Graphic Review: I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse and All I Got Was This Podcast

In a lonely compound surrounded by the zombie apocalypse, one girl remains unchanged. A slight garden mishap prompts a supply run to the outside, where she makes a life-changing discovery - the zombies only eat males. Now Mara Mitchell is on a mission: make friends with the undead, or kill them all!

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this one, The Walking Dead dominates not only the zombie graphic novel market but the zombie market in general.  I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse and all I got was this Podcast is not The Walking Dead, it is more humour than horror.  On a purely entertainment level I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse works but it does not deliver much more than that.

There is no getting around the fact that this graphic is extremely tongue in cheek and in parts boarders on parody.  It is different from a lot of other zombie stuff out there.  For a start the zombies are female and they only attack men.  They also appear to possess some smarts and can communicate on a basic level (mostly name calling) 

The story follows the isolated Mara who runs a podcast from her hideaway that no-one listens too.  One day she suffers a snake bite whilst tending her vegetable patch and has to leave her compound to get medical supplies.  During her trip she learns the truth about the zombies and after realising that she is not in danger decides to try and befriend them.  But these ‘mean girl’ zombies are not interested, if you aren’t zombie then you are just not good enough and they push Mara out and bully her.  

On a technical note the illustrations were great and the story flow was good.

I survived the Zombie Apocalypse and all I got was this Podcast is rather cleaver because behind all the fun you have a character driven half mad by her isolation.  There was a moment where I stopped smiling and actually felt really sorry for her.  Her delusional state was almost heart-breaking in parts especially when the zombies start picking on her.  But she bounces back in the end.

Zombie Apocalypse and all I got was this Podcast is a funny and quirky graphic novel that does something a little different with the zombie genre.

  3 stars

Published December 3rd 2013 by Dark Horse Comics.  A free copy was provided for review.  Images courtesy of Goodreads.

Review by Kate Phillips