| Essential Tales of the Zombie: v. 1 (Essential (Marvel Comics)) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Doug Moench, Tony Isabella, Chris Claremont
Artists: John Buscema, Tom Palmer, Pablo Marcos, Alfredo Alcala, Virgilio Redondo
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Category: Book
List Price: £10.99
Buy New: £6.18
You Save: £4.81 (44%)
New (26) Used (3) from £6.18
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 225442
Media: Paperback
Edition: Direct Ed
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 592
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 6.6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0785119167
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9780785119166
ASIN: 0785119167
Publication Date: October 4, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A grave collection February 10, 2008
Other reviewers have covered the salient points, so let me make a few comments that may be new. Firstly, one of the most satisfying things about this collection is that the story of 'The Zombie' (Simon Garth) actually reaches a satisfactory conclusion, In the final story he returns to his grave, having wrapped up the loose ends of his lifeless existence (perhaps a bit too neatly, really). Secondly, this collection features all the backup stories, reviews and articles from the original comics, as well as the 'Zombie' storyline. Frankly, most of these are utterly forgettable and formulaic, but a couple deserve mention: 'Warrior's Burden' in which the lead character is an undead samurai, poignantly written by Tony Isabella and delicately illustrated by Vicente Alcazar and 'Grave Business' written and drawn by Tom Sutton, a Dickensian tale of grave robbers and their comeuppance. Oh, and there are a few spot illustrations by Mike Kaluta that are fantastic. Don't forget, these were originally published in black and white, so you're not missing out on any colour (except on the covers). If you like Steve Gerber's socially conscious stories, have a look at 'Man-Thing' and 'Howard the Duck'.
The life and death, and life and death of Simon Garth February 8, 2008
Collected here are all 10 issues of the original b&w Tales of the Zombie magazine. The lead character appears in the first 9 issues.
Simon Garth, a New Orleans coffee magnate, and a pretty unpleasant character is killed after the priestess Layla helps him escape from a voodoo ceremony only for him to be killed by his gardener. Garth is brought back to life as a zombie under the control of his gardener using one of the twin amulets of Damballah, the other one the being hung round the now living dead Simon Garth's neck.
The gardener tries to get Garth to kidnap his own daughter but something snaps inside him and he rebels and kills his "master".
Throughout the next 8 issues Garth journeys from New Orleans to Haiti and walks back to New Orleans. He comes under the control of several new masters as the amulet is passed along, from the vengeful (Phillip Bliss) to a disturbed fireman down to the plain evil (Papa Shorty) as the story moves along towards a resolution of sorts as Garth is given a second chance, what Tony Isabella describes as a Walt Disney concept in a Sam Peckinpah world. With that second chance he gets to tie up most of the loose ends in a tale packed with pathos and coincidences.
Included here also are a whole series of short stories, of varying quality, based on voodoo and zombies as well as all the original articles about zombie movies and zombies in literature.
There are also a few tales with Brother Voodoo, the first one is a continuation of a tale not included here, the second tale is a vast improvement with a lot more pace.
The artwork on the main character's stories by Pablo Marcos is stunning, there's also covers drawn by the renowned Boris Vallejo. Gene Colan also puts his mark on this volume with a tale involving Dracula, voodoo and a brief appearance by our zombie friend.
The book is marked "explicit content". These tales may not necessarily be seen as such by modern readers but they are well worth reading.
The year or the zombie July 25, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The sad and tragic tale of Simon William Garth, the Zombie, started in the fifties when comic book legends Stan Lee and Bill Everett created the undead character for Atlas's horror comic Menace. Newsstands were flooded with a wave of horror titles like Tales from the Crypt, Black Cat, Weird and Dick Briefer's horrific classic The Monster of Frankenstein. All of which fell victim of the newly instated Comic Code Authority. The Authority imposed a list of inflexible self-regulations, devised by the Association of Comic Magazine, in an attempt to fend off any future government involvement in the comic field. The hysteria was caused when a Senate subcommittee, taking the cue from Dr. Fredric Wertham's comic bashing book, Seduction of the Innocent, held hearings to determine if the rise in juvenile delinquency could be linked to extreme depictions of sadism, horror, sex, and crime bannered in the comics of the day. It worked - no government censorship, but with stringent rules like, "No comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title," the Code all but decimated the war, horror and crime comics. The Zombie "slept" for twenty years.
Then, trying to cash in on the monster boom of the sixties and seventies, as well as the success of Warren's black and white horror comic magazines Creepy and Eerie, Marvel Comics launched a wave of monster titles in both comic and magazine form. Mummies, werewolves, vampires and even Satan's son mingled with Spider-man and the Hulk at the newsstand. The Zombie is quickly resurrected.
The pathos-fueled comic tells the tale of coffee plantation owner Simon Garth, who has the misfortune of being selected to become a human sacrifice for a mysterious Voodoo cult comprised mostly from his workers. But as fate would have it, the leader of the cult, the beautiful Priestess Layla, falls in love with Garth and changes him into a zombie instead. While Layla and her creepy grandfather searches for a way to change him back to normal, the undead Garth, like all Marvel monsters, finds himself in a world of supernatural danger and adventure.
Essential Tales Of The Zombie is a fun collection filled with great artwork and intriguing storylines and is a must have for fans of gruesome zombie comic collections like Zombie Factory: 27 Tales of Bizarre Comix Madness from Beyond the Tomb or The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.
Beware the dead that walk at night.... October 26, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Anyone enjoying the Essential Dracula and Essential Frankenstein from the Marvel series of books, will want to own Essential Tales Of The Zombie. Collecting the magazines first published over 30 years ago, of the same name, and putting them together in one volume is a collector's dream. The book reproduces the adventures of Simon Garth, the living zombie, along with other tales of zombies. There is also the introduction of Brother Voodoo, another Marvel character, and various text articles on Voodoo movies and other related items, as well as illustrated text stories, making this an unmissable volume at an unmissable price for Marvel and non-Marvel readers alike. Note: all stories are produced in black and white, exactly as they originally appeared all those years ago. A bargain!
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