Shaun Of The Dead Review

• 13th Dec 2010

This is the official graphic novel adaptation of the hit “rom-zom-com” from Edgar Wright starring Simon Pegg as Shaun and Nick Frost as his best mate Ed. When a zombie apocalypse sweeps across the UK, the two friends gather up their loved ones and do what every self-respecting Brit would do in the same situation – head to the pub.

It feels a bit like we’ve come full circle –Tim in Spaced was desperate to become a proper comic book artist and now here we are with an illustrated version of the film spawned by that TV series. The superb artwork by Zach Howard (assisted by Sean Murphy) does the film justice, even if Shaun et al do look a lot more svelte and dynamic than their cinematic equivalents. The zombies are realised in glorious, gory colour and all in all it’s a lovely looking book.

This is, pretty much, a carbon copy of the film and you’ll find precious new material here if you’ve seen it (and if you haven’t, then you probably won’t want to be reading the novel anyway). It’s a shame really as they’ve missed a bit of a trick here by not including the (unseen in the film) scenes when Shaun runs off to distract the zombies to allow his gang to get inside The Winchester. It’s even featured as an extra on the DVD in comic strip form. There is a page of or two of extra stuff but nothing worth writing home about. Inevitably, a lot of the jokes fall flat without the timing you get in live action. For example, Shaun’s tongue in cheek paedophile accusation towards his step father works great on film but not so well on paper. Similarly, the opening sequences don’t really work without filmic timing.

If you’re a fan of the film this’ll make a great keepsake with its attractive artwork (there are some great portrait-like pictures at the end as well.)

Emma Wilkin