Dead of Winter

A canine superhero (complete with cape) during a zombie apocalypse?! Yes, please.

Not for the kiddos, lots of blood, gore and f-bombs. But a crazy romp of a comic.

This was good fun.

It is the zombie apocalypse and a group of survivors are managing to eke out an existence in a camp they have made. It is winter and supplies are getting low. There is very little hope for their survival unless they forage for food and weapons beyond the safe confines of their camp.

This is a hopeless life but they have one thing which stands between them and total annihilation and that is Sparky - stunt dog turned zombie killing machine!

The artwork is good and the story has a great pace and amusing dialogue. Definitely a good series to be following.

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I'm a fan of Dead of Winter in general. it's a regular play for me, my husband, and our game friends. When I noticed the graphic novel on NetGalley, I immediately requested it.
I was not disappointed. The graphic novel features many of the characters you know and love including Forest, Sparky, and Ruckus. The main story revolves around their search for weapons at the police station with the Wonder Dog.
This graphic novel was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the style. There were even a few legit laughs hidden in among the "zomboys". A good take on a worn genre. I loved the light-hearted tone. Worth a read and I'll probably pick up the next one when it's released.

Dead of Winter is not a kid-friendly comic. Just need to get that out of the way. I made the mistake of thinking "Hey, it's got a doggo on the cover! That's gotta be kid friendly, right?" And, well, if you minus the multiple curse words on basically every page, I guess it might be. Luckily, I have a chill child who knows she's not allowed to curse, so she appointed herself Official Bleeper, and we kept reading. (She got to BLEEP a lot.) And, bleeping aside (or maybe that added to it), it was a hoot!


So, we've never played (or even heard of) Dead of Winter. So, this is simply a review of the graphic novel at face value, nothing more or less. We liked the few characters we got introduced to. I laughed at the Fireman in the Post-Apocalyptic setting. (Joe Hill nod?) Ruckus had us both snorting. The female characters were surprisingly non-annoying, but didn't stand out in any particular way. Crazy Cop and Bad Santa were... well, they were there. Sparky the dog quickly won us both over. The golden with psychological issues and a cape is a national treasure, I think.


Dead of Winter: Good Good Dog contained four issues, and came in at 114 pages including cover variants. It was action-packed on both human and dog parts. Sparky can wield a weapon like you wouldn't believe! It was very on-the-surface, basically just an introduction and a bit of butt-kickery, really. (I do wonder about Crazy Cop, though...) Overall, it was a fun read, even if it wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I chose it. (I had Pestilence Vol 1 lined up to read before my kid was wanting to read with me. At least Dead of Winter nixed excessive nudity. Well, nudity at all, really.) If you're wanting just a mindless, fun, zombie-themed read with an unexpectedly furry main character, Dead of Winter is perfect.

This is definitely on the comedic side of the post-apocalyptic spectrum - and I loved it! I think if we broke this down to its most basic elements, it would beat be described as: Lassie in a world after the Zombie apocalypse. It's funny but gory at the same time. If you can't handle "The Walking Dead," you won't be able to handle this. The comparison was going to happen but the artwork and story both have a much more over-the-top and cartoonish vibe to them. I found myself chuckling at some of the stuff the dog pulls off without getting a scratch. Besides the violence, there is cursing as well although it's not as bad as other books I've read in the same genre. Still, I'd reserve this for older teens and up, maybe mid-teens depending on the kid. Either way, I enjoyed it and look forward to more stories from this team.

I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Good gory zombie fun, with a zombie-killing dog in a cape for good measure! If you're looking for a fun alternative to the more existential zombie comic fare, or just want to see a dog go Kill Bill on the undead, this is a comic book series for you.

"Dead of Winter" was a super quick graphic novel which I managed to read in one setting. It follows a group of survivors stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. And no matter how tough or rough the situation, Sparky, who used to have his own show prior to the outbreak, always manages to show up and save these stupid peoples' behinds.

I found the artwork in "Dead of Winter" very enjoyable. It was a lot of black and white, probably because it's set during the winter, with other bright colors thrown in. Sparky appears to be a golden retriever or a lab and is always wearing a red cape, as we all know must heroes should.

"Dead of Winter" touts itself as a spin-off comic from a game I've not heard of. However, it does stand on its own and at times, was quite humorous because it tends to make fun of some well-known zombie tropes. If you enjoy graphic novels, zombie or dogs, you've no excuse for picking this one up.