a review: Adam and Eve: Bizarre Love Triange in the Zombie Apocalypse, Vol. 2

I’ve been watching Dan Nokes’ comic output for several years now, ever since I picked up one of his books at the VA Comicon many years ago. It’s been fun watching him grow as an artist and storyteller through works like The Paranormals and the excellent western saga The Pistoleers, and I always look forward to swinging by his table at the con and chatting about his latest project (it doesn’t hurt that Dan’s an interesting fellow and enthusiastic salesman of his own work). He’s just published his latest project, the second volume of his take on the venerable zombie genre,
Adam and Eve, Bizarre Love Triangle in The Zombie Apocalypse, Vol 2.

“Zombies,” you say, “Again?” Yep. Admittedly, zombies are terribly trendy things right now, and everybody’s doing a zombie story. There’s a reason for that though: zombies work really well as a medium to tell all kinds of stories; the walking dead add instant conflict, play on all our human fears, and serve as valid, effective metaphors for universal concepts like conformity, individual agency, and even capitalism. Good zombie stories are never really stories about animated corpses, they’re stories about some aspect of the human condition.

In the case of A&E, the zombies are a vehicle to tell a story about love and possibility; about taking chances; risking failure in order to grab the great reward of human connection. It’s something we can all relate to, with or without the walking dead getting in our way.

The story of volume two picks up where the first volume left off – Adam, a meek low-ranking technicican and the last survivor left in a secure underground military bunker years after the zombie uprising, along with his rag-tag group of companions (assembled last issue), including a genetically engineered dog, a caustic Englishman and his potty-mouthed adopted daughter and an AI-enhanced scooter, have set out across the wasteland of southern Maryland in search of a kindred spirit, Eve, who is similarly holed up in another facility miles away, who Adam has only spoken to via text on a computer terminal. Oh yeah, the party’s being tailed by Adam’s zombified ex-girlfriend, Lilith, with whom he has a complicated history. Along the way, they meet a host of challenges and characters trying to make their way in the world they find themselves in. There’s danger, adventure, romance, corrupt holy men, evil mall Santas, and eventually, a satisfying, well-earned resolution (which I won’t spoil here).

At it’s core, A&E is a relatively simple pilgrimage story; a journey with adventures along the way. Some of the “less than shoestring” production budget for this project shows in a few rough edges and missed edits, but the real treasure here, the stuff you can’t plaster over with piles of production cash, are the characters: you care about Adam’s against-the-odds journey, and feel his trepidation at making the leap to move on with his life after seemingly losing Lilith, and his growing determination to see his task through to the end, where he has to hope happiness is waiting. Like in all good post-apocalyptic tales, the apocalypse takes a back seat to intimate human drama. How the world got this way is much less important than how the people left behind (both living and undead; yes, even the undead in this case) react to it. Each character gets some nice character beats, adding flavor to the larger package and making the world Nokes has created feel more accessible and real.

In terms of art, the stark black and white are effective in enhancing the story’s bleak setting. The composition and layout do a great job of setting the scene and moving the story forward, though occasionally things get a little crowded in the panels; a bit more negative space might give the setting more room to breathe and provide additional depth to the backgrounds. Characters are well-drawn and designed (particularly the monstrous characters; love the detail there), with Nokes’ trademark exaggerated expressions helping to sell the drama. Oh, and when we finally really meet Eve, I really dug the whole Gwen Stacey vibe; the look just felt right for the character.

In my experience, every successive 21st Century Sandshark production is a bit of a leap forward in production, art quality, and story – Nokes keeps honing his craft, and getting better with every outing, and A&E is no exception. It’s a well-told story, that taps into some universal human themes. I think that the author managed to get a little of himself into this one; it feels personal, at any rate, and it’s that personal touch that makes this story work so well.

So yeah – track this one down; both volumes – they’re worth your time.