Another head hangs lowly: Graeme goes XXX from 10/24.

The quickest review of CRAWL SPACE: XXXOMBIES #1 that you need: Remember "Planet Terror" from Grindhouse? Imagine that starring the cast of Boogie Nights, and that's just what this comic is like.

The slightly less quick review: Surprisingly, it doesn’t suck. I’m not sure if that sounds like damning with faint praise or not, but man, I’m really sick of zombie books at this point (Marvel Zombies 2 review aside. And even there, I was really surprised by the fact that that didn’t suck, either. Maybe I was just reading bad zombie books?), and despite the creative team attached to this book, I was pretty much assuming that this would be a pretty average 22-or-so pages with little to recommend it to others. How little I knew; Rick Remender’s writing hits just the right tone of winking to the audience with every set-up throughout the entire book. There’s no originality here, but that’s pretty much the point – The characters are meant to be generic, stock types, stereotypical sketches so that you can already begin to expect their inevitable, poetic-justice-laden demise (Not that I expect the series to stick to tried-and-true formula all the way through to the end. If our nervous, premature ejaculator gets to the last page and wins the girl of his dreams, I have to admit that I’ll be disappointed). What there is, however, is a particularly tongue-in-cheek humor to the whole thing, an acknowledgement that it’s schlock but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be entertaining schlock.

Meanwhile, Kieron Dwyer’s artwork makes the whole thing sing. It’s easily one of the best things about the book, just beautiful work that skates close to caricature without being overwhelmed by it, clear and easy on the eye as it effortlessly tells the story. It's the kind of artwork that you look at and wonder why Dwyer isn't a star whose fanbase can keep any project aloft indefinitely, before you remember that artstars are people like Michael Turner these days and get depressed.

(Of course, working on books like this instead of the next big Marvel crossover limits his audience as well, but you can’t help but see his enthusiasm for this project on every page. He’s happier doing this kind of thing that drawing Thor pout at Iron Man, you kind of end up thinking.)

As with Grindhouse, this isn’t for everyone, or even trying to win over anyone new into the genre. Instead, it’s an enthusiastic and unapologetic celebration of the genre, right down to zombies that really do say "...Brains..." when they’re hungry. The idea of yet another shuffling undead book might not make you want to take out your wallet, but the idea of talented creators having fun doing Good work they love might...