Zombie World is a 1997 Dark Horse Comics limited series written by Mike Mignola (of Hellboy fame) and drawn by Pat McEwon (of Hair Shirt fame). After the three-issue limited series, a short-running series taking place in the same universe, but without the involvement of either creator, fizzled out after 12 issues.
When the mummified remains of evil Hyperborean sorcerer Azzul Gotha (the Champion of Worms) are displayed in a museum without permission from the mummy's discoverer, his daughter Rebecca Dean and a group of veteran paranormal investigators, led by Major Dawson, find themselves waging war against reanimated corpses, lovecraftian abominations and the powerful Lich. Dawson is assisted by True Companions Roman, Malka Ravenstein and Eustace St. John.
Zombie World is a lighthearted comic, a reaction against the excesses of The Dark Age of Comic Books, created in an attempt to show that horror and drama didn't have to exist at the expense of high action and quality art - the comic's style is famously influenced by Yves Chaland. Unfortunately, the heroes' failure came with promises of an ongoing series, that materialized without the creators' involvement, and lacked the Lighter and Softer tone of the original miniseries.
Zombie World contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Malka Ravenstein is a skilled shooter and fighter.
- And I Must Scream: Museum director Mr. Zorsky gets transformed into a monstrosity.
- Artstyle Dissonance: Think Tin Tin being thrown into a zombie movie.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The giant worms. More like maggots, really.
- Blind Black Guy: Eustace is blind, but his ectoplasmic form can see just fine.
- Briffits and Squeans: Part of the cartoony look of the original book.
- Driven to Suicide: Major Dawson's last resort after he fails to stop the curse from spreading, though he is stopped at the last moment by the spirits of the Hyperborean priests who originally imprisoned Azzul Gotha.
- Eldritch Abomination: What the museum director gets turned into.
- Hammerspace: Where Roman keeps his hammer.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Azzul Gotha wants to marry Ms. Dean.
- Monumental Damage: The giant worms get busy destroying the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.
- Mummy: The first undead raised by Azzul Gotha are some of the museum's mummies.
- '90s Anti-Hero: Killcrop, from the sequel series Tree of Death, a zombie hunter wielding twin hatchets.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Eustace St. John can expel an ectoplasmic form out of his body. It's not explained if the ghost is his sister (as Major Dawson calls it), his own (gender-swapped) soul or a ghost possessing his body.
- Retired Badass: Major Dawson, former British military.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Azzul Gotha's sarcophagus.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Azzul Gotha manages to bring about the Zombie Apocalypse, after all.
- The Big Guy: Roman has about twice the mass of other characters.
- World Half Full: The exact status of the world as a whole by the time of Tree of Death, the last arc of the series, is unclear, with it being heavily implied that the US, or at least large parts of it, is a zombie-infested hellhole. However, Britain appears to be far better off, as Rebecca, the Major and Eustace are in London where things seem to be more or less normal, with only the zombie-infested cemeteries and a few other "no-go areas" being the only forbidden areas. Only when Azzul Gotha is summoned to London by a living minion of his does the action pick up.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Explicitly supernatural in origin, with the undead sorcerer ruling over the ashes. Even people who have been dead for centuries are reanimated and rise from their graves, as shown in the Home for the Holidays one-shot.
- Zombie Gait: The very last panel.
