Page 45 Review by Stephen
Wausau, Wisconsin, and the dead are coming back to life.
They’re not zombies, they’re fully sentient individuals with a new lease of life, and most are as chipper as ever. Others are distraught for reasons which will become painfully clear. As to the families… some will know new grief in the wake of these resurrections.
The snow-strewn rural community has been ringed in a strictly enforced quarantine zone: the C.D.C. has yet to ascertain if this “reviving” is a contagious disease and until they do, well, a whole country of people who simply won’t die…? Benefit claims would rocket through the roof. The religious right, by the way, are having a field day. Snap-shots:
Officer Dana Cypress, the sheriff’s daughter, is dressing for work while her son Cooper plays outside in the snow. Something drifts by – a bright white sprite with hollow black eyes. It notices him.
A half-zebra, half-horse has bolted out of the stables, its mouth spewing blood, collapsing quite dead on the virgin white field. Someone has fed it some tablets…
Officer Dana Cypress finds her sister Martha alone on a bridge. Her car has run out of petrol. Maybe. Dana really shouldn’t take her younger sister on a case: their father would be so very pissed if anything happened to Martha. What neither of them knows is that nothing can happen to Martha, and that’s not the only thing she’s hiding.
As the series progresses, the cast expands and their lies unfurl while others don’t get a chance to reveal the truth. There’s also a rogue element in the form of an exorcist called up to cast out the demons of a couple’s teenage daughter speaking in snatches of Latin. And she does have demons; but not necessarily the ones you’d expect. That made me smile, oh yes. Parenthetically, I don’t recall seeing the first four pages anywhere before.
Clean, sturdy and attractive art in the vein of Ron Garney as you’d expect from Mike Norton (HOPELESS SAVAGES, QUEEN & COUNTRY etc.) – perfectly expressive too. But I’m giving nothing more away for now than this: there is one scene of excruciating horror that really made me wince involving the pulling of teeth. It’s not a torture scene, no, but it is exceptionally well played by both writer and artist and, oh dear, I don’t do teeth well at the best of times!
