KISS: Zombies #5: Strike Down the One Who Leads Me, I’m Gonna Take His Place

KISS has finally made it to New Detroit and has met The Leader, the overbearing and sadistic “leader” of the New Detroit settlement. We soon find out that The Leader has known about KISS all along and sacrificed his son over a lie. Blaming losing his wife to a scavenging accident, he vowed to keep the settlement safe from a similar fate. As the story continues to unwind at breakneck speed, we see the settlement get behind KISS as they fortify the KISS Army to tackle zombies and Rock N’ Roll All Night!

Ethan Sacks continues to pen a superb KISS story. His take on zombies and their attraction to noise is nothing new, however, he makes it his own by injecting a solid plotline without losing the catchiness nostalgia of KISS comics and demanding you take notice. Seeing KISS move from settlement to settlement saving survivors, weaving lyrics, and a touch of comedy has been Sacks’ calling card this whole series and it has worked brilliantly.

As Ethan lends his pen to take us on a ride that is “Hotter Than Hell” you need fuel for that ride and that is were Rodney Buchemi comes in with his artistic fuel. Horror comics much like movies can go on in two ways. On the one hand you can have too much gore, blood, and just lose interest. On the other, you can have the right amount of gore, and blood that ultimately compliments the story, and that is what Buchemi does with KISS: Zombies. His ability to bring Ethan’s words to life with astounding renditions of KISS themselves but giving equal attention to the environment and its characters was such a breath of fresh horror air.

Without spoiling too much of the book Ethan Sacks continues to successfully weave the KISS features that continue to please all of the ranks in the KISS Army, with an absolute jaw-dropping end that only solidifies what he has done this whole series, and that is write a really cool zombie story with one of the world most iconic rock and roll forces. While reading issue 5 I had KISS on shuffle. Detroit Rock City was playing while I was reading the battle scene and then came the panels with the lyrics to the very song on my speakers. This was no coincidence as the power of KISS knows no boundaries and neither does Ethan Sacks’ ability to write a great story about the Starchild, the Demon, the Catman, and the Space Ace.