I’ve not looked at IDW for a while but it is a publisher that I am more than fond of. Titles such as the Weekly World News (which is hilarious) and the Life and Times Of Savior 28 have given me respect for this publishing house. They may reach for licences like a lot of the other younger companies, but they are making a fairly good job of the Doctor Who title, with a balance of pre and post re-launch elements to satisfy all fans.

Zombies versus Robots however was not one of the titles that grabbed my attention. I read one of the issues of the first mini-series and I was less than impressed, even under the influence of my love of zombies. Zombies vs Robots vs Amazons was even worse.

Maybe I should have had a little more patience. I just picked up the last two issues Zombies vs Robots Adventures, and I have to confess I may have been wrong. The titles bills itself as an expansion of the Zombies vs Robots world, and is composed of three strips – Kampf (which means struggle, just in case you didn’t know, because I sure didn’t), Masques and Zuvembies vs Robots.

Even though I jumped in on the third issue, I was immediately engaged with the stories.  With no recap, I was thrown instantly into the action (or with Kampf the emotion) in a manner reminiscent of the classic 2000AD, but with better art and a little more space to develop the story.

Zuvembie vs Robots, the final story of the piece had a nice twist that made me wish I had seen the start of the series, and that to me is the sign of a good comic. Meanwhile Masques made me recognise the futility of this world.

Yet I keep coming back to Kampf. With atmospheric art by Menton Matthews III, who I confess I have never noticed before, I expected the story to be a total tragedy piece, yet it had a happy ending, made possible only by an act of utter betrayal. A happy ending that creeped me out, but happy nonetheless.

So two eight-page strips made my head and heart spin, leaving me with the confusion that if I was happy I should be disgusted, but if I was disgusted then I was missing out on the happiness. Appalled, yet willing to keep secrets, such short stories left me without the chance to develop a love for the characters, bereft of any great depth yet still impacted deeply. This is what I expect from (and never truly found in) the old ‘horror’ titles such as EC.

Now that was quality.

I think I may be revisiting the world of ZVR.