The War of the Worlds: Infestation

War of the Worlds: Infestation #1-5

by Randy Zimmerman, Horus (Illustrator), Kirsten Mischok-Odenthal (Inker)

Sequel to H.G. Wells science fiction classic The War of the Worlds. The "Martian Invasion" has begun again and now mankind must fight, not only for their homes, but for their very humanity. Aliens were the stuff of legends, fairy tales, to scare children or to entertain those wanting to escape the mundane existence of their lives. Few men took them seriously, let alone saw them as a threat. Yet as mankind busied itself about their petty affairs, they were being scrutinized and studied, perhaps as narrowly as a scientist might watch under the microscope of the microbes that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. It happened slowly at first but by the third year, it seemed that the war was almost lost. And humanity was not going to be the winner. This story picks up with mankind fighting a fallback battle in the central plains of the United States against a new kind of biological weapon the aliens have unleashed on the planet. It centers on a group of surviving individuals who differ as to how they should live their future...either quietly hold down and go about their business and leave the aliens to the planet...or continue to fight a seemingly hopeless war and go out dying standing on one's own two feet. And this is their story. "Writer Randy Zimmerman has a fine grasp of drama, and spins the various strands of the story into a coherent whole...imaginative and very gritty." - war-of-the-worlds.co.uk.

127 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2014

Reviews

[The Smoog · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is okay, if you can get beast the numerous plot holes and inconsistencies (people forgetting they’ve already met other characters, the climactic win which they somehow pulled off despite all previous attempts failing miserably, etc). What really let’s this down is the artwork, it’s pretty poor, and all of the characters look the same. Personally, I wouldn’t go out of my way to read this one.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for an independent comic from the 90's. It takes the premise that the martians weren't killed by germs at the end of War of the Worlds but continued to ravage the planet. What's left of humanity is struggling to fight back. My one problem with this was the lettering. It was all scrunched together and even blown up it was difficult to read.

[Kent Archie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a little hard to tell where the characters were at different times,
Also the characters kind of looked alike.

[Carol Royce Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been picking up these Campfire Classic graphic novels of classics to interest some 5th and 6th graders, but this one interested me. I have vivid memories of watching the War of the Worlds on television with my family and crowding around the couch (all eight of us) comforted by the closeness of family as we became more and more terrified at the creatures imagined by H.G. Wells.

That memory came alive as I read this graphic novel, told by the narrator in mostly a memoir-type fashion. Of course, the story is sci-fi, but the descriptions and language used, along with the artwork, make the story almost believable, and I couldn't help myself but to remember hearing that the first time the War of the Worlds was aired on the radio, many people rushed about in a panic, believing it to be true.

The language in this graphic novel is much of the same language of H. G. Wells, so students may find it tricky to navigate, but I believe they will be drawn into the story by the terror of it all. I look forward to reading more of these graphic novels, and hope they do catch the eye of my 5th and 6th graders.