'68 Jungle Jim: Guts 'N Glory One-Shot - Image Comics

'68 JUNGLE JIM: GUTS 'N GLORY ONE-SHOT, March 2015

“Once again helmed by the… creator of chaos, Mark Kidwell” this blood-soaked return to Vietnam and the exploits of Private Brian Curliss lives up to all its author’s pre-publication hype by depicting some horrifically gratuitous “gore and over-the-top action” right from the ‘get-go’ as a desperately bound, teary-eyed female US Peace Corps volunteer has her throat slashed wide open despite her pitiful pleas for mercy. Disconcertingly however, any ‘faint-hearted’ bibliophiles hoping that such a “hard to look at” sequence would be as repugnant as this twenty-four-page periodical could get would very quickly have any such allusion dispelled courtesy of the bamboo armoured titular character abruptly stepping out of the jungle’s undergrowth and directly decapitating “the sadistic guerrillas” responsible for the girl’s death with a double-sweep of his long knives…

Indeed barely a scene goes by within this one-shot’s narrative where “the master horror writer” doesn’t have some grotesque blood-curdling atrocity occur. For whether it be a party of “always hungry” “pus-bags” having their decaying limbs severed by the gas-mask wearing soldier’s razor-sharp blades, or a hapless member of the Kampuchea communist party being literally torn apart by a well-thrown hand-grenade as he’s cooking soup, exploding eyeballs, bodiless heads and pinkish-hued brain matter seemingly forever dominant the proceedings; “Jimmy’s got a snack for ya!”

Kidwell also manages to make good on his ‘marketing’ promise of “upping the ante with zombie kills” by having the book’s central “familiar friend” face “the biggest… ugliest thing I’ve ever seen” in the shape of a (un)dead G.I. Already battered and bruised from almost being a ravenous cadaver’s “pork-chop”, the fatigued Curliss has little choice but to dive for cover as his formidable blue-hued opposition rakes the surrounding foliage with light machinegun fire. But it isn’t long before the two combatants get up ‘close and personal’ and both ears and other decaying body parts start to once again spatter the panels with gore.

Much of this comic’s repulsiveness though is actually down to the “pen and inks” of Jeff Zornow, whose drawings of dismemberment and human mutilation are genuinely disturbing at times. In fact the “Godzilla: Rulers Of Earth” artist seems to take particular pleasure in depicting Brian’s foes being dispatched in as macabre a way as possible, and it therefore comes as something of a shock to the reader when mid-way through this grim book the horror genre enthusiast utilises four entire pages depicting “Jim” simply conversing with the blonde-haired Glory and eating chow.

The regular cover art of "'68 JUNGLE JIM: GUTS 'N GLORY ONE-SHOT" by Nat Jones and Jay Fotos

'68 Jungle Jim #4 - Image Comics

'68 JUNGLE JIM No. 4, July 2013

During a speech in 1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stated that “In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.” Such a quotation could just as easily have been written with Issue Four of “‘68 Jungle Jim” in mind, for the comic book's creator, Mark Kidwell, has produced a devilishly depressing conclusion to this nauseatingly macabre mini-series. Right from the opening page, as a distraught Trang prepares to shoot his ‘beloved’ frothy-mouthed red-eyed zombified Miss Manon in the back of the head, it is clear that the magazine’s storyline is going to both travel down some seriously morbid roads before it ends and mentally damage any characters who actually survive its telling.

Having established such a demoralising tone to his work, the America writer then throws the reader into some graphically stomach-churning action as Private Brian Curliss confronts a squad of Viet Cong who are additionally fending off a large scale attack from the Walking Dead. Such a three-way struggle invariably leads to a bloodbath of a narrative as soldiers fall to the ground having had their heads or limbs chopped off by ‘Jungle Jim’ or their brains and eyes gouged out of their still squealing heads by the hungry cadavers. Indeed Kidwell appears at his innovative best in devising a plethora of different harrowing ways with which the guerrillas are slaughtered; be it machete, explosive, throwing knife or decaying fingers, page after page, panel after panel.

Even when the pulse-pounding battle is over, and the marine has finally sent smart-zombie Sergeant Jim Asher to a lasting restful peace, there is no room for celebration. For having succeeded in his personal mission and temporarily cast the mantle of ‘Jungle Jim’ to one side, the ‘killing-machine’ realises he can’t escape his bloody fate as a ‘splatterer of brain matter’ and must fatally dispatch the heroic but now undead female missionary of Salut Glen, whilst she’s hanging inside the chicken house. Despondent and war-weary, the tale depressingly ends with Curliss trudging back into the jungle’s undergrowth knowing that he’ll now never “forget some of the horror” and that he is no longer Brian, but the latest incarnation of (Jungle) Jim.

