On the Bookshelf

The Zombie Hunters is a post-apocalyptic web comic that follows a "team of zombie hunters as they go through life as survivors of the undead outbreak." As infected civilians, they live within a fenced-off town on the Argus Research Campus island and venture out into the wastelands to do support missions as only they can do so without fear of new infection.

The Zombie Hunters started off as a private story for author Jenny Romanchuk and her friends, with a number of the characters sharing their names and appearances. It is easy to be put off by "self-inserts" (especially if you have ever taken to reading fan fiction) but honestly, in this case at least, don't be because The Zombie Hunters is really great. Regardless of the comic's start as just being a little fun with friends, Romanchuck has spent the time to develop interesting characters and back stories.

Romanchuck's version of the zombie virus operates at two stages. The first stage is infection where the virus will spread throughtout a persons body but remain dormant for so long as they are alive. The second stage occurs with the death of the host at which point the virus will become active and animate the corpse with a new craving for human flesh. The Zombie Hunters features an intriguing and unique (to my knowledge at least) class system of zombies, from the Basilisk which will paralyze a person with its gaze, to the Hunter which will stalk its prey for months if it has to for the perfect opportunity to attack and no one will ever even know that they are being followed, to the Mercy zombie which will seek out the weak and injured to deliver a fatal bite to the throat or a vital artery and then hold and comfort their victim as they die and reanimate.

Romanchuk has experimented with the artistic style over the course of updating but there has never been a time when I have not liked the art. In the FAQ section of the web site, she says that each strip takes approximately seven to eight hours to finish and I say that it is eight hours well spent. In the early days the drawing style was less detailed and reflected the more humourous tone. Later on the art style becomes more detailed and consistently realistic. You can watch Romanchuk work on the comic during a live stream broadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays at 2pm EST here.

Click on the banner below to go to The Zombie Hunters website and read the entire comic so far for free! Keep in mind that The Zombie Hunters is rated R for all sorts of fun things such as "coarse language, gore, violence, and nudity." Be prepared for the fact that it is also an ongoing work in process, meaning that it is not finished yet! Romanchuk provides us with a new hit of The Zombie Hunters every Monday. You can also now place a pre-order for book one when the comic gets printed in hard copy!

(Seriously, go read it. Just browsing the web site for this review I have found myself unable to help but start to reread the whole thing all over again!)

Terra