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The Zombie Apocalypse – Live and In Color
In 2013 John Ringo wrote “Under a Graveyard Sky,” a novel about a zombie apocalypse. While zombie apocalypse stories are almost as done to death as vampire stories, Ringo put an original spin on it. The book caught fire. There are now four novels in the mainline series, four spin-off novels, and three collections of short stories in what is known as the Black Tide Rising series.
“Black Tide Rising: The Graphic Novel, Volume One,” scripted by Chuck Dixon, drawn and inked by Derlis Santacruz, colored by Brett A. Smith, and lettered by April Brown, adds a graphic novel version of the story. It is the first installment of what promises to be a series of graphic interpretations of the series.
The book is slim, 64 pages with 52 pages of story, giving it the feel of a comic book. It only covers Book 1 of “Under a Graveyard Sky” – “Light a Candle.” These are the events from the time John Smith receives a message from his brother Tom that the apocalypse is at hand until the Smith family evacuates New York City after the final concert there.
It is a good graphic interpretation of the novel. The artwork is first rate, the colors brilliant. It is not appropriate for young children, due to the nature of the zombie apocalypse in the story. There is gore and occasional (though not prurient) nudity. Teens should be fine with it. The book includes four pages illustrating the creative process.
If you only read e-books this probably is not for you. Reading it on an e-reader obscures much of the artwork, and the only practical way to read it electronically is as a pdf on a monitor capable of a 1920×1080 resolution. Get a print copy for satisfaction.
Another criticism is that this is like reading a movie version of the novel. Even though it only covers “Light a Candle,” it compresses the story to just the parts involving the Smith family. The background, including much of the back story explaining the virus is excised from the graphic version. The format should work excellently for the short stories in the three anthologies, however.
If you enjoy graphic novels and are a fan of the Black Tide Rising series, “Black Tide Rising: The Graphic Novel” is a must-get book. It is an excellent, if necessarily compressed rendition of the first half of the first novel.
“Black Tide Rising: The Graphic Novel, Volume One,” scripted by Chuck Dixon, drawn and inked by Derlis Santacruz, Baen, 2023, 56 pages, $18.99 (Trade Paperback) $7.99 (Ebook)
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.
Published in Literature
Yeah I found much of the original novel, just doesnt hold up. Those zombies wouldnt destroy the world.
I dunno. I re-read the entire series last week and thought it held up very well. But then again, I’m not the one that predicted the Russians would roll up the Ukrainians in a month or two, either.
I’ve read the series a couple of times also. I enjoy it and Ringo does a good job of selling it as far as I’m concerned.
I have never been a fan of zombies. Just because you are a zombie, you don’t get to violate physics.
How are these zombies more than a couple weeks problem?
https://www.cracked.com/article_18683_7-scientific-reasons-zombie-outbreak-would-fail-quickly.html
I found this humor article to be pretty persuasive.
All of the above means nothing if they are magic.
In Ringo’s story zombieism is achieved via dual stage virus; first a respiratory infection then something like rabies. The respiratory infection spread it around the world (with the help of some unknown actor), and the rabies produced the aggression, the biting, and the lack of any higher order brain function. You get zombie-like behavior without succumbing to the objections #7, 6, 5, 3. As far as people who use guns, well, there’s the story, isn’t it?
Also? The CDC is going to need to revise those business cards.
Well, this is mostly off topic then, but I’m going to take a moment to rant about it anyway. In the book they identify the virus under a SEM and the one character says to the other “See this bright red bit?”
Well, no. A scanning electron microscope gets a picture by bombarding your sample with electrons and then reading the intensity of output, which means that the picture is always in black and white. Whenever you see one of those pictures with color, the color has been added after the fact. There’s no bright red bits to see. You might as well tell me you’ve invented a form of gunpowder that explodes silently.
Center for Disease Creation?
Through the link they have business cards with the slogan “We don’t [expletive] around”. I think it’s become abundantly clear that is not the case.
Well, heck. The entire series is ruined for me now!
Just kidding
No I don’t see that is an out for any of those. Without higher order brain functions, humans are toast. Total toast. All we are good at is long distance running to chase down pray. Rabies like aggression is not conducive to using that.
I assume it is a magic respiratory infection that is more transmisible than anything in history?
Look, I get Ringo wants the post apocalyptic fantasy with zombies being mowed down by real Americans. Sounds like fun. I just struggle to suspend my disbelief.
So this is bio-horror as opposed to zombie horror.
Bryan might want to check out 28 days later. It actually gets into the limitations of bio-horror.