Friday, April 15, 2011

Zombie Waffe (also a webcomic)

Edited for corrections... Some explicitly pointed out, others not.

Continuing with the theme (that I hadn't originally intended to start but decided to run with anyway) of zombie apocalypse webcomics, this week's review is Zombie Waffe. Apparently "waffe" means "weapon" in German. No, I don't get it either. Apparently the author, Malin Falch, is Norwegian. Which brings me to the best part of the comic: the translation. This comic, though originally written in German, reads very natural in English. Keep in mind, I am a professional translator and editor, so I keep an eye out for these things, and the fact that Malin is either that good at English or hasn't skimped on getting a good editor for her translations means a lot to me. It's very impressive.
Correction: Apparently Malin does write the comic in English first. Though she does get an editor to help her out. Still, it's very impressive work for a non-native speaker.

As for the rest of the comic... well, there's not much there. The comic has a lot of potential from what I've seen so far, but there are fewer than 60 pages, and most of those have been for building up the background and introducing characters, so there's not much of the story yet.

The background is that a variant of the Rabies Virus creates cannibalistic, berserker-style zombies (think 28 Days Later, Left 4 Dead, and Zombieland) but most of the world's developed countries refuse to do much about it, since it's mostly confined to third-world countries. Teenager Stale and his best friend, Zeke, often make plans for what they would do if the infection spread outside of its normal quarantines and managed to make its way into more developed countries. Well, one day, it actually happens and they get to put their plans to the test. Unfortunately they get separated, though Stale runs into Detlef, another survivor, and a disturbingly cute little dog who seems to be incurably happy no matter what happens. Since he can't find Zeke and he knows it would be suicide to try and survive alone, Stale sticks which Detlef for safety.
Aaaaaaand, that's all as far as the story goes to this point. The art is really good. It's less stylized and more realistic, somewhat similar to The Zombie Hunters, actually. Don't get me wrong, it is interesting, and it has a lot of promise so far, but there's just so little there I would feel bad trying to give it a full-on review. I kinda feel bad copping out like this, but, well... I'm only human.

Bottom Line: There's not much there, but it's definitely worth keeping tabs on and following. Check it out here, and start from the beginning here.

3 comments:

  1. You should do more fact checking next time. The author is a girl, and is Norwegian. Not a German man.

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  2. It's also originally written in English. She has some Canadian editor guy that helps her.

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  3. Thank you for pointing that out to me. I strive for accuracy, but I didn't do a whole lot of background checking. I apologize for the inaccuracies and have changed the post accordingly. Again, thanks!

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