Presumably inspired by the depictions of bodily mutilation Kidwell’s script required, Jeff Zornow’s pen and ink work is irritatingly inconsistent, with his sketchings showing the more sedentary scenes of the story appearing hurriedly rough and ready. However, whenever the subject matter moves to the more grisly or horrific spectacles, such as Sergeant Asher’s attempt to ambush his former friend with a group of clutching cadavers, the artist produces some fearfully gruesome yet finely detailed illustrations.

The regular cover art of "'68 JUNGLE JIM" No. 4 by Jeff Zornow and Jay Fotos

'68 Jungle Jim #3 - Image Comics

'68 JUNGLE JIM No. 3, June 2013

Creator Mark Kidwell has made it clear that he likes to keep his “readers off their footing” by jumping “to an altogether different branch of the ’68 narrative.” And clearly there are many who enjoy his “individual” and “preferred style of storytelling”, or else his Vietnam-based zombie comic book series would not be an award-winning one. But with “Hellhole: Change… It Had To Come” the special effects creature designer has arguably written a somewhat disorientating third instalment to this four-issue mini-series by having the comic’s ongoing storyline suddenly occur in the past as opposed to the present. As a result for the first eleven pages the blood-drenched action is recounted by both Private Brian Curliss and Miss Manon, and whilst the marine’s ‘voice’ is quickly recognisable, the narration of "Jungle Mother" is a little harder to fathom until the book’s twelfth page makes it obvious.

However even this revelation, a single page depicting the inhabitants of the Salut Glen Mission recovering from the presence of the Viet Cong and subsequent attack of “the Dead”, is unwelcome as it pedestrian pace jars horribly with the fast-flowing tale which occurred beforehand. For one moment the reader is having their senses overloaded with scenes of depravity and torture, most notably the already violated evangelist having her face licked by a gestalt of living corpses, and in the next instant Trang is slowly waking up in a hospital bed having had his life-changing wounds dressed and bandaged. Fortunately for the loyal “‘68 Jungle Jim” gore fans, the gruesome bloodbath of wickedness continues, almost unabated, on the following page, with one hapless Viet Cong soldier having his eyes chewed out of his head by a limbless torso, and the French missionary losing an unhealthy chunk of right forearm to a “smart” zombie. 

Disappointingly Kidwell’s decision to keep ‘mixing-up’ his storytelling methodology by occasionally flitting back from the gruesome past to the present, continues to interfere with the harrowing course of the zombies’ ‘brain-fest’ battle with the murderous guerrillas. Albeit these “quick cuts” actually allow those readers unused to such graphic depictions of sexual assault, wanton bodily mutilation and more eyeballs popping out of the head than even an ophthalmologist could track, to at least momentarily catch their breath before their senses are once again assailed with more horrifically chilling blood-letting.

Artist Jeff Zornow delivers some stunningly gruesome single-page splashes during this issue. Most notably a (worryingly cuddly-looking) tiger stalking away from the partially chewed heads of two zombies and then later the arrival of ‘Jungle Jim’ at the ramshackle children’s shelter as Curliss decapitates one living cadaver with a machete and sprays the foliage with the brain matter of several others. Infuriatingly though the Brooklyn-based illustrator’s less gruesome drawings, such as those showing the Mission staff or an unmasked Brian ‘enjoying’ some quieter moments, are far less satisfactory or consistent. Indeed in many ways the undisciplined pencilling looks positively rushed, almost as if Zornow was eager to dispense with the sedentary scenes and swiftly return to his well-detailed depictions of reanimated corpses causing carnage.

The variant cover art of "'68 JUNGLE JIM" No. 3 by Nat Jones and Jay Fotos

'68 Jungle Jim #2 - Image Comics

'68 JUNGLE JIM No. 2, May 2013

As a horror genre comic book Issue Two of “‘68 Jungle Jim” has an awful lot of monsters crammed within its twenty two pages. But not all of them are the living dead, as Mark Kidwell’s writing focusses upon some of the less savory human warriors of the Vietnam War… as well as the native Cambodian wildlife. Indeed “Hellhole: If We Happen To Be Left Half-Alive” introduces a number of new characters to those following Private Brian Curliss’ “epic quest to find the rotting, undead remains of Sergeant Jim Asher”, and the majority of them have dishonorable or at the very least questionable motivations.

