AVALON #1, from 1282 on March 1st, 2022, follows a small town on a snowy night as residents begin to mysteriously fall ill, only to recover as flesh-eating zombies.
The Details
- Written by: Brandon Starocci, Alan Dingfelder
- Art by: Dimitris Nastos
- Colors by: Dimitris Nastos
- Letters by: Dimitris Nastos
- Cover art by: Dimitris Nastos
- Cover price: $4.99
- Release date: March 1, 2022
Is It Good?
AVALON #1 is an effective, atmospheric zombie story to give you the willies just in time for Halloween. Starocci and Dingfelder cooked up a bleak tale about a town experiencing the early stages of a zombie outbreak, and the rising sense of tension with each page turn draws you in successfully.
The keys to this indie project’s success are the atmosphere and the art.
In fairness, this is a standard zombie outbreak story. There are no twists or original takes on the zombie genre here (yet), so set your expectations accordingly. However, success lies in execution and delivery. Starocci and Dingfelder wisely focus on establishing the main characters, complete with emotional baggage, to set the stage for their motivations and actions when the situation turns ugly.
Each scene is blanketed with a sense of weight as the characters carry on a mundane evening. Somehow, everyone is on edge and feels like something is about to snap. When the snaps begin, small at first and then quickly accelerating, the pacing races along as events spiral out of control. Increased pacing mixed with frantic confusion adds to the atmosphere of fear, poised to pounce on all the characters.
Nastos’s art successfully carries the atmosphere of spiraling dread with well-placed silhouettes, long, foreboding shadows, and great facial acting. The one area that could use improvement is a mild inconsistency in character anatomy. Sometimes, faces look smaller than they should on character heads, and limbs occasionally curve when they should be straight.
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What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with a family eating out on a snowy night to celebrate the sixteenth birthday of one of the teenagers present, Mason. Despite Mason’s struggles with depression and anxiety, the family tries to make the best of it. The father fills the awkward silence by explaining how one of his employees called out sick after his girlfriend bit him. Can you believe that?
Soon, the father receives a call from Andy (Mason’s older brother? father? uncle?) to wish Mason a happy birthday while he’s out on patrol as a local police officer. After the call, Andy and his partner receive a summons to check on an elderly woman who hasn’t come out of her apartment in days. When Andy enters the apartment with the help of the building manager, the circumstances quickly devolve.
We conclude the issue with cats, blood, and pain.
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Final Thoughts
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AVALON #1 is a creepy, effective story about the early onset of a zombie plague. The pacing, plotting, and atmosphere are dead-on, and the art nails the sense of quiet foreboding as events spiral out of control just beneath the surface.
Related Information
Are zombies real?
Flesh-eating, undead zombies are not real. However, there is evidence to suggest that mind-altering drugs are possible that would force one person to become a slave to another through loss of their free will.
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