There’s a running theme throughout Everything Dead and Dying #3: the lengths a man will go to protect his daughter. For Jack Chandler, the fact that his daughter Daisy is now a ravenous, flesh-eating zombie hasn’t changed that parental instinct – especially when the group of hunters that invaded his farmland intends to shoot her. Jack takes one of the hunters, Zeke, hostage, leading to a tense standoff.
In the same way that Everything Dead and Dying #2 was dedicated to exploring the relationship between Jack and his husband, Luke, Everything Dead and Dying #3 flashes back to pivotal moments between Jack and Daisy. Tate Brombal handles these moments with care, especially the moment where Daisy discovers a dead animal’s body and Jack has to explain to her about the nature of death. He doesn’t sugarcoat it, but at the same time he also has a great way of explaining how life and death have their cycles. It’s a reminder that the zombie outbreak isn’t natural, and neither is Jack’s desire to hold onto his loved ones while they’re dead.
Brombal also gives insight into the hunters who’ve invaded Jack’s home. It would be easy to make them utterly irredeemable monsters, but as the issue goes on he dives into what is driving them in a world infested by the dead. Sam, the leader, is trying to hold everything together. Another hunter, Colette, is driven by her faith in God to take extreme measures, which feels rather chilling, especially with the history of people who commit horrible actions in the name of faith. It’s Zeke who gets the lion’s share of development though; he’s genuinely fearful for his life, worried about losing his horse, and slowly finding it harder and harder to live in a world where the dead walk among us. It all culminates in a gut-wrenching finale that won’t leave a dry eye in the house.
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Jacob Phillips’ artwork is a significant reason Everything Dead and Dying #3 hits as hard as it does. He puts great care into the facial expressions each character makes: fear, shock, anger, and cold resolve all play out across a multitude of faces. Even Daisy has moments where she’s confused or curious, and this is when she’s a zombie. To give the living dead emotions takes plenty of talent, and Phillips has it in spades.
So does Pip Martin, whose colors shift from vibrant yellows and pinks to represent Jack’s past with Daisy to a more muted yellow for the present. Martin also drenches panels in red whenever there’s a gunshot, accompanied by Aditya Bidikar’s single, striking “Bam” sound effect. It goes a long way in setting the stage for intense firefights throughout the issue.
Everything Dead and Dying #3 delivers its most heart-wrenching issue to date, as its emotional moments hit just as hard as the zombie horror. I didn’t think it was possible for me to be as invested in a zombie series as I am in this one, which shows the care the creative team is putting into each issue.
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