Night of the Living Dead Volume 2 – Russo, Wolfer, Aira (Avatar)

As I said in my review of Volume 1, despite my issues with the book, it ‘Still won't stop me buying future volumes though...’ And here we are, thanks to some good luck encountered while trawling ‘Amazon New and Used’. I’m a little more discerning with my zombie fiction these days but will still manage to find time for anything with ‘Night of the Living Dead’ on the cover and stayed up late, the other night, finishing this book off. In a lesson that I never thought I’d end up having to learn, it turns out that sometimes it’s not worth staying up late to finish off a zombie comic…

The original zombie horror returns, as a legion of undead ghouls marches towards an Anti-Vietnam War protest in Washington, D.C.! The most horrifying night in American history continues as the next chapter of Night of the Living Dead is revealed by writers Mike Wolfer (Gravel, Wolfskin) and John Russo, the co-writer of the original film classic!

It’s not often that I finish a read and feel, well… nothing much really. I’ll usually experience some kind of strong reaction, whether it’s positive or negative, to a book but to experience absolutely nothing at all, that’s even more concerning than a negative reaction to be honest. I want to feel something, just so I know that the book and I have engaged on some level; ‘Night of the Living Dead Volume 2’ did absolutely nothing.

While the second volume is a perfectly serviceable read about zombies and an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Washington, there was no kind of spirit to the read; just a series of zombie attacks on naked female hippies (and national guard too but mostly naked female hippies) drawn purely for titillation rather than any attempt to tell a story. ‘Do not open until Christmas’ (the final story in the book) made some attempt to rectify this approach, not enough though and it was too little, far too late.

I've said it before but I've got to say it again; zombies are naturally the most awesome of the undead but they've got to have a plot to frame their undead activities and a cast of regular humans who can carry that plot to interesting places. There's no point otherwise, zombies unfortunately aren't all that great on their own. 'Night of the Living Dead' had none of this and was all the poorer for it.

And finally, if you're going to have a go at writing a 'Night of the Living Dead' story then at least try and aim for a bit of the social commentary that Romero was known for. I came into this comic thinking of the potential for commentary on the Vietnam protests via the undead. What I left with was a vague feeling that I should be more concerned that Nixon had been bitten...

If I didn't already have the final volume in this arc (I really need to stay away from 'Amazon New and Used') then my reviews of this series would stop right here. 'Night of the Living Dead Volume 2' had all the ingredients to be something special but the creators inexplicably decided to do absolutely nothing with them...