SHOCK CITY PUNKS

A zombie struggles with conflicting loyalties as her town splits into human and monster factions.

Inviting all “cool creepsters” to come along, Alexovich returns to the unusually diverse town of Shock City. There, nerdy, brown-skinned human boy Milo, with help from his green-skinned, vat-grown friend, Sunny Von Shock, and terrifying doll-like Becky the zombie, sets about unleashing a series of humiliating pranks. Their targets are a pair of sleazy merchants, who are foaming at the mouth and urging human townsfolk to “hold the line” against the local monsters’ supposed schemes to take over. Becky, it turns out, has other fish to fry as she’s also under heavy pressure to find someone willing to give up their soul to bring back the rousingly vengeful zombie queen Resurrection Jane, never mind the consequences to town and people. To the delight of Tim Burton fans, the artist fills his graphic panels with lots of deliciously macabre figures plus lurid tweaks aplenty, from brain-flavored ice cream to a tank full of writhing necro-worms and swarms of grisly giant nocturnal millipedes. Panels of varied shapes and layouts appear against solid black pages, and Alexovich’s characters’ stylized, exaggerated facial expressions add to the gruesome hilarity. Milo may seem to be the most relatable character, but Becky—who is, as Milo’s dad rightly describes her, “an immortal fiend”— dominates the tale with her leering presence and larger than un-life personality.

Monstrous fun.