I’ve been put through the literary meat grinder recently with good books like Darkness on the Edge of Town and On the Third Day. So I figured it was time to read something a little lighter of subject; something not quite so epic this time around. You know, something frightening… but fun! To that end, my reviewer’s copy of Bigfoot War couldn’t have come in the mail at a better time!

I’ve never read a Bigfoot horror story before; to be honest, most of my experience with Bigfoot comes from either watching Harry & the Henderson’s or watching the car crushing eponymous monster truck. I knew nothing about author Eric S. Brown either, but fortunately he spilled his own can of beans in the book’s introduction.

I recently spoke with A.P. Fuchs of Coscom Entertainment about the mix of comics and fiction available for fans of zombies, super-heroes and other dark, twisted tales.

Call you tell us a little about Axiom-Man?

Again, this will have to be another “long story short.” Axiom-man–the concept, anyway–was a superhero I invented while delivering newspapers as a kid, something to keep my mind busy while I went door to door. I’d daydream adventures, create story arcs, etc. Then, I created the version you know in high school. In 2005, I was inspired by the surge of independent superhero fiction being published and in January of 2006 began work on the first installment in the series. Here we are, three years later and the character has four books and one comic to his credit with more to come.

The other day in my email there was a new
Offering of an eBook novel for me to review.
“What’s this? A new tale of the great Robin Hood
As a zombie killer?!” Now this should be good!
Tis a different style of novel, for better or for worse
For this Canterbury tale is told entirely in verse.

I ask you to follow along with me if you would
About this unique take on Friar Tuck and Robin Hood
As they deal with a hoard of zombies and their maw’s
Their horrible stench, their appetite and also their claws.

Halloween isn’t until tomorrow night, but Barry and his best buddy Shawn are dealing with a monster. Mitch, the school bully has had Shawn marked for sometime now, and he takes it on the chin. Barry encourages Shawn to stand up to Mitch and defend himself, but so far he’s lacked the courage. Ahh, the joys of school.

Later that day the two are looking for a book for a class, but instead they find a very different and much more intriguing book in a secret compartment. Shawn is fascinated by this seemingly “ancient spell book” and studies it throughout that night into the following morning. Shawn even takes it with him when he and Barry go a Halloween party a class mate invited them to. But Mitch is also attending the party and after a confrontation gone bad, he ruins their night and gets them kicked out.

Review by Steven Dawes

A school full of kids.

A mysterious yellow rain.

High school will never be the same.

They are outcasts and misfits, teenagers lost on the path to adulthood, living day-to-day inside a high school culture of taunts, humiliation, and isolation. They are the misunderstood, the neglected, and the abused. They are . . . The Lifeless.

For them, every school day is a nightmare.

But on Monday, October 2nd, they will discover the true meaning of terror.

Classes are cut short by news of explosions in the city across the river, part of a series of horrific terrorist attacks that paralyze the nation. But that is only the beginning: amber clouds fill the sky, burning rain pelts down, and the surviving students of Verlaine High learn that their tormentors have mutated into something far worse-reanimated corpses with a primordial instinct for murder.

It’s time to stand up to the in-crowd . . . or be consumed by it.

The Lifeless: A Zombie Novel is available at DriveThruHorror.com.