Average Joe storage diver Christopher Smith, in attempting to make ends meet, has made a living off what others have left behind locked away in storage sheds. In gambling on what's been left in these storage lockers to turn a profit, Chris gets far more than he bargained for with Unit 83.
He has found himself the proud, and very surprised, owner of an alluring zombie named...
JESSICA
In the last issue Chris discovered the mystery behind Jessica's situation was due to her father. A currently absent man that had experimented with his own daughter in the name of science. Now, her mother has come to take her home.
As the body count rises due to Jessica's insatiable appetite for human flesh, the number of the living dead increases. Friends, coworkers, and visitors- no one is safe.
That being said, Self Storage has a brilliant ending. It's been built up perfectly to this point, and it's somehow both definitive, and yet, leaves a just little room for more if the creator's ever wish to return. We learn the truth behind Jessica. Why she was locked in unit 83, why she was a zombie, and even where her father's been at this whole time.
We see where Chris's greedy coworker Jimmy's get-rich-with-zombies-quick schemes goes. We see Chris's own choices and how they come to fruition. And, in the end, we get to see that secrets like these simply can't be contained.
As the man who sold Chris the contents of unit 83 said, that locker holds...
SOMETHING SPECIAL
Clay McLeod Chapman has made a wonderful series with Self Storage. It's a tightly knit tale of the connection between our covetousness and the things we won't let go of. It combines the Storage Wars culture with a bit of Zombieland's humor, and bind's it with an unexpectedly tragic love story right out of Romeo and Juliet, and it's topped with a cherry that is made of all the bloody horror of The Walking Dead.
All this is brought to life with the tremendously true-to-its-horror-roots black and white art of Matt Timson. It's sleek and bold, and every panel carries us seamlessly to the next. Honestly, the art is done in a very cinematic way, so much so that I really wouldn't be surprised to see this eventually be adapted for film or tv.
This series has taken the zombie genre and given it new life. Chapman and Timson have proven that the zombie genre still remains undying. With the all-consuming hunger of the undead in Self Storage, we are shown what the cost of not letting go is. That inability leaves a trail of pain in its wake. For the dead and for our material possessions, the things we cling to wind up being the things that drag us down. It shows us that our possessions have the haunting power to effect us in ways we can't imagine long after we've forgotten about them.
Self Storage is a must read for any zombie or horror comic enthusiasts. It's dark, it's gritty, and it's made all the sweeter by the brevity and fast pace it moves with. The flesh devouring monsters in this series has left my hunger for the genre sated for the time being.
Self Storage 7 hits stands Wed. July 27th.
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*Review copy provided by 451 Media, Thank you!
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