3 out of 5

Early IDW was a funny place.  If the Turtles gave rise to the b&w indie comic boom of the 80s, then I want to say that The Walking Dead did something similar with zombies – the difference being that publishing and distribution and licensing practices had changed, allowing for second-round publishers like Image (publishers of WD) to again up their profile, post their dark era success with Spawn and the like, as well as for third-round guys like IDW to hold their own.

30 Days of Night gave the publisher its first creator-borne title – the rest of their line initially tv-type properties – and so it makes sense that, having done vampires, they might as well try their hand at the then-burgeoning zombie club.  Several titles would happen along those lines, and Eclipse of the Undead was one of them.

But comics wasn’t quite yet the creator-serving playground it is now, with many non-Marvel / DC publishers besides IDW and Image once again sitting on the racks and selling books; in 2007, IDW still had to rely on fairly bankable properties and still, definitely, had a 90s look: Stiff covers; solid color blocks backing occasionally art-school (or 90s-comic-schooled) art.

So you look at Eclipse, read its fairly stagnant story, and have no doubt what era it’s from.  The “plot,” such as it is, is really just “zombies,” with a starting point of a stadium the government has rounded non-infected locals into (and then abandoned) and the titular lunar event that, for whatever reason, kicks off a Z stampede.

But here’s where we get an early example of scribe El Torres’ abilities: While this doesn’t get to dig much deeper, psychologically – a la his horror runs at his current (as of 2016) Amigo imprint – than the normal Isolated And Surrounded symptoms evident in countless similar tales, El doesn’t take exactly the typical route with his focused on group of medic, femme fatale, sensei, gangster, criminal, etc.  There’s the added cultural mash-up component Torres – Spanish – brings, but he also goes about slightly tweaking expected tropes, and keeps his characters moving toward escape instead of trying to buffer a simple story with excessive explanations or arcs.

It never really surpasses that simplicity, of course, but beyond some light musings on humanity, it’s not really the aim; El knows he’s writing a zombie book.

Artist Yair Herrera has a fairly heavy, flat style.  Camera work is functional, and the action clear, but the zero background details and drab colors really don’t help to enliven the story beyond its sole setting.  But I appreciate that, while there’re bloody slashings and bitings, the horror doesn’t feel crazy sensationalized.

Purchased for exploring Torres’ back catalogue, I’m pleased to find that Eclipse is rough around the edges – odd pacing, a standard story, Spartan art – but a competent zombie tale.  But it is, admittedly, not a notable addition to the supernatural craze of the time.