Sunday 10 July 2016

Tales of the Zombie #7 (Marvel Magazine/1974)




Mention the word "zombie" and everyone thinks of hordes of mindless flesh-eating cadavers rampaging through the streets munching on the living. Dozens of comics including the highly successful Walking Dead, now a TV series helps maintain that image to todays readers and viewers,but the original "zombies" were quite different.

Tales of the Zombie was part of Marvel Comics foray into the black & white more adult horror comic field.  In this strip Simon Garth had been cursed to rise from the dead and had an individuality given to him in part by a strong"soul" and an amulet that led him on a quest to find the other talisman that would free him from his curse.

In this issue we see a story in which Simon wanders through the bayou but takes a detour to a house in the swamps where an Agatha Christie type murder mystery is taking place, Deciding to help protect a young girl at risk from the murderer the Zombie shuffles into action. Simon kills but doesn't eat his victims.

More traditional Voodoo and black magic than viruses infecting the world this is actually a quite readable tale in a comic that lasted just 10 issues and one "Annual".

 

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