Zombieworld: Champion Of The Worms [Paperback]

Mike Mignola (Author), Pat McEown (Author)

Book Description

Series: Zombieworld | Publication Date: November 29, 2005

Every year, publishers and movie studios churn out piles of new zombie yarns, but none have rivaled the originality of this tale about a reanimated priest from an ancient cult and the zombie outbreak he creates in order to sacrifice mankind to his dark gods. Dark horror and high adventure mingle as a team of heroes race against an unstoppable evil bent on the end of mankind.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse; 2nd edition (November 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593074077
• ISBN-13: 978-1593074074
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #920,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mike Mignola is best known as the multiple award-winning creator, writer, and artist of "B.P.R.D." and "Hellboy", but has fostered several other projects like "The Amazing Screw-On Head" and "Baltimore" with Christopher Golden. Although he began working as a professional cartoonist in the early 1980s, drawing 'a little bit of everything for just about everybody' - including characters like Batman and Wolverine - he was also a production designer on the Disney film "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". Mignola also acted as a visual consultant to Guillermo del Toro on "Blade 2" and the film versions of Hellboy, which were broadly adapted by del Toro from the original comic series. Mike Mignola currently lives in southern California with his wife, daughter, and cat.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A benchmark in zombie and horror comics, February 4, 2007

By 

Abe Sapien - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zombieworld: Champion Of The Worms (Paperback)

Mignola's storytelling here is clearly him subconciously fleshing out his ideas that would eventually lead to the BPRD.

A mystic with a ghost form? CHECK
A big strong brute? CHECK
An aging team leader? CHECK

It was all starting to come together. Now the only art of Mignola's is the cover, but the work of artist Pat McEown's is somehow even creepier than Mignola's due to it being so unassuming and generally real world and care free. The closest book art wise might be the Tin Tin detective books.

Overall the concept is well played out: A paranormal investigative group must stop an ancient priest from resummoning the old gods and the conqueror worms (sound familiar?).

The true craft of Mignola in this piece is that he is able to convince the reader immediately that he or she is not starting at square one, but rather that the characters on the page have deep histories and that we are only reading one in a continuing series of adventures. Most writers just start with an origin story instead of taking the time to introduce complex characters from the get go.

For zombie fans, Mignola fans, Hellboy fans, horror fans, or occult fans this is a must read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Necromancers, mummies, and zombies, Oh My!, December 14, 2007

By 

Patrick S. Dorazio "Author of The Dark Trilogy" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Zombieworld: Champion Of The Worms (Paperback)

If I have not missed my guess, this is the introduction to the Zombieworld franchise, the rest of which is contained in 'Winter's Dregs and other stories'. We get Mike Mignola and Pat McEown's take on the start of the dead's takeover of the world, caused in this world by an ancient necromancer released from his sarcophagus prison after forty-two thousand years, in modern day America.

We are introduced to a team of supernatural investigators who are seeking out this Necromancer and want to destroy him, but must fight their way through a few mummies, a giant plant monster type thing, and an army of the dead.

Overall, this was an entertaining read with enjoyable artwork. I have bought Winter's Dregs as well and look forward to the ongoing saga of Zombieworld.

4.0 out of 5 stars A zombie story between Lovecraft and Hergé, June 6, 2010

By 

Adriano1977 (Langen (Hessen), Deutschland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zombieworld: Champion Of The Worms (Paperback)

Accordng to Mike Mignola's very own ending note to this book, it was a throwaway idea that his editor Scott Allie and brilliant artist Pat McEown simply wouldn't let go.
And a fine idea it was!
In 3 short issue, McEown and Mignola pen a tale of the end of the world brought about by a revived ancient necromancer, Azzul Gotha, who unleashes a plague of zombies all over the world, to please his blasphemous outer dimensional crazy gods (HPL, anyone... ? ;-)!
You can see Mignola's quick wit in the dialoges and plot, but you'll have to credit McEown for everything else: The characterisation, the design of the fictional world (past, present and... otherworldly!) the beautiful ligne claire art, and evn the entertaining bonus section. Thanks to the flawless artwork and design, the art doesn't suffer a bit from being reduced in size from its original publicaion, quite the contrary!
This spawned a bevvy of very nice Zombiworld tales by different artists/writers, als collected in an euqally re-sized volume. If you're a horror fan and you can get your hands on both books, you surely won't regret it!