The Crazies Comics: Are They Worth It?

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The Crazies is just that, crazy (good).

Breck Eisner’s adaption of George A. Romera’s 1973 film is nothing short of brilliant. Genre films like The Crazies tend to slip in and out of social consciousness rather quickly only to become a cult classic after the fact. This one, however, isn’t anything like, say, Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness because it’s, you know, it’s actually a good movie. It doesn’t follow the typical horror genre formula where you know exactly what’s going to happen before it actually happens. But I don’t review movies, which is why you should look forward to Steve’s review (coming soon!) and his interview with Breck Eisner.

Top Cow’s 4-issue The Crazies comic companion can be read before or after seeing the film. Each issue (written and drawn by separate teams) focuses on one particular character or group of characters that play a significant role in the film without giving away any major plot points except for, maybe, issue 4.

The narrative and artwork from each team gets better with every issue, but there’s one newly added element to the story that rubs me the wrong way. The crazies themselves are haunted by their own demons once they turn and it’s something that never appears, or is even alluded to, in the film. Maybe those parts were left on the cutting room floor. Who knows.

There’s absolutely no backstory in the film as you’re given one perspective – the town folk – the whole time. The comics supplement the film and shed a bit of light into the lives of certain crazies. Are they worth picking up? Absolutely.

Sidenote: Are movie-based comics any good? Why the sudden influx? That’s a story for another time.

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