‘Zombie World: Champion of the Worms’ – Mike Mignola & Pat McEown (Dark Horse Books)

When I first started buying comics, back at college, I was very much into superhero series until the day I realised that ‘crossover events’ were a cynical attempt by certain publishers to get me to spend more money on their books (you know who you are!) Funnily enough, it wasn’t long after that a browse through my local comic book shop turned up ‘Zombie World’, a series with no crossovers and featuring my favourite undead creatures! :o) I collected all of the series that I could get my hands on (I wish I still had them now, looks like I might have to track down the trade paperback collection) but was never able to find the first three comics that told you how it all began. Last Friday was my lucky day as a browse through the ‘Z’ section, in Forbidden Planet, turned up the ‘Zombie World: Champion of the Worms’ collection. I finally got to see how it all kicked off...

Forty two thousand years ago, the evil priest Azzul Gotha was imprisoned and buried alive before he could conclude his dealings with the worm gods. The present day sees strange goings on at the Whistler museum in Massachusetts where a certain sarcophagus is on display... Major Damson and his team arrive to investigate but are they too late to stop the events in progress? One bullet is about to herald the arrival of the darkest days of horror that the world will ever see...

Going back to read the beginning of a series, and fill in the gaps, is always a risky business. You’ll get the whole picture but if you already know how it ends then you have to wonder what the point was. Luckily this wasn’t the case with ‘Champion of the Worms’. While it does lead on to the events of ‘Zombie World’ it’s also a self contained story, in its own right, that has plenty to offer for horror fans. For an initial series that was only three issues long I found it really rich in background and it has me wanting to find out a lot more about Hyperborea in fantasy fiction. It had a hint of Lovecraft about it as well and I loved the dank and oppressive atmosphere that this resulted in. The artwork wasn’t quite to my liking (more on that in a bit) but I couldn’t deny the strange otherworldly atmosphere that made ‘Champion of the Worms’ such a delicious shivery read.

When the zombies make their appearance, the resulting action scenes are well drawn and give a good impression of fast and frantic combat. Eustace St. John’s ability to manifest himself on the psychic plane is also well rendered and just a little bit spooky. After having pored over the gorgeous Mignola cover though, it was a shame that he didn’t continue with the artwork inside. There’s nothing wrong with McEown’s artwork but it did remind me of Herge’s ‘Adventures of Tintin’ at inopportune moments... Not what I want to be looking at when I’m reading a horror comic!

Despite this though, I had a lot of fun reading ‘Champion of the Worms’ and it’s got me in the mood to either root around under the bed to see if I still have the other comics or to go out and find myself a copy of ‘Winter’s Dregs’...

Eight and a Half out of Ten