New York Times bestselling author, Max Brooks, returns to the frightening world of zombies versus vampires in his groundbreaking follow-up series: Extinction Parade: War! Well known for his breathtakingly original fiction, Brooks pushes the limits of the horror genre with his trademark meticulous research and vision for the next evolution in zombie storytelling. The subdead were always a joke to the aristocratic vampire race. Just a spec on the radar of their immortal lives, nothing worth even a moment's notice in their quest for self-gratification through the veins of their host, the human race. But at last they have been pulled from their ignorance into the reality of the new world order. The human race is facing extinction and should they succumb, so too shall the vampires disappear beneath the waves of rotting walking dead. Now the vampire race has mobilized and formed a grand Army of the Bloodline to combat the growing threat of extinction. But after centuries of ambivalence will they be able to learn how to wage war before it is too late? This volume collects Extinction Parade: War #1-5.
Max Brooks is The New York Times bestselling author of The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. He has been called ”the Studs Terkel of zombie journalism.“
Brooks is the son of director Mel Brooks and the late actress Anne Bancroft. He is a 1994 graduate of Pitzer College. His wife, Michelle, is a screenwriter, and the couple have a son, Henry.
What a shame. I know Max Brooks from his excellent World War Z book. So I was excited to see him writing a comic about zombies AND vampires. Well now that I've read it I am no longer excited. But rather I am very disappointed.
Brook's take what could have been a great idea and then writes this banal piece of crap. So here is the gist- the zombies have arisen. But this tide of "sub-dead" (a vampire term for zombies) may wipe out humanity and thus the vampires have come out to fight against the zombies. For some reason Brooks has this set in Malaysia. The vampires are just weird. The first two females vampires we run into are running around punching zombies (the zombies do not detect vampires as they are not alive either). Now apparently the blood inside of zombies is toxic to vampires and touching it can be lethal. So then we have these two female vampires keep wrapping crap around their hands so they can punch zombies. *sigh* So apparently Asian vampires have never heard of gauntlets or even the SpecOps style of assault glove that is relatively common. Not to mention when they run into vampires suing weapons they seemed stunned. That makes them really stupid. It's like vampires are completely brain dead and know nothing about their own country or it's native weapons (from guns to swords). There is also another vampire who is creating a vampire army to fight the dead. Obviously there is some conflict. Blah blah..normally I dig vampire stories. This one did nothing for me. This might work for some people but by the end I stopped caring and flipped through the rest of the story. Shame-this had some potential but it falls into "could have been" territory. It "could have been good" but instead we got this. 1 star. Avoid unless you are a masochist.
What should have been an entertaining depiction of vampires going to war with zombies with humans caught in the middle, becomes an exceedingly tedious comment on the nature of war by way of vampires "learning" to fight in an ongoing war, and in so doing, unknowingly emulating the development of human conflict.
I was going to write it's hard to believe this came from the author of World War Z, but it actually is entirely feasible. Only imagine he opted to jettison all the entertaining aspects of that narrative, added vampires, and then further emphasised the political commentary.
Even the artwork doesn't save this one, as Raulo Caceres is not someone whose work I overly appreciate.
In short, that's it for me with regard to this series.
1.5 Disappointing Head Dances for The Extinction Parade: War.
This volume deals more with the Vampire vs. Zombie War, but to me it seemed weaker than the first volume. Not much happens and it really deals more with the internal struggles and weaknesses of the Vampires rather than the war itself. I don't know if we'll ever see the concluding volume, which is too bad.
The book ends on a to be continued in Extinction Parade: Endangered, but as so many years have passed I guess this series is another comic that doesn't have a proper end..
There's some really good art in this series but because the inks are so thick it doesn't leave much space between the lines to add colour and shade, it makes the art flat and less 3D had it been done in grey tones.
The parade continues with the two vampire princesses continue to kill the subdead with their fists until their friend Adila arrives to show them her "skull dancing" routine. They go through various killing methods including blades and eventually guns. They briefly join the Bloodline Army of zombie killing vampires. Highly recommended
I'd have given this 5 stars, but I'm not 100% sold on the art style. This issue busted an old trope that I first encountered in "The Highlander". The idea that an immortal gets better and better over time. That would work if they had perfect recall, but otherwise skills rust over time. So I really like the arrogant and useless vampires fumbling their way towards extinction. They have no survival skills, they've never needed them before. I'm looking forward to the next instalment.
I was glad to see that some of the vampires finally figured out the consequences of the zombie situation and how they can take action. But they're still pretty stupid. I will only read any follow on issues to discover the outcome.