Whether they be a pair of reckless United States Air Force pilots thoughtlessly dumping a consignment of napalm ordnance upon a hapless group of Vietnamese refugees, or a vile sadistic Viet Cong officer leading a murderous band of soldiers and threatening to abduct the orphaned children at the holy Salut Glen Mission. These people really have little empathy for the plight of their fellow ‘Man’ despite the constant threat of them all ‘surviving’ together during a zombie apocalypse.

What this issue does contain however is plenty of gory graphically-depicted action. Straight from the opening there’s a double-splash of a decaying corpse molesting a scantily clad nubile young woman. A troubling start to a scene which concludes with the living corpse having half his face burnt away and ear shot off. However this is simply the tip of an especially disturbing iceberg as Private Curliss wades deeper into the jungle and gets himself surrounded by a decaying hungry horde of zombies. Splattered brains, feasting maggots, bodily fluids and pink entrails all frenziedly follow as the Marine, later accompanied by a tiger, graphically gorge themselves on their undead foe. None of this propensity for violence should come as a surprise though considering the script has been penned by the creator of extreme horror title “BUMP” by “Fangoria Comics”.

The book’s language is equally as colourful and repulsive. Although admittedly on occasions seems entirely appropriate for the predicament the soldier finds himself in. Indeed there are actually a few ‘laugh out loud’ moments as Curliss berates himself for dropping his defences and becoming outnumbered by clawing cadavers, on account of him giving a little girl a ‘jolly fun’ piggyback through the undergrowth. Though the man’s funniest reaction has be when he comes face to face with an incredibly angry Panthera Tigris, having seemingly scampered up a tall tree and reached safety.

Disappointingly the pen and ink work of Jeff Zornow is not especially impressive, and at times is unsettlingly substandard. His figures are animated enough, and it is clear that the artist’s ‘enthusiasm for the Kaiju and horror genre’ has given him a great eye for detail when it comes to drawing zombies. But there are several panels where his line work is indistinct and poor, especially when depicting the faces of his characters.

The regular cover art of "'68 JUNGLE JIM" No. 2 by Jeff Zornow

'68 Jungle Jim #1 - Image Comics

'68 JUNGLE JIM No. 1, April 2013

Combining the savage barbarity of the Vietnam War with the stark terror of a zombie outbreak of epidemic proportions, “‘68 Jungle Jim” has an awful lot of action and thrills to offer fans of either the horror or war comic book genre. But if the garishly grotesque variant cover art by Nat Jones and Jay Fotos does not make it clear enough, this magazine should also prove to be sugar sweet candy to any gore-fest devotees. For its twenty-two pages are absolutely crammed full of horrendously highly-detailed panels showing some seriously sickening human (and animal) mutilation.

Indeed the periodical actually starts with a wonderfully vivid double-splash depiction by Jeff Zornow, of an elephant not only having his head blown clean off by a bazooka warhead, but his entire belly cage spectacularly exploding outwards as well… and the gruesomely disembowelled Vietcong pachyderm rider, his legs disintegrating as a result of the blast, hasn’t even been mentioned yet; “Sorry Dumbo…” indeed.

Any bookworm managing to stomach such a violent extreme should be able to ‘soldier on’ but this comic genuinely does not get any less sickening as the so-called ‘hero of the hour’ Private Brian Curliss, merrily despatches his foes, both living and undead, by murderously chopping heads, eyes and noses off with a huge serrated blade or filling the panels with splattered brains, teeth and intestines as he guns them down with his semi-automatic pistol. 

Struggling to survive amidst this unrelenting and exorbitant bloodbath is Mark Kidwell’s story, a simple tale which is actually quite well told should a reader not be so squeamish as to already have both their eyes tightly shut. It is quite clear that the United States marine is mentally damaged, as he constantly talks to a non-existent Sergeant. But Curliss is also a good guy, first rescuing a group of prisoners of war and then leading them in a firefight against their former captors. In addition the man is not simply nor lazily depicted as some sort of ‘killing machine’, though at times he does a good impersonation, but is actually shown clearly struggling to cope with the horrors of the Vietnam War by “pukin’ [his] guts out after a firefight.”

However “Hellhole: Meet The New Boss…” is not just about the Private’s fight with the Northern Vietnamese. It is also about mankind’s struggle with the Asian zombie infestation and as a result the title’s creator additionally has the gas-masked combatant up to his literal neck in clawing, gnawing and biting undead; affording artist Zornow yet another opportunity to produce a stomach-churning double-page splash of brain matter, flying eyeballs, severed limbs and dismembered corpses.

The regular cover art of "'68 JUNGLE JIM" No. 1 by Jeff Zornow