Writer, letterer: Ryan Ladner
Artist: Guilherme Raffide
Thrill Comics, December 2024
What little we know of the city of Memphis, Tennessee could be written on one side of a postcard. The one thing we do know of is the connection between the city and long-dead rock musician Elvis Presley. Memphis v Zombies #1, written by Ryan Ladner and with art by Guilherme Raffide, begins with a large field of Elvis Presley impersonators lining up for a fun run. (Setting aside the remainder of this fun horror story, that alone is a concept worth developing.) Here is the promotional copy to the title:
Memphis vs. Zombies is our thrilling flagship comic that blends Memphis charm with undead chaos. Follow Walter, B.B., and a cast of quirky characters as they navigate a zombie apocalypse in the heart of the Bluff City. Packed with humor, action, and heart, MvZ is a fun and fantastical adventure you won’t want to miss!
The similarities between zombie-like hordes of focussed, frothing, somewhat mindless fun runners on the one hand, and a wave of lime-green zombies on the other, was not obvious to us until we read this issue. Has anyone ever noticed that zombies do not scatter – a much better method of spreading a zombie virus – but generally traverse in one direction as a group, just like marathon participants? We did not expect a sardonic insight from this title. When the fun-runners transform into a pack of stumbling zombies as a consequence of a vomiting virus carrier, they become eager for human flesh rather than a podium finish. The creative team add some kooky humour to the zombie menace: the undead croon lines from Elvis songs as they march inexorably onwards.
Mr Raffide’s art is pleasing to the eye. It is one thing to draw an inevitable scene from this genre, such as a wave of zombies slowly advancing on some cornered cops: it is another thing for an artist to apply a quirky sense of humour and depict the Elvises stretching their quads and groins in the pre-race warm-up.
The two cops in their valiant last stand are Joe Wilkins and Riley Hayes, and are the protagonists along with teenager Walter Lewis. The officers had tailed Walter in their patrol car and pulled him over. Rather than fine or charge Walter with an offence, they instead return to him the bumper which has dropped off the back of his car a few blocks back, and help him change his flat tyre. Walter himself in a call to his mother respectfully refers to her as “ma’am” and asks if he can collect shopping on the way home. Is this what Tennessee culture is about – good manners and polite helpfulness to those in a jam? If so, Mr Ladner and Mr Raffide make a compelling case to visit. They make fine ambassadors of the city of Memphis. (We must ask, though: is the repeated reference to “mane” instead of “man” a regional accent?)
Towards the end of the issue, the story unexpectedly switches out to a guitar-playing skeleton named Crestwood Blues. Crestwood made a bad deal with the devil, he says, and sings to ghosts while playing his six string, suffering all the while from the “soulfire blues”. Crestwood seems to be the Thrill Comics’ Memphis version of EC Comics’ old horror anthology hosts, such as the Crypt Keeper. It is more goofy fun from the creative team.
Memphis v Zombies is not just a showcase of the creative team’s craftmanship, but also a fun introduction to Memphis’ culture. With a wink and a wry smile, the creative team through the well-understood sub-genre of zombie comics offers a hometown welcome to strangers.
This title is available for purchase from Thrill Comics’ website: https://www.thrillcomics.com/
