It's hard to review samplers and ashcans. They're made for a specific purpose, and that purpose is not to consume a full story. It's just to get a taste so that you become interested for more. If anything, it's more of a marketing endeavor than a true storytelling one. Still, there's something to be said about the experience and the impression it leaves. It's just as important to take the preview's purpose into account when forming a review, which is exactly what I did for Taking Out The Dead.
In just 8 pages, the sample gives a great impression of what the setting is all about. The story sets up a post-apocalyptic world of desperation and survival while fighting off a zombie horde. The story focuses on a young woman in search of her brother, who she last saw when he was on his way to college in Boston. Other than that, not much story details are given, but we do get enough characterization out of the young woman to want to see how her adventure turns out. Plus, it's super cool seeing Fenway Park turned into a base of operations during the end of the world.
The art is also fairly solid. There's sure to be a lot of zombie action in the pages to come, and based on this sample, the artist has the chops to create some cool zombie mayhem. The sample could use some improvements, though. Some of the dialogue felt cheesy and there wasn't really enough meat for the story to stand out from the pack of other similar zombie tales. We've seen countless post-apocalyptic plots of individuals traveling across the country. In order to make a memorable story, there has to be some hook. That hasn't been revealed yet. But then again, it's only eight pages. And an early eight pages at that. These previews can also be viewed as beta reading before the final product. So viewing these eight pages through that lens, I can see there's a lot of potential with Taking Out The Dead.
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