Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: J. Young & Brian Buccellato
Artist: Matias Bergara
Colourist: Brian Buccellato
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

Cannibalism is yucky, right? Even in the horror genre, the subject of eating human flesh is usually regarded as the grossest of gross-outs. Just the thought of it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

However, ladle in a soupcon of zombie-ism and you have Cannibal #6, a bang up-to-date, high media profile title riding the crest of such TV favs as The Walking Dead and I Zombie.

For Cannibal #6, imagine The Dukes of Hazzard written by Shaun Hutson and you’re on the right lines. Welcome to the sleepy Florida town of Willow, where a hurricane unleashed a horde of hibernating mosquitos who infected the populace with a hundred-year-old strain of yellow fever. In Cannibal #6 the cure turns out to be worse than the disease it gives the victims a bad case of the flesh craving munchies and you have a physical and moral dilemma because these diseased chomper’s retain their human emotions and feelings, including remorse.

Shades of Angel, I know, but it’s all grist to the mill. In Cannibal #6, Nicole gives Danny a hickey from hell that turns him into a manic masticator and sets him on a collision course with brothers Grady and Cash Hansen who have one sure-fire way to combat the cannibal plague: kill ‘em all and ask questions later.

But how will the brothers Cash cope when their intended victim is someone they know and like? Lots of questions and lots of complex character interaction mixing it up with the chewing and the blood make Cannibal #6 a thought-provoking if slightly queasy read.

Young and Buccellato have done a bang-up job on Cannibal #6 even if it does show its TV adaptation aspirations so blatantly it may as well be waving a poster that says: “Over here Netflix. Prime time viewing up for grabs!”

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker