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Review of “RAGS Volumes 1-7” by Brian Ball + Trent Luther

EisahSep 15, 2022, 6:08:02 PM

Buy it here: https://ragszombie.gumroad.com/

https://www.indyplanet.com/rags-manga

Normally I’m more of a manga fan than a fan of Western comics, but I decided to give this a try when I saw it on Minds.

RAGS is a zombie apocalyptic story. We meet our main character when she’s running from zombies almost entirely undressed. She barely gets saved – and not because the people she joins wanted to. Rather, she forces her way in and takes damage doing so, while everyone else inside the building is worried she might have been bitten.

From there, she goes through a series of flashbacks explaining how she got there, and then moves on with her mission to find clothes while dealing with other survivors and a young man who has a crush on her and keeps trying to act like a hero.

I think the overall story would best be described as “lewd zombie apocalypse”. The main characters end up being Regina Ragowski and ‘Operator’. Both veterans with PSTD, they deal with extreme anger issues and trauma while also handling a zombie apocalypse where the majority of people seem to expect them to do all the work while they stay safe and fed. The people rely on their abilities and hate them at the same time.

The style was interesting being in black and white expect for the important characters. The art is also good and consistent. The backgrounds are detailed and it’s generally usually pretty easy to tell where characters are and what’s going on. The characters are also very different from each other and easy to tell apart. I’m sure it’s no accident that they have different colors that also make them easy to pick out quickly.

The story is definitely on the crude side, with characters being vulgar and insulting to each other while trying to avoid being bitten. The zombies do take a back seat for a good part of it as the characters fight amongst each other. It also suffers from the Teleporting Zombie Syndrome, where the zombies will sometimes appear when they’re needed. Our main characters, with their aggressive attitudes, rub other people the wrong way and it gets them in more trouble.

All the while our Ragowski is just trying to find a pair of pants.

I thought it was an interesting read and kept things moving along, even if at times it got a little confusing.

There were a few things that threw me off. One was occasionally an expression seemed out of place. For example, when Ragowski says she likes music with words, the extremely dramatic facial expression seems a bit much for something so innocuous. At first I thought she saw something on the road because of it and was confused, but it turns out she’s just that passionately against music being fully instrumentals I guess.

There were also occasions when I would start reading the speech bubbles in the wrong order because of their placement. For example, a speech bubble at the bottom of a panel needing to be read before a speech bubble at the top of a panel. There were a few spots where I had to read something to be sure of the order it went in.

The font used in the text boxes was also difficult to read. Sometimes it took me a bit to figure out what they said. I ended up reading it at 150% size to read them. The vertical spacing between text can be a bit low, too.

That said, it’s very much like an action zombie movie. If you’re up for an absurd zombie romp with a fair amount of nudity and a lot of violence, give it a try and support a Minds Creator. The overall comic is very professionally done and looks like it could sit alongside any other published comic on the shelf.

https://ragszombie.gumroad.com/

https://www.indyplanet.com/rags-manga

Next will be “No Game No Life Vol.1” by Yuu Kamiya. You can purchase it here:

Book Walker

Booksamillion

Other reviews:
"The Second Jungle Book" https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/the-second-jungle-book-by-rudyard-kipling-1390007675730792452

"We" https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/we-by-evgenii-zamiatin-1390784329147224071

"Anthem" https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-anthem-by-ayn-rand-1395054370269171723

"Spice & Wolf Vol.2" https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-spice-wolf-volume-2-by-isuna-hasekura-1397584117876396040

"Spice & Wolf Vol.3" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-spice-wolf-volume-3-by-isuna-hasekura-1400209025269764103

"The Elements of Style" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-the-elements-of-style-by-william-strunk-jr-1400925092455649291

"The Great Gatsby" - https://www.minds.com/eisah/blog/review-of-the-great-gatsby-by-f-scott-fitzgerald-1402686087800819722