COMPENDIUM REVIEW
From Comic Buyer's Guide #1644 by Tony Isabella, who if I recall correctly, wasn't too impressed with Dead @ 17 the first time around:
When I first read/reviewed Josh Howard's Dead@17, its echoes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer weighed somewhat heavily on me. Those echoes have faded into barely registering background noise with my reading of his Dead@17 Compendium Edition [Viper Comics; $24.95], a 340-page tome collecting the entire original Dead@17 trilogy and dozens of pages of related art.
Dead@17 is the story of murdered teenager Nara, who rises from the dead with incredible power and purpose, part of God's plan to prevent a secret evil from conquering the world. Her friends are drawn into the battle alongside mysterious men and women from both sides of the war. Things becomes increasingly deadly when a second slain teen is resurrected by the forces of darkness. It's a big, meaty story and writer/artist Howard presents it with the sharpest of visuals, dialogue, excitement, and heart. The heart especially is powerful, centering as it does on the unbreakable friendship of Nara and Hazy. I see my own daughter Kelly and her closest friends in these characters.
The book's bonus material is spectacular. There are galleries of covers, posters and promotional materials, pin-ups, and even fan contributions.
This Dead@17 Compendium Edition delivers amazing bang for your bucks. Buy it for yourself, buy it as a gift for friends who enjoy the afore-mentioned Buffy, and recommend it to your local library. It earns the full five out of five Tonys.
Thanks, Tony!
