Zombies are officially the alpha species of Earth after successfully hunting humanity into near extinction. They have begun to develop their own culture as they reshape society. Things start to change as Poke feels something towards the remaining humans and develops something he hasn’t had in a very long time…a heartbeat.
This is the follow-up project for Deniz Camp and Stipan Morian after 20th Century Men. A fun, out-of-the-box story that feels like it can only be done in comics. Deniz Camp is bending the tropes and ideas of a zombie story as far as he can before it breaks to create something unique, but familiar.
DC
Return of the Living Dead is my favorite camp horror movie of all time, so this was in my wheelhouse: a comic not taking itself too seriously, while using the zombie framework to tell a human story. So many great nods to all those camp horror movies of the ’80s and ’90s. Mouse-pokes-golf-ball-out-of- head-hole surely has to be a nod to Scrooged and the Montezuma Motors feeling eerily similar to a set piece From Dusk Til Dawn. I hope the references continue with the series, and we see even more fun reasons to inspect each panel in depth.
Bleeding Hearts has a simplicity that sucked me in. The stakes weren’t too high, and the singular focus and narration created a calmness throughout the issue that put me in the right mood. It is the equivalent of a nice springtime walk.
The middle was a bit long in the tooth. Almost repeating the major themes and relationships of the series, and gave issue one a bit of a “been there, done that” feeling until the end kickstarted the driving force behind the initial arc. To counter my own point, the middling middle did give time for a great character moment, where our two best friend zombies swapped arms to signify that their friendship is forever.
DC
Morian’s art is an expected highlight of issue one. The first two pages, which are shown in this review, summarize better than any of my words can. The creative motion layout on page 1 and the almost too detailed zombie attack on page 2 showcase the top-notch art direction. The gore is… tasteful? (No pun intended). The juxtaposition of extreme violence overlayed on inviting cartoon-y artwork will always make for an enjoyable view. One of my favorite artistic decisions of Bleeding Hearts is the amount of detail that went into each character, even if they lived and died within a few panels. Distinct features, silhouettes, and movements made every character moment memorable, no matter how brief.
Bleeding Hearts #1 is a very fun opening chapter with a killer splash page to make sure there isn’t a drop in sales for issue #2. I’m just excited. I want to see where the story goes, what new characters are going to pop up, and what else in this world as Deniz Camp begins to turn over more rocks. A good issue one should make you excited for what’s next, and Bleeding Hearts #1 does exactly that.
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