The Colonized TPB Preview

7/27/2019 The Colonized TPB Preview

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Cover by

Francesco FrancavillaCollection Edits by

Justin Eisinger and Alonzo SimonCollection Design by

Tom B. Long

THE COLONIZED. OCTOBER 2013. FIRST PRINTING. 2013 Chris Ryall and Idea and Design Works, LLC. All rights reserved. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Editorial offices: 5080 Santa Fe Street,San Diego CA 92109. Any similarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents of this publication may be reprinted without the permissionof Idea and Design Works, LLC. Printed in Korea.IDW Publishing does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, stories, or artwork.

Originally published as THE COLONIZED issues #14

www.IDWPUBLISHING.com

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Ted Adams, CEO & PublisherGreg Goldstein, President & COORobbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic ArtistChris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-ChiefMatthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial OfficerAlan Payne, VP of SalesDirk Wood, VP of MarketingLorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services

IDW founded by Ted Adams, Alex Garner, Kris Oprisko, and Robbie Robbins

ISBN: 978-1-61377-735-0 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4


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I N T R O D U C T I O NBy NICK REDFERN

In a world in which all things of a zombie nature are becoming evermore dominating, the biggest challenge facing film-makers, Hollywoodstudios, script-writers, and authors is not so much just to come up with

ideas, but to create and weave storylines that are actually fresh, ratherthan merely being yawn-inspiring. Certainly, one only has to take a mereglimpse at the large amount of both literary and on-screen productions ofthe undead variety to realize that tedious repetition, overwhelming sterility,and far less than inspiring scripts are, today, all too often the name of thegame. In other words, we have seen it all, and we have heard it all, timeand time again. Fortunately, however, that is not quite always the case.Take for example, Chris Ryall and Drew Moss graphic-novel seriesThe Colonized.

For Ryall and Moss, your average, zombie apocalypse-style,

splatter-fest is simply nowhere near good enough. And while that may notbe such a positive thing for the characters of Carbon Falls, Montana, whoare fighting for their very lives, for you, the reader (or, perhaps, thedevourer would be more apt), it is very good news. While it is one thing tohave to face a full-on, maniacal assault from hordes of flesh munchingand bone-crunching recently deceased, it is an entirely different matter toinsert nothing less than visiting aliens from a faraway world into the story,too. But, this is exactly what our intrepid duo of Ryall and Moss doesandin a fashion that works very well, it must be stressed. Indeed, if you thoughtRoswell, New Mexico was the only place where extraterrestrials havedisplayed really crappy piloting skills, then youre dead wrong.

Add to the risen dead and the extraterrestrials a cast of survivalistfruitcakes, separatists, gun-toting gangs, and a slightly sinistergovernment agent lurking in the shadows, and you have a great storyunfolding before your very eyes. It is most refreshing, too, to see a highdegree of thinking outside of the box taking place. I certainly wont giveaway the plot, but, suffice to say, there is a nice touch about how the aliensthemselvesor their unearthly biology, at leastdirectly impact upon thenature and effects of the zombie virus. Sly and wry humor abounds. And

we even get treated to the freakishly fun sight of not just human zombies,but the animals of the undead, too. Of course, the fact that The Colonizedis set in small-town USA means we are talking farm animals. Or, perhaps:Barn of the Dead. Have you ever seen a cow, a pig, a chicken, or a horse

wildly racing and raging around like the fast running infected of28 DaysLater?To be sure, its not a pretty sight, to say the very least. But it ishighly entertaining.

As is always the case when fiction and zombies cross paths, thingsfinally reach their bloody finale, and it all too quickly becomes a case ofdo or dieand that goes for humans and aliens alike. Even the dead do allthey can to avoid deathfor a second time, of course. And I can safely sayall of that without giving away the many intricacies of what is a finelycrafted plot. In finality, The Colonized is a decidedly surreal, alternative,and fun take on a topic that brings something very welcome and importantto the table of the reanimated and the cannibalistic: its called originality.

Nick Redfern is the author of many books, including The Real Men inBlackand Science Fiction Secrets.


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