Damn Nation

Upon reading Damn Nation from Dark Horse Comics, it's easy to deduce its myriad of influences: George Romero's zombie films, "28 Days Later", "30 Days of Night", etc...but that doesn't make it a bad, or unoriginal story. Quite the contrary, writer Andrew Cosby actually manages to separate his story from its roots by relying on a character and plot driven story, as opposed to action and gore. In the story's prelude, a Russian freighter is found adrift off the coast of Miami. What's more mysterious is that it last set sail 16 years earlier and was never heard from again. The entire crew of over 300 is found dead and Dr. Lansing from the CDC is called in to investigate what the government believes to be a new bio-weapon. Jump ahead five years later and the strange, and unexplained plagued that killed the crewmen of the ship has rendered the entire U.S. empty. The plague has turned its victims into a sort of vampire/zombie hybrid who come out at night to feed on the living. The entire Mexican and Canadian Borders have been secured with walls and fences to keep the "infected" from getting out. When the President gets a cryptic message from a research facility in upstate New York saying they've found a cure, a team of special-ops soldiers goes in to extract the survivors and obtain the cure. But little does the team know that others in the world don't want a cure to be found. When the team arrives they find the aforementioned Dr. Lansing and a young boy named Adam. But what part does the boy play? And what will Captain Cole do when he is ordered to just get out Dr. Lansing and leave the other survivors? What makes Damn Nation work is that it doesn't rely on the horrors and the infected to drive the story. We actually get half way through the book before the team even encounters the creatures when they try and hole up in a super market. Cosby makes the encounters with these ravenous, mindless savages fairly brief but terrifying. Their quick attacks make them all the more imposing, as opposed to battling hordes of slow-shuffling zombies. Much like "28 Days Later" you're really not sure if the infected are undead or merely plague victims. The art by J. Alexander is fully painted in grim, dark tones, again showing its influence of recent films although it is less abstract than Ben Templesmith's art from "30 Days of Night". The only complaint I can muster is that the source of the plague and how it got aboard the Russian ship is never really explained. Other than that, this is one terrific horror story. Reviewed by Tim Janson

So, a virus is released that turns all infected people into vampires/vampire like species....not a super original concept, but one I am especially fond of. Also, I do not read monthly comics. Every comic story I buy is a graphic novel. I do not have time to remember what comes out when! Characters were pretty good. The good guy of course is a rough and ready American special forces soldier. He carries around with him a picture of a mother and child that he feels he failed when the virus first hit the United States. The bad guy is a British special forces agent...I will not get into details except to say, you see it coming a mile away, but it was still very satisfying... The art is nice, the pictures are just scary enough to add an element of darkness to an already pretty dark story. Two small complaints....1. This episode is pretty short. I would have liked to see about another 10-20 pages...2. This is clearly the beginning of a series, and for once I would like to have a story completely finished in one book! This story is a bit different than the "Walking Dead" series (which is also excellant by the way). Walking Dead, at least to me, is a bit campier. Much like some recent stuff I read from Steve Miles...I think the drawing in the previously mentioned stuff makes it seem campy. This one is dark all the way around, lettering, drawing, story, and dialogue. Highly recommended.