Evil Ernie: The Resurrection

Evil Ernie (Chaos!) #2

by Brian Pulido, Steven Hughes

He's big. He's bad. He's baa-aaack! Trapped in Limbo, "Evil" is...dead. What can the ravishing Lady Death do to resurrect him? The answer leads to a newer, bigger, badder, Evil Ernie, who's hell-bent on the destruction of Washington D.C.! Can Dr. Price, Evil's vigilante psycho-therapist, stop him?

As an added bonus, this debut issue features a tantalizing full-color Lady Death centerfold by Jim Balent (Tarot).

CREATOR CREDIT: This was the first official Chaos! Comic. It had a print run of 66,329 copies!!!

Reprints Chaos! Comics 1993 4-issue miniseries and Evil Ernie #0 (New Year's Evil)

Genres: Comics, Zombies, Horror, Graphic Novels

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed Youth Gone Wild for what it was, in the context it was presented. The Resurrection though is much worse. It's just so bland. Yes, there is violence and lots of people die, but so what? There is kind of sort of a plot, but not really anything that isn't just people reacting to sudden zombies. While this may be realistic, it isn't interesting. I'm all for violence and sex as directed at teenage boys, but even then I need something entertaining.

[Ill D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometime around the year 1968, a young Brian Pulido saw Night of the Living Dead and his life was irrecovacabley changed. Remaining obsessed and seemingly refusing to grow up, in 1993 this man-child decided to forge his own twisted Romero-influenced horror styled comic: Evil Ernie. Only really notable for featuring one of the the first appearances of his only culturally memorable icon, Lady Death, this tale of death and the undead retains its middling quality almost three decades down the road.

Yet for all the unapologetic puerility at work here there were some references installed that I found tasteful and worth discussing. Most notable is the yellow smiley face pin retrofitted as a savage and bloodthirsty piece of Ernie’s already copious armaments. Far from an insulting reduplication, Pulido’s nod here to the industry’s central accomplishment, Watchmen was well done. Additionally, during the fabrication of Ernie second yarn here, the author clearly came across Todd McFarlane’s (at that time) excellent series Spawn that began in earnest a mere year before this one was published. Multiple acts of sheer brutality, most notable a ripped out, still beating heart, well recalls Violator’s violence. And while less obvious, Evil Ernie’s curly locks draped in mess across his already grim facade is particularly reminiscent of the Spawn series’ central antagonist, Malebolgia.

[Robert Bussie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thin story can easily be thrown off as a violent rampage of Evil Ernie killing people and using the victims as his undead chaos army. Add in an under-used Lady Death helping to incite Evil Ernie and the comic seems shallow and just as an excuse to show action scenes with blood, guts, and violence. However, there are some underlying statements in this story.

There are statements of responsibility and lack of responsibility from psychiatrists trying to help or use Evil Ernie.

There are statements of news media choosing ratings over common human decency.

The biggest statements are about how child abuse and those choosing to ignore child abuse can damage and hurt children's minds and their outlook on society.

The drawings are good, but the colors are unreal. This is a dark and violent comic book. However, the bright and psychedelic colors contradict the tone of story. The coloring in this book is a statement in itself about how the violence can have a nice sheen on it, but in the end it is still violence.

The statements, except in the last chapter (comic book) about child abuse, are not a major part of the story. In fact, some of the statements are very brief and could easily be overlooked, however that is what makes the book an enjoyable read. It is not trying to drill the social issues into the reader, however they are lightly sprinkled among the action, blood, and violence.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The character's second story arc sees the introduction of color pages and a broader scope. Much like the early 90s Alien comics from Dark Horse (which seem to share several thematic elements with these comics), this series is leaping straight to a nearly post-apocalyptic vibe in relatively short order. Some of the layouts are overambitious in that they get a little hard to parse, but it's not like the story is too difficult to follow or anything. That potential confusion is partially alleviated by the color since I always find that helps with comic readability.

[☠︎︎ A.K. ☠︎︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 ✩

I'm just a sucker for this dumb undead boy and his hot goth gf okay