One problem with horror comics of yesteryear is that the Comics Code Authority kept them from realizing their true potential, forcing artists to suggest rather than show. In a medium that relies on visuals, it’s kind of a cheat. For a short while in the mid-’70s, Marvel Comics solved the problem by transporting their horror stars to black-and-white magazines supplemented with photos, fiction and other features. Free of the Authority’s censorship, they were able to get grisly without being gratuitous, in pages of bimonthly titles like DRACULA LIVES, MONSTER UNLEASHED and TALES OF THE ZOMBIE.

It’s that more-obscure third book that finds itself collected in the long-overdue (and oft-delayed) ESSENTIAL TALES OF THE ZOMBIE: VOL. 1, collecting the first 10 issues. Its flagship story is that of Simon Garth, the arrogant “coffee king of New Orleans” who is killed by a fired servant with an eye for Garth’s comely blond daughter, but brought back from the grave by a voodoo queen’s spell. Feeling no pain or emotion and unable to speak, Garth’s zombie wanders around town, always at the beck and call at whomever holds the amulet matching the one around his leathery neck.

This conceit allows Garth’s story a revolving door for various characters, thus making for various adventures, involving anything from drunken lawyers and a scientist who turns women into giant spiders, to a hideously disfigured monster boy and a group of teens who use Garth to get revenge on their enemies. But the highlight of the entire collection is an old-fashioned locked-room murder mystery. It’s total Agatha Christie, albeit if the climax involved a member of the undead bursting in to pulverize the bad guys’ heads. Along the way, snakes, alligators and other creatures try to eat him.

And that’s only half the fun. Filling in between Garth’s continuing story are other, shorter stand-alone strips – E.C.-inspired and all having to do with death and/or voodoo in one form or another. Minor Marvel character Brother Voodoo also makes a few appearances, and you’ll find short zombie fiction from the likes of Chris Claremont and still-heavy reviews of then-current zombie/voodoo flicks movies like SUGAR HILL and LIVE AND LET DIE. Text essays and house ads round out the material, and while some of it is skippable (its cheap fanzine look turns me off), I’m glad to see it included.

Given the grim humor (”Your husband … saw I was alive … tried to kill me … I … his head … I’m sorry”), excellent art by Alfredo Alacala, compelling scripts from Steve Gerber and Doug Moench, and – above all – horror that’s not afraid to be horror, I haven’t been this jazzed over the Marvel vault since they first started reprinting TOMB OF DRACULA a few years back. In fact, ZOMBIE is easily my favorite ESSENTIAL edition of them all yet. –Rod Lott

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OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS SERIES:
• ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL GODZILLA: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL IRON FIST: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL KILLRAVEN: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL NOVA: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL SAVAGE SHE-HULK: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL SUPER VILLAIN TEAM-UP: VOL. 1