
comic after all but it’s not afraid to setup the atmosphere and set the burner
to simmer. Revival absolutely
simmers. A dash of mystery here, some
intriguing character development there, set the range to low and wait. We as the audience get to do what you always
do in the presence of a cook with finesse; you sit back and hungrily anticipate. The story is so well crafted and the
characters are so intriguing that it was only later that I realized I didn’t
feel any closer to finding out why the dead came back to life. It doesn’t really matter because while this
isn’t a zombie story per se, it does have something in common with the best
undead fiction: It’s not concerned with why the dead rose. At least, not yet. Tim and Mike may have something in mind but truthfully,
I would prefer a Y the Last Man ambiguity about it rather than a hard
explanation. The real story is what happens after they rise not how it started.
 |
| When will rampant racism toward zombies stop? |
Generally, I don’t like
when a comic features a different cover artist than the interior artist. I feel like this usually means one of three
things. A) Whoever is publishing the
book doesn’t have enough faith in the interior artist’s work to sell, B) The
interior artist doesn’t have the time to do draw the covers, or C) there’s an
artistic motivation that oh the whole serves the series. Now clearly, the reason can be a mixture of
any of those three or some other consideration altogether. More often than not I feel like it’s ‘A’,
which is too bad really. I like when I
can look at a comic’s cover and know what I’m going to get on the inside. With Revival so far, all covers have been by
Jenny Frison with a couple variants by Craig Thompson. Mike Norton is a strong artist. His characters are distinct and they emote
well. He’s got a good sense of panel layout and design. He’s versatile. He can do engaging talking
heads in on one page and a kinetic action sequence on the next. You couldn’t
really ask for a better artist. I’m not
sure why he’s not doing the covers on this book but it feels like option ‘C’,
the artistic choice. Jenny Frison’s covers
set an excellent tone at a glance and work in concert with Norton’s
interior. The covers and interiors feel
unified rather than working against one another.
Revival is a book that needs more attention. It’s certainly a rising star over at Image
Comics but it’s not doing the kind of numbers that Batman or even Saga is. But it should be. Revival’s official site has the Free Comic
Book Day preview from a year ago. I’ve
provided the link so please check it out and support this book.
Grade: A
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