Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #2 ADVANCE REVIEW: an atmospheric romp against werewolf zombies
Writer & Creator: Brenton Lengel, Illustrator: Hyeondo Park, Letterer: Joel Rodreguez, Cover Artists: Bryan Silverbax & Recolor Jio Butler.
I went into Scout Comics’ Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #2 without reading the first issue, an act that sparked anxiety as to whether I’d be completely lost from the start. By the final panel I felt I was brought up to speed while also kept on track with a story that carries tense momentum. Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #2’s dynamic character relationships, fantasy world, and viscerally mortal stakes are painted with a thick veneer of genre-blending horror fun. Based on a stage play of the same name, Snow White Zombie Apocalypse is an unconventional entanglement of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and 28 Days Later. Snow White wakes up to true love’s kiss only to experience the harsher kiss of a zombified reality. Now she must survive against hordes of the undead with Rapunzel and polyamorous Prince Charming.
Missing the first issue didn’t impact my understanding and enjoyment of Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #2. The dialogue fills the reader in on the story so far, but not in a stilted way. This also doesn’t hold the story back from moving forward, building new character relationships and plot details while stylistically reinforcing what’s come before. This feels welcoming as a reader coming in late, and I hope it’s a pattern in the writing in future issues. Our characters are fun, pure and simple. They’re entertaining and share intense moments with one another that hit even harder when they occur amidst the zany shenanigans of the story’s premise. Story-wise, Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #2 has gruesome moments — which, I mean, werewolf zombies — and these moments are blood-drenched and foreshadow darker narrative potential down the road.
Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #2’s art is action-driven. Motion fills every panel as an abundance of motion lines and action-oriented figures give the story an urgency necessary for a good zombie tale. Colors interact with the world itself, changing with the natural lighting. At night, the most saturated color is the orange of the campfire. It’s a beautiful spectacle. The lettering of this issue is atmospheric, supplying subtle sounds in one panel while stretching across the page in raging volume within another. It’s engrossing and caps a storyworld that warrants revisiting with every new issue.
Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #2 is welcoming, easing new readers into a fantastical story that forges strong characters and dire stakes amidst the outlandishness of its own premise. I wish I’d known about this title early enough to read the first issue prior, but even still, I’ll be hunting it down as soon as I’m done regaling you with my opinions.
Snow White Zombie Apocalypse #2 earns FIVE out of FIVE POPS!
Be sure to order this title from . . . wait for it . . .YOUR LOCAL COMIC BOOK SHOP (!!!), when it becomes available this weekend.
RECOMMENDED READING: If you’re a fan of Scout Comics, and you definitely should be, then you’ve gotta check out some of their other unique stories. If you err on the side of introspective science fiction, then wander your way to Dave Chisholm’s Canopus. If horror be your preferred trade, then gird yourself for Kiyarn Taghan and Christian DiBari’s Provenance of Madness.
Austin Kemp read Batman #315 (Batman vs Kite Man) when he was 5 years old, and hasn't stopped reading comics since. Austin is a college writing teacher and has a masters degree in Comics Studies. Austin and his partner, Savanah, live in Massachusetts with their master, a cat named Chaplin.