28 DAYS LATER: THE AFTERMATH

Bridging the gap between the initial outbreak of the Rage virus, and the events of the film 28 Days Later, 28 Days Later: The Aftermath tells the story of one of the last bands of un-infected humans in London, desperately trying to survive in the midst of the Rage virus. Will their salvation come in the form of a rescue, or an over-zealous American army determined to eliminate anything left alive? Like the breakout Halo graphic novel, this full-length novel is told in four interlocking stories by horror maestro Steve Niles.

28 Days Later was a fantastic film that reinvented zombies for modern cinema. The concept of a rage inducing, human made virus is absolutely genius. The film was damn near perfect with a less-thanstellar cinematic follow up, 28 Weeks Later. TheAftermath is set in the world prior to the films. The art style it was engineered to do the exact opposite of what it ended up doing. Steve Niles gives us three amazing stand-alone stories with a fourth that masterfully ties them all together. I don’t usually give much thought to prequels or origin stories, as they are bound by continuity, but I’m making a rare exception for The Aftermath due to it largely being independent of the films and its characters serving only to give context to the outbreak and virus itself. Violent, thought provoking and compelling. varies through the four stages and each is appropriately grimey and dark, fitting perfectly in line with the tone of the stories. Steve Niles does a remarkable job bridging the gap between the creation of the rage virus and the complete lockdown of London. One of the common elements of most zombie stories is never truly revealing where the outbreak comes from. I don’t need an origin story for the zombie apocalypse. I’m interested in how one survives the apocalypse, not necessarily where it came from. The origin of the rage virus is intriguing especially considering