Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

From the Stone Age to the information age, the undead have threatened to engulf the human race. They’re coming. They’re hungry.

Don’t wait for them to come to you!

This is the graphic novel the fans demanded: major zombie attacks from the dawn of humanity. On the African savannas, against the legions of ancient Rome, on the high seas with Francis Drake . . . every civilization has faced them. Here are the grisly and heroic stories–complete with eye-popping artwork that pulsates with the hideous faces of the undead.

Organize before they rise!

Scripted by the world’s leading zombie authority, Max Brooks, Recorded Attacks reveals how other eras and cultures have dealt with–and survived–the ancient viral plague. By immersing ourselves in past horror we may yet prevail over the coming outbreak in our time.

Written by: Max Brooks
Illustrated by: Ibraim Roberson

Voracious D’s Review:

A graphic novel rendition of the appendix to Max Brooks’ The Zombie Survival Guide, Recorded Attacks recounts twelve different zombie attacks throughout history, with a timeline spanning from 60,000 B.C. to 1992 in the year of Our Lord. Much like Brooks’ magnum opus, World War Z, Recorded Attacks uses a mixture of historical fact and the author’s knack for telling a good zombie story.

Unlike World War Z, however, is the way in which Brooks’ wordsmithing takes a backseat to illustrator Ibraim Roberson’s artwork. By this I mean that the actual written portion of Recorded Attacks is largely serviceable. Like a textbook insert on various incidents in history, the who, when and the how are loosely outlined. Where the stories develop, then, is in Roberson’s depictions of the events. These are incredible. His art walks along the line of anatomical realism and the hallucinogenic horror of an artist like Alex Nino. Even in black and white, the pages are filled with life or at least a vivid rendition of death. The combination of good scripting and good art makes this series of footnotes worth reading. Now if only Brooks and Roberson could do the same for the Cold War, a lot more American children would pass High School history.

I had called Recorded Attacks a graphic novel before, which is pretty inaccurate. It’s a graphic novella, if anything, and that has a lot to do with the source material it’s working with. To churn out 141 pages from an appendix is a pretty extrordinary feat, already. The quality of each story is fairly high, as well. I enjoyed the wide span of historical periods, especially since Brooks’ inclusion of Feudal Japan means hot ninja vs. zombie action. The drawback is that no one story is drawn out to anything that feels satisfactorily finished. Yet, the story has been told. With the final story perhaps being the only exception, these stories all terminate in a way that feels final. What’s missing, perhaps, is a meatier middle portion of the accounts. I would have enjoyed sticking in any of these time periods for more than ten or fifteen pages and if the whole book had only three accounts told for the same length as these twelve, I don’t think I would have complained. World War Z proves that Max Brooks knows how to make a few isolated incidents compelling and Ibraim Roberson definitely has the chops to provide the art for a more extensive project.

As it stands right now, Recorded Attacks is a nice addition to the canon of zombie literature coming from the Brooks camp. It’s not quite hearty enough to be more than a special feature, so to speak, of The Zombie Survival Guide, it still provides an entertaining look at Zeds through the ages.

Dr. Zombie’s Review:
This is going to be one of those times I hate being the bearer of bad news. I was hoping for more from this Graphic Novel. Each story was just long enough to tell the basic encounter, but not a single story did enough justice to the characters or history to leave me satisfied. Each story had a great premise that I would have liked to see expanded. Perhaps get to know the character, build a link between me and the people I was reading about, but that did not happen. I was shocked because Max Brooks excelled at this in World War Z. Perhaps Max needs more experience in writing for comics versus writing novels.

I am going to have to agree with Voracious D on this one point, this novel is a good companion to the Zombie Survival Guide. I just wished it was good enough to stand on it’s own.

We’ve got plenty more mad creations spilling out of our zombie kitchen! Delivering smart, accessible, high-quality short stories, this anthology has met with great acclaim amongst both comic and zombie fans. Featuring more great zombie stories from more great writers and artists that you know and love. Don’t worry about leaving room for dessert-you’re it!

Stories By: William Messner-Loebs, Brian Augustyn, Ian Brill, Monte Cook, Pierluigi Cothran, Karl Kesel, Shane Oakley, Jon Schnepp, Michael Alan Nelson, Eric Calderon, Todd Lepre

Art By: Matt Cossin, Leno Carvalho, Jason Ho, Jeremy Rock, Toby Cypress, Todd Herman, Jesse Hamm, Paul Harrison-Davies, Jon Scnepp, Ming Doyle, Drew Rausch

Dr. Zombies Review:

In this third volume of Zombie Tales, BOOM! Studios collected some of the best short zombie stories brought to life in comics. 12 stories make up this collection. All of them are worth the read but 7 of them are really good reads. Of the remaining 5, 2 were bad and the last 3 are OK. “He Ain’t Heaven, He’s My Brother” and “Lucky Dog” were my favorites. I think this volume is well worth the money even when considering the five “filler” stories that I didn’t think were to par.