Giant mutant land worms. What more do you want?
Series: Spread
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Image
ISBN- 1632152568
MSRP: 14.99
Ender’s rating: 7.5 out of 10
Genre: Horror, Action
Spread is the kind of story you get when you mix John Carpenter’s “The Thing” with Kazuo Koike’s “Lone Wolf and Cub”. The setting is a bleak tundra quarantine zone inhabited by junkers, cannibals, slavers, ruthless gangs, and of course…. the spread. The first volume introduces us to our main characters, baby Hope, who narrates the story, and her guardian, the enigmatic “No”. Very little is explained about the origin of the spread in this first volume, except that it can infect any biological host (save for No, who is immune) and causes some pretty gnarly transformations.
Hosts infected by the spread can merge with other infected to create an even large organism, eventually transforming into a “Spread Worm”, which seems to be the top of the food chain.
The story is fast paced and easy to follow, although character development is minimal. The artwork is wild and brutal and fits the setting of the book well.
All in all, the book isn’t forging any new territory or setting new standards, but it IS thoroughly enjoyable for what it is, a brutal, fast paced roller coaster ride. The book is pretty heavy on gore, so the weak of heart need not apply. Having read the first volume, would I pick up volume 2? Absolutely.
