The Abandoned
By Ross Campbell
Published by Tokyo Pop (First Printing: March 2006)
Genre: Drama/Horror
When Hurricane Riley threatens to decimate he small town of Buffalora no one takes much notice. But when the storm passes, local punk-rocker volunteer-worker Rylie finds herself in a nursing home full of zombies! All Rylie wants to think about is her new-to-town new-girlfriend Naomi, but she has to help save her friends and fight through their town for food and shelter. When zombies surround, what’s a punk-rock girl to do?
When I first saw the character drawings for The Abandoned I was afraid it would have too many character similarities to Ross’ previous release Wet Moon. (And while I love Wet Moon, I certainly didn't want the characters rehashed and served under another title.) The pages released on his Deviant Art account were teasers and didn’t say much for the story as a whole, so I didn’t know what to expect. I had put off picking it up until a recent trip to my local comic book shop where I decided to purchase it on a whim. Wet Moon 2 was coming out soon and I wanted an appetizer of Ross’s work, so-to-speak.
Simply upon picking it up and leafing through it, I was sold. It’s completely emotive – you can feel the heatwave and the town before a single word is spoken, you are Naomi’s distraught sadness of her bike being stolen in one simple panel. The characters are emotive and distinct... they are real full people, even if they only appear for a few scenes. Simply put, the dialouge and reactions are realistic and you can tell everyone has a life outside of the impending storm and zombie outbreak.
The artwork is superb and well executed on all counts. Ross shows people in natural states in appealing shots/compositions which make his work more interesting to look at then your average superhero comic. The characters are each distinct and well-rendered. The whole book reads very much like a movie. The embellished gore was a nice touch. I’m very afraid of zombies but can say the zombie decay and carnage was fantastic; realistic and yet disgustingly over-the-top. Watching people being torn to shreds and/or disemboweled hasn’t been so entertaining since Shaun of the Dead. The Abandoned certainly isn’t a romantic comedy, but it’s got the zombies and their victims reactions down perfectly.
The only downfall I can see to the entire book is its formatting. Being that it was published by Tokyopop it was printed their “standard” 5x7.5” digest size. Ross’ style is much too intricate to be squished into such a small area; the smaller size made the details in his work less visible. It also made printing errors (where the red and the black didn’t print exactly on top of one another) a glaring hindrance which made the book significantly more difficult to read. (Seeing as the text was so small in the first place.)
