Zombie Dog
by Durrilion
While roaming the halls of Phoenix Comicon 2016, I came across a peculiar poster. Closer examination told me I HAD to know more. Zombie Dog, published by The Plush Cartel, is a child friendly comic book about JJ, a former bomb sniffing dog and his vegan zombie family. According to their promo card, “the zombie apocalypse has ended. The humans and zombies have formed a tenuous truce…the leaders have decided to allow one carefully chosen vegan zombie family to…live among people”.
Writer Jon Sanborn began developing the idea a couple of years ago. “Kids love zombies”, he said. Understandably the material is not inherently child friendly and still appealing to adults. After finding an artist, Brent Donoho, to bring JJ and his family to life, so to speak, they decided to start telling the story via comic book format. They also envision Zombie Dog as a TV series and a movie. Given the artistic style, clean smooth lines, well defined coloration, I also can see this as an animated series on Cartoon Network, if not some other channel. As for a movie, I would certainly be in line for a ticket. This is a fresh approach to an age old story. Bonus – children can enjoy it as well the adults.
Besides the attention-getting poster, I was also drawn to the dog, JJ. It’s a long story, but in high school my nickname was JJ. How did this dog and I come by the same name? JJ Walker, from tv series ‘Good Times’. Famous for his catch phrase “Dy-no-mite”, Mr. Walker (the actor) was tall and thin like me. JJ the dog met his untimely end after swallowing a bomb wrapped in bacon, while his handler shouted “JJ! No! That’s dynamite!”, according the Mr Sanborn. Needless to say I HAD to have a copy of issue #1. Jon and Brent even signed it for me!
So what happens when a family of vegan zombies moves into a human neighborhood? How will their anti-zombie neighbors react? Will JJ ever learn to like tofu? Check out http://www.zombiedog.com and keep up with the Adventures of Zombie Dog! I know I will.