Proof that digital comics is the great democratizer comes this week in the form of Northern Irish zombie anthology Zombies Hi, from Uproar Comics. This self published digital only title features a brilliant mix of zombie themed stories supplied by writers and artists from the Derry area alongside a main story written by Uproar co-founder Danny McLaughlin with artwork from fellow co-founders Kevin ‘Gio’ Logue and John Cambell. By basing their stories in and around the Derry area it  gives the book a fantastic localized feel, and so makes much more distinctive than dozens of other books which follow in the shuffling footsteps of the Walking Dead. 

Both McLaughlin and Cambell cite Alan Moore’s Watchmen and V For Vendetta as key influences and you can feel that in the intelligent dialogue of the story. As with all zombie stories, the undead apocalypse is about much more than just flesh eating monsters, and McLaughlin and co use the politics of Northern Ireland as a background for their stories as cop Paddy deals with the sectarian divide while trying to unite survivors against the ravinous undead. The sub plot involving a car bomb outside the town hall gives this further resonance.

Just as the McLaughlin’s writing feels like Alan Moore so Cambell and Logue’s work is clearly influenced by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons in some of it’s construction and the pages look and feel great. With clever panel design and a strong sense of story telling (and plenty of gore as well of course) the use of local landmarks are particularly potent giving giving the story a familliar feel as well as being executed strongly.

The back up stories in each issues are about everything from Irish mythology to the mundanity of a morning and as the issues progress, the quality of some of the back up stories improves as well. By the time you get to issues 5 and 6 there are some really interesting additions, most notably An Undead Friday and Family Values by Studio Elephant, which have a very slick, Manga infused style reminiscent of Leinel Yu..

With the first 7 issues available via the Uproar website and selling for £3.50 (or for cheaper in bundles) Zombies Hi is well worth checking out, especially if you’re a zombie fan. But more importantly it’s a great way to support writers and artists using the digital comics sphere to create titles which are full of passion and a drive to create something they clearly care about. Although not ground breakingly original in story line (except for the Irish setting) it’s a really solid read, and shows just what can be achieved with some passion and enthusiasm for digital comics.