August 18th, 2011 | → 3 Comments | ∇ Horror Webcomics |
Zombie Ranch
by Ghastly McNasty
Web comics have become a popular part of the internet over the last few years as amateur comic creators of all abilities have embraced the opportunity to easily showcase their work to the masses. Zombie Ranch has been carving out it’s own name in the web comic history books since 2009 with a simple formula that other aspiring web comic creators should look to. Publishing a page a week, the husband/wife team of Clint & Dawn Wolf have gained a popular following for their post-apocalyptic Zombie herding story.
It’s the slow drip feed approach of Zombie Ranch that helps to make it, and other web comics, a success. Comic have always been episodic in nature, so readers are accustomed to eagerly waiting for the next part of the story. Web comics have embraced this approach whole-heartedly, allowing the creators to release a new part of the comic as and when they are ready. This also means that the vast majority of pages need to make an impact, delivering something of interest to the readers, similar to short comic strips you find in newspapers.
Set in a world slowly recovering from a full blown zombie outbreak, the story is cleverly told through the lens of a reality TV show floating camera bot as it follows the lives of the team on ‘Z Ranch’, a ranch in every respect of the word except that the cattle are all zombies. There are plenty of fresh ideas in this story and it had tons of room to grow. My problem with Zombie Ranch is that there is a distinct lack of horror. The art, while fine for the medium, doesn’t seem capable of offering truly horrific imagery (please prove me wrong). The meandering plot is too busy introducing its ideas and characters to give us any real moments of terror. I’m sure the creators have some scares up their sleeves but, as we only get one new page a week, it could be years till we see them!
Despite its short comings Zombie Ranch is still a top web comic. It manages to retain the readers interest thanks to the well written script which compliments the slow pace of the story. The plot has yet to reveal itself in full and this also keeps you coming back for more, especially as you know the next installment is only 1 week away. I will be keeping up with the story, let’s just hope they come round to some real zombie carnage soon.
Visit the website www.zombieranchcomic.com for enter the world of Zombie Ranch.
by Ghastly McNasty
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Hi Ghastly!
Thanks for the review, and thanks also for the warning to your readers that Zombie Ranch is a “slow burn”, so if they’re looking for a quick fix of gore and screams (and nothing wrong with that!), they may be better served elsewhere for now. It’s definitely a different kind of zombie story (or at least a story involving zombies) than the Romero/Russo standard, but we figured there’s already enough of those around in web comics and beyond to satisfy the most bloodthirsty palate.
I’m glad to hear the story is good enough it has you hooked regardless, but I will say that I’m not planning to keep the carnage at bay forever. When it does happen, I’m hoping it will be worth the wait.
No problem Clint, keep up the good work.