IDW: No Man's Land

 

Introduction by Jonathan Maberry

So… ZOMBIES VS. ROBOTS.
     I’m a guy.
     I’m a pop-culture geek going back to when I snuck into the movies at age ten to see the world premiere of Night of the Living Dead back in 1968. The original Star Trek was still on TV. So was Lost in Space.
     Zombies.
     Robots.
     Seriously?
     I’m not sure if there was anything more solidly designed to hit all of my fanboy buttons than a book that combines these two things.
     Nowadays I write novels about zombies. And I write novels about robots.
     And I’ve been reading the Zombies vs Robots comic since 2005 when I saw the first issue on the rack at my local comic book shop. I grabbed it, read it, loved it, and added it to my pull list.
     Now we roll forward almost a decade and IDW has tapped some of my favorite writers—including several who are close friends and occasional creative partners of mine—for a prose anthology of brand new stories.
    ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS: NO MAN’S LAND.
     Kid in a candy shop moment.
     Dig the lineup. ZVR co-creator Chris Ryall is joined by Jon McGoran, Hank Schwaeble, John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow, Bobby Nash, Mark Morris, Stephen Graham Jones and Stephen Dedman.
     Then consider the content. These stories delve into the backstory of the global conflict and then dig deep wells into the implications of this dysfunctional world of bloodshed and turmoil. Each story comes at it from a totally different perspective while still honoring the sensibilities and structure of the ZVR world. That’s a tough circus to pull off. I’ve been in themed anthos before, and I’ve edited several. This is easier to get wrong than right, and I have to admit I had some doubts as to how well the visually compelling ZVR stories would translate to prose.
     The good news is actually great news. The stories are killer.
     Absolutely killer.
     And that’s not just the writer-editor in me talking. That’s the fanboy. That’s the geek part of me who sets a very high standard for pop culture entertainment.
     Chris Ryall kicks it off with “Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog,” which peels back the layers of secrecy about military science in the early days of the Z-virus outbreak. Jonathan McGoran dishes out a pair of related tales about the consequences of using a discarded anti-zombie “battlesuit.” Mark Morris spins a very weird futurist Robinson Crusoe yarn with a tale about a castaway and an overzealous robot. Hank Schwaeble takes us below the waves to add a wild new chapter to the Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons storyline from the later comics. Bobby Nash lets us follow a band of teenagers fighting for survival in a ruined world.
     Stephen Graham Jones gives us an impressionist meditation on zombie existence. Stephen Dedman spins a tale of dangerous elitism and mad science. And John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow team up for a gut-wrenching tale of survival that questions the nature of what it means to be human during an apocalypse.
     Each story is juicy and delicious, but these aren’t low-hanging fruit. Each story is a stretch, both in structure and subject. These are tales strong enough to stand alone, apart from the umbrella of a popular series of comics or the company of other good stories. Each one is A-game material.
     Again, not always the case with anthologies.
     Absolutely the case here.
     So, the writer in me is well-pleased.
     The editor in me is deeply impressed.
     But the fanboy …?
     Damn, the fanboy in me is delighted and thoroughly satisfied.
     Zombies vs. Robots.
     Oh, hell yes.