If you didn’t know, I’m a huge fan of Zombie Tramp. Sadly I’ve been seeing people giving it a bad rap online as they assume the “tramp” in the title is down playing women when the story is actually quite the opposite. Sure there is sex appeal and Dan Mendoza’s style portrays Janey more of a zombie Jessica Rabbit. Was Jessica Rabbit a victim? Hell no, she was the strongest character in the damn film practically and so is Janey. Zombie Tramp is the epitome of don’t judge a book by its cover or title. We’re nearing the end of Janey and Morning’s journey. They’re walking the highway looking… rather suspicious actually, but a kind motorist pulls over and offers them a ride. He’s an honest to goodness nice guy as he doesn’t expect anything from Janey. He tries to make small talk, but Janey is too tired from the journey and Morning is still pretending to be a little girl. He drops them off and gets a little rude with Janey. He tells her he just wanted something different in his life, even if it was just a conversation. Janey gives him a big old smooch and bites his lip which we know means he’s heading to zombie town, but she tells him to go live life like today was his last day. We’ll see if he comes back.

Now Janey must “kill” Morning’s parents, but we’ll see what really happens when she steps foot inside.

The ending was surprising. Janey has heart which is weird to say about a zombie character, but she does and because of it she gets played a lot. I’m not going to say what happens exactly, but it’s not a happy ending for Janey and Morning though we do know that Janey makes it into volume three.

I like what Mendoza does with the story. He keeps Janey as this kind of gullible character, but he empowers her each time she’s had. Shame on her one, but then never again. I ended up pleased as punch with this second volumes ending and it really made me look forward to the next volume coming later this year. I just hope that Mendoza has a strong involvement in the story and art direction.

One of the reason’s I enjoy this series so much is Mendoza’s artwork. It strangely reminds me of Lenore at times, but really it looks animated. The repetitive panel layout plays to this a lot as Mendoza will use the same basic layout twice, but just change the characters expressions. It’s very effective in making it look like moving pictures on the page. There is also the obvious fact that Janey is good-looking or “cheesecake” as the industry likes to put it, but she’s still a zombie. You can look, but you can’t touch and that’s kind of cool.

Granted there is still going to be naysayers of this series, but it’s their loss. I think Mendoza has created a character that has a tragic background and has had to rise to empowerment. It’s a realistic journey even if she’s a zombie. As a fan of the first two volumes I’d be lying if I didn’t have my doubts about the third volume, but this last issue has given me some faith in checking it out so I’ll be back for more and hopefully people will give the next volume a fair shake as well.

Score: 4/5

Writer/Artist/Creator: Dan Mendoza Publisher: Danger Zone/Action Lab Price: $3.99 Release Date: 5/21/14 Format: Mini-Series, Print/Digital