Dead Winter
November 27, 2011Man, this blog has really been quiet lately due to personal life events. I’ve been struggling to motivate myself to write, paint and do other hobby-related stuff, and things are finally starting to look up. Sorry for the long hiatus and let’s get this ball rolling once more by showcasing one of the best zombie finds of late: the webcomic Dead Winter.
Dead Winter by Dave Shabet is yet another depiction of the zombie apocalypse. It focuses mostly on Lizzie Cooper (above, image © Dave Shabet), an underpaid diner worker who gets caught up in the chaos of a zombie plague. Trying to survive, she meets up with a variety of characters from different walks of life. Very different.
The comic is a wonderful blend of different elements. There’s a lot of comedy there, plenty of action and character development hasn’t been forgotten either. A smooth combination of dialogue, plot and drawing style just makes the whole come together mighty fine.
Shabet’s art style is cartoony and works surprisingly well despite the grim setting. While the comic is mostly black and white, the muted red (Lizzie above is a fine example) patches of color bring a lot of life to it. The exaggerated expressions and movement work well and give personality to the characters.
The plot and dialogue deserve a special mention here as well. Shabet drops in a lot of pop culture references, but isn’t annoyingly “wink wink, nudge nudge” about them. There’s an interesting blend of characters from cats to mall workers to professional assassins, and somehow Shabet manages to keep it all together with no groan-inducing moments. At best Dead Winter is simultaneously touching and hilarious, no mean feat to pull off!
In short, go read Dead Winter. It’s great and it’s free. You can find it at http://www.deadwinter.cc
Dawn of the Lead 
Good to see you back Mikko.
I took a glance at Dead Winter and will have a read through it over the next couple of days. Visually it looks a lot like the Scott Pilgrim comics, which is no bad thing.
I like that monochrome-with-an-extra-colour (tri-chrome?) look, as used in things like Sin City and the movie Bound. It tends to suit the zombie genre well too.
Thanks for bringing Dead Winter to my attention. I will report back when I have read it.
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Thanks Paul!
Funnily enough I was very close to mentioning Scott Pilgrim, as I made the same connection. The Sin City -like b&w + red combination works very nicely in my opinion too. Great minds think alike, as they say.
I’d love to hear your views on the comic, as you’re also something of a zombie connoisseur.
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