Zombies Calling… to the London of death?

Zombies Calling by Faith Erin Hicks is awesome. Go out and buy it everybody.

Okay, it wasn’t perfect. The pacing of individual scenes was great, but the overall structure of the book was odd — I would have preferred a slightly longer book, I think, and more thematic unity. Plus the ending was a bit unsatisfying (though I do love the bridge between the main story and the epilogue). On the other hand, Hicks’ cartooning is amazing — page layouts, narrative flow, character design, lettering, and all. It’s really well-executed on the micro level, and the concept and characters are lots of fun. More than anything, I’m left feeling really excited about discovering Hicks as a creator and looking forward to seeing her next work. Ideally with the input of a good story editor.

Kudos to SLG for snapping this up, and for a nicely-designed package that manages to out-Minx the Minx line — I’d be proud to hand this book to anybody 10-30, female or not. Unfortunately, I was turned off from picking up Good As Lily once I actually saw it in the store and saw twenty pages of Minx ads in the back. As a creator-centric indie publisher, SLG contents itself with a single page, mostly letting this book be Hicks’. Turns out she’s excellent company.