ADVANCED REVIEW: ‘Cover the Dead With Lime,’ Issue #1

Cover the Dead With Lime #1 is written by Jonathan Chance, illustrated by Hernan Gonzalez, colored by Damian Felitte, and lettered by Drew Lenheart. It’s published by Blood Moon Comics, LLC. In another time and place, the Great Plague of London had a horrifying effect. Those who are infected transform into rotting corpses with a taste for flesh and devour their loved ones. It falls to plague doctor Jack Teller to eradicate the undead before they infect all of London. As Teller travels from house to house, he reflects on the events that led to him becoming a plague doctor.

The zombie genre is a well-worn road at this point, as nearly every storytelling medium has featured its own take on the living dead. But every so often, there’s a tale that manages to inject a fresh jolt of life – if you’ll pardon the pun – into the genre. In recent years, it’s taken the form of Netflix fare, including Army of the Dead and other comics like Heavy Metal’s Cold Dead War graphic novel. And now, in comics, there’s Cover the Dead With Lime, which puts a historical spin on the genre by taking place during the Great Plague. Chance is no stranger to playing with genre, his Heavy Metal graphic novel The Boy Who Conquered A Mountain blends Japanese myth into the classic “knight slays dragon” story. I’m glad to see that he can take the same approach to something as well-worn as zombies.

However, the real draw of the issue will probably be Gonzalez’s work. Simply put, his art will bring the fear of the dead back to readers. Those infected with the plague slowly become inhuman monsters, with their skin growing pale and clammy and their eyes turning glassy. And as if that wasn’t terrifying enough, it turns out that humans aren’t the only things that can be affected by the plague. Teller cuts a fairly imposing figure himself, as he’s drawn in the standard plague doctor’s mask, which he covers with a jet black hat and cloak. And true to the genre, there are plenty of panels featuring the undead being hacked apart or shot in the face.

All of this is given horrific life by Felitte’s colors and Lenheart’s letters. Felitte chooses to set most of the action during the night, with whole pages nearly overtaken by shades of navy blue. The only source of light comes from the flickering golden glow of yellow candles and later the pallid glow of the undead’s skin. Lenhart’s lettering seems to leap off the page, with sound effects like SWOOSH and BLAM depicted in blocky, tan letters. He also designs the narrative captions to look like scraps of paper, giving the impression that Teller is writing in a journal.

Cover the Dead With Lime #1 serves up a grisly tale of the undead with a side of historical fiction and plenty of nightmarish illustrations. It’s proof that the zombie genre hasn’t completely run dry, and Chance has the potential to be one of the more interesting voices in the sphere of comic creation. Definitely pick this one up if you’re craving a spine-tingling read.

Cover the Dead With Lime #1 will be available wherever comics are sold on August 3, 2022.