HIDE #1
Written by Vernon Smith
Art by Vernon Smith
El MacFearsome Comic Squares
Cover Price: $10.00

“Growing up is hard…especially when every adult in the world is trying to KILL you!”

Life is good for Kevin. He has a loving little sister, a house, soccer practice, he’s about to learn how to drive, and his parents are the bestest parents ever. He lives the paradisiacal suburban life. One morning while in the shower, his father starts pounding on the bathroom door. Startled, Kevin quickly opens the door. His dad, rocking the Crocs, tries to bash Kevin’s skull with a baseball bat.

HIDE #1 collects the first 20 pages of Vernon Smith‘s webcomic. The story is an interesting twist on the uber-popular zombie genre. Kevin is unwittingly thrust into the middle of a horror story where everyone over the age of 18 just snaps and obsessively hunts down kids. What makes the story even more frightening is that the adults are fully cognizant. They can talk; they can run; they can drive cars. In fact, they can even seem downright normal until they see a kid. Then they go batshit crazy and murderous.

As the title suggest, the comic is about hiding. Faced with such an overwhelming enemy, the surviving kids’ only hope is to find a good hiding spot — a real good hiding spot. These ain’t your daddy’s zombies. A rifle-toting, camo-wearing kid who looks like one of the Frog Brothers from The Lost Boys arrives to help Kevin and looks like he has been prepping all his life for this event. He gives Kevin some sage advice: hide.

HIDE #1 is a prologue to what is, presumably, an epic tale of kids surviving an apocalypse. The issue consists mainly of Kevin running for his life while every adult he encounters tries to bash him, shoot him, knife him, or even crack his cranium open with a flower pot. The story poses many questions that hopefully get answered down the road. Beyond explanations of what the hell is going on, my main interest is seeing how any group of kids can possibly survive such long odds. And that’s what makes this story so intriguing. If the adults had any handicap, then HIDE would be just another story in the great backlog zombie apocalypse titles. These adults, however, seem fully capable of leading normal lives — as long as they see no kids.

Vernon Smith’s comic is a fascinating concept and wonderfully executed; HIDE #1 hooks the reader in and ends on a cliffhanger that leaves you begging for more. The action is tense and the dialogue is just right. A pet peeve of mine in many comics is characters having a nice little chit-chat while they’re trying to murder each other — that doesn’t happen in HIDE. Smith reveals just enough information to let you know the situation and the only solution to survive.

HIDE is off to a great start and I’m eager to see how this story plays out. Vernon Smith is running a Kickstarter campaign (ends November 15, 2012) to raise funds to complete a 140-page, color graphic novel to be completed by April 2013. You can support his efforts on the HIDE Kickstarter page.