In the debut outing of The Cursed and The Damned, we find a group of “shifters” assembled, discussing a long awaited cure for their delicate condition. The only catch is that the cure has yet to be tested on a human being. Their plan is to inject a human with the cure, then bite her to see what the results are. If it sounds ill conceived, then you are dead on the money. Their guinea pig is a woman named Sabrina. She is injected. She is bitten. The only problem is the bit from the werewolf does not heal. She is rushed to the hospital where her life is saved by more mundane medical procedures. She eventually recovers enough to be released, leaving the wolves to believe that their cure works. Later they check back on her, only to find her comatose in her home where she has apparently been ill for some time. Paramedics manage to resuscitate her, but as a zombie rather than a human. All hell breaks loose and it appears the misguided werewolves have unleashed a zombie apocalypse.
This is a cute book with a novel concept. The cover art is particularly stellar. The image of a powerfully built werewolf with zombies crawling around its legs is striking. As novel as the concept is, the first issue seems a bit rushed. It should be noted that Geek-o-Rama only received a mock up of the first issue, and this review will reflect that the end product may reflect significant changes. The artwork for the werewolves is just great. The artist gives us big, bold powerful creatures that look like they could rip Frankenstein’s Monster in two without breaking a sweat.
One initial complaint is that the first issue takes several shortcuts to get to the meat of the story, no pun intended. If the series has a central protagonist, we aren’t clued into who that might be. There are few characters introduced, but none of them feel central other than Sabrina who turns into a zombie, so it’s probably not her. It’s hard for the reader to understand who to sympathize with at the outset without a central figure. The art also seems a bit rough even in the first few pages that are fully inked and colored. The latter half of our mock-up was partially inked with no color, so the entire book could receive more treatments to smooth out the art to match the stunning cover.
All-in-all, this looks to be a promising work that could posit a brand new runner in horror fiction. To get your copy of The Cursed and the Damned, visit N.A.S. Studios
Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.
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