The Dreamwave console offers the perfect escape from the mundanity of your lives in the modern age, all the while you play it as you sleep. Aside from the popular system is the game “Nightmare Cemetery,” which attracts all teens to it. One group of friends, The Cemetery Kids, have become obsessed with the game and spend every night exploring its various quests. However, when one of the teenagers does not wake up and finds their mind still connected to the machine, it’s up to his friends to rescue him and prevent what lurks inside from attaching.
Zac Thompson and Daniel Irizarri’s Cemetery Kids Don’t Die #1 offers a fresh take on similar past narratives by delving into a more prominent horror direction. While calling to mind films like Jumanji, the series shares a much closer DNA to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, focusing on a group of misfit friends who have to band together to battle horrors while asleep in another realm. Considering the amount of ground to cover for a first issue, Thompson and Irizarri do an excellent job of establishing the characters, the story, and the world of the video game. As an RPG fan, they did a solid job of capturing the stakes and emotions while playing those types of games and capturing the aesthetics of the genre.
Thompson nails the ensemble nature of the story by providing enough information about the individual characters and crafting engaging relationships among them. Outside of working together as a party in the game, you see their dynamics and quirks in real life. I quickly became invested in Pik, his sister Birdie, and their friends, who come across as realistic teens with real problems who want to escape the mundanity of their lives by playing “Nightmare Cemetery.” As a result, when horror comes to the forefront of the story, it hits on a much more intricate level due to the attachment to the characters.
Irizarri’s art superbly contrasts the boring reality the teenagers live in with the more fantastical horror of the video game setting. Aside from crafting visually unique designs for the players’ avatars, Izarri makes sure to have some familiarity with them to help differentiate each role they have in the party. Also, I love the fantasy horror aesthetic, which never comes across as cliched but is well-realized and designed. The design of the teenagers also feel appropriately angsty and moody. Brittany Peer’s spooky color palette of blues, pinkish purples, and green helps the world of “Nightmare Cemetery” come to life while calling to mind classic 80s horror movies. I also liked Andworld Design’s strong lettering, as it is cohesive with the comic book world.
Combining fantasy horror with RPG flourishes, Cemetery Kids Don’t Die crafts a solid first issue as it sets up the overwhelming odds the teenagers must overcome to succeed. The series is perfect for not only horror fans but fans of fantasy and RPGs as well. Once you start reading, it’s hard to let go.
Story: Zac Thompson Art: Daniel Irizarri
Color: Brittany Peer Design Letterer: Andworld Design
Story: 8.3 Art: 8.3 Overall: 8.3 Recommendation: Read
Oni Press provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle
