Our story begins in Harbinger Pennsylvania with Peace and Love. This story is anything but peace and love as the Vietnam War is escalating. America’s home front is facing a new threat. This threat is the living dead, Zombies. This is ‘68 Homefront.
‘68 Homefront is a 4 part comic series that comes out monthly. The comic series is divided into 2 parts. The first part is about Jenny Peace and Johnny Love, 2 kids in Harbinger PA. The second arc deals with deserters fleeing into Canada to avoid the war and they’re dealing with the zombies.
My first reaction to this comic, which is only on issue 2 out of 4 currently, is its kind of corny. But having said that, after the first few pages it has a draw that gets the reader involved. The draw comes from the combination of the year 1968, Vietnam War, and zombies. Zombies and the Vietnam War have nothing to do with one another yet this comic combines the two. It the way the combination occurs where Jenny Peace is with Johnny Love who has enlisted to go serve in Vietnam. Unfortunately, or fortunately, a zombie virus breaks out across America and puts current deployment of soldiers to Vietnam as a second priority, including Johnny. As a result Johnny, his father, and the sheriff of the town wind up defending the high school pep rally from the zombies that are invading.
Zombies in the 2014 real world are a very popular topic that is explored in different comics and in television. Seeing a 1968 version of what a zombie apocalypse is an interesting addition to that exploration. This exploration takes a reactionary view of the zombie apocalypse as this small town is surviving its first night with the zombies and is unprepared. As a result of the reactionary view the town experiences damages when it is all over. That very reactionary stance that was taken show a realistic version of what would happen in today’s time and in the 1960’s if a zombie invasion took place. This is one of the many reasons why I love this comic as it show a real perspective of a zombie apocalypse.
The second reason why I love this comic is for Love and Peace. We are not talking about love and peace but rather about the relationship of Jenny Peace and Johnny Love. In the two issues Jenny and Johnny are left alone and exemplify the choices that people have to make. In this case the choice Johnny has to make is enlisting to go fight in Vietnam. This leads to a fight between Peace and Love, ironic, but the point becomes null when the zombie threat becomes apparent. As a result Peace tells Love that it is “we”, meaning she pregnant. This is after Johnny, along side his father and the sheriff, save the town by killing the zombies. This is a nice wrap up as we get that happy ending of the couple surviving and staying together as they are planning to build a family.
The comic, so far, is fantastic as there is no filler and the story gets right to the point but still allows for us as the reader to make the connection with the survival aspect of the comic, the love factor and the zombie and war excitement.
You can pick up a copy of ’68 Homefront here.
