Written by 2000AD veteran Ian Edginton with lovely art by Davide Fabbri, the six part series comes from DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint, who describe the first issue a little something like this:
"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." Those are the words of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the world's first consulting detective, yet even he finds his skills tested to their limit as he and his erstwhile comrade Dr. John Watson are confronted with the most extraordinary case of their career – the dead are returning to life! Can a plague of Biblical proportions be far behind for Victorian London? And who – or what – is behind the resurrection of these ravenous revenants?
It’s the spring of 1854, the streets of London are filled with the British commoners all looking toward the sky as a greenish commit tears across the night sky. Everyone talks amongst them-selves; conjuring different possibilities of what it could be. An old gypsy woman rambles on as if it were revelations. Pieces of the meteor break off and fall to earth without causing to much destruction.
There are a couple of little stories that set up the advancement of the oncoming zombie assault that Britain is about to experience. From a Dr. Snow calling the time of death on a patient; only to have that patient sit back up and lunge for him; to a couple of tunnel miners coming across what they think is simply a piece of gold, only to fall victim to the zombie holding on to that same piece of gold. If you really like detective stories such as Sherlock Holmes and you also like horror comics with plenty of gore and blood; I think you should definitely check out “Victorian Undead”.
His old nemesis Moriarty is back at his old tricks, except this time he has something new up his rotten sleeve. Moriarty and Holmes had fought it out near the edge of a cliff back in the day and Moriarty falls to his apparent death. But death is only the beginning. While laying broken and dying at the base of a Cliffside he has one of his underlings bring him a serum that he had been working on, which would continue the brain function after death allowing him to live forever. Just before he fell into the darkness of death, he was injected with the serum and was saved by becoming undead.
With this plan now in action Moriarty has the ability to compile an unbeatable army of the undead that would follow his lead in taking over all of England. Sherlock Holmes has the task of tracking down clues and surviving the post-apocalyptic Victorian London streets. With some help from his partner Watson, Sherlock must fight off the zombie hordes that he comes in contact with during the investigation.
Scotland Yard implements their own version of a swat team in small zombie-hunters style squads, which know exactly how to deal with the infected. Which leads Holmes into believing that this has been going on for much longer than anyone has suspected.
The illustrations are fantastic and the attention to detail with the Victorian styles is amazing. I also liked the dialogue; it really read through in my head with the cockney accent of the time period. Not since “I Sell the Dead” have I seen anyone else attempting an 1800’s take on the zombie phenomenon.
How does one survive an all out zombie attack lead by a competent madman?
Food for thought.
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