Bleeding Heats is not your typical zombie comic. It might even be better. Here’s our review!
From The Walking Dead, to Marvel Zombies, to DCeased, and beyond — zombies is one of the most ubiquitous genres in the comics medium. It can take a lot for new entries to stand out in the saturated space. But if anyone can create a zombie comic with a unique concept and top tier creative finesse, it’s Deniz Camp (Assorted Crisis Events, Ultimates, Absolute Martian Manhunter). Teaming up with artist and former 20th Century Men collaborator Stipan Morian, together they’ve created Bleeding Hearts, a clever introspective zombie story from the point of view of the zombies.
Bleeding Hearts kicks off the re-launch of DC Vertigo. There’s quite a lot riding on this to be a hit, and it absolutely checks the criteria of what I was looking for. It’s a zombie story with a twist, the artwork is excellent, and it sets itself up to continue for the long haul. Bleeding Hearts takes a different, subversive approach. Rather than being a slice of life story, Camp has taken to describing it as “slice of unlife”. We follow Mouse-Pokes-Golf-Ball-Through-Hole-In-Head (or simply ‘Poke’ for short), a valued member of his zombie community. But unlike others, he learns that, despite being a zombie, he has a heartbeat. Does this newfound heartbeat lend itself to a greater moral conscience? Well, when he and his brother-in-arms Mush come across the living, it’s decision time.
Bleeding Hearts succeeds highly in taking the reader into an unexpected and fresh twist in an otherwise samey and saturated genre. It plays on typical genre tropes and elements; there’s times when it feels familiar, but you’re seeing it from another perspective. A lot of issue #1 reminds me of stories we’ve previously seen in the Zombie Tales collection from BOOM! Studios — and that is absolutely a complement.
It’s often irreverent and comes at you with a healthy dose of humour. This debut issue sets up the strong premise, introduces our main characters, and offers some exposition. But the plotting isn’t yet in full throttle. Given how it ends — and I won’t be spoiling things — it’s clear that there’s big things to come. And if I know Camp’s writing well enough, it’ll offer up a whole lot of thought-provoking and morally testing moments.
If one thing is for certain (and sorry in advance for the cheesy line), Bleeding Hearts proves that there’s plenty of life left in the zombie genre.
Bleeding Hearts #1 is out now from DC Vertigo. Buy it here.
