Zombie (Marvel Comics)
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The Zombie (Simon William Garth) is a fictional supernatural character in the Marvel Comics universe, who starred in the black-and-white, horror-comic magazine series Tales of the Zombie (1973-1975). The character had originated 20 years earlier in the standalone story "Zombie" by Stan Lee and Bill Everett, published in the horror-anthology comic book Menace #5 (July 1953) from Marvel forerunner Atlas Comics.
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[edit] Publication history
As Lee had done years before in reviving Henry Pym from a standalone science fiction story to become the superhero Ant-Man, then-editor-in-chief Roy Thomas likewise plucked a character from, in this case, a pre-Comics Code horror tale. The initial modern story, co-scripted by Thomas and Steve Gerber and drawn by John Buscema and Tom Palmer, was a 12-page tale that led into a seven-page reprint of the 1950s story (with the art slightly altered to give the Zombie shoulder-length rather than short hair). That original story was also reprinted in 1975's Tales of the Zombie Annual #1, and two decades later in Curse of the Weird #4 (March 1994), the final issue of a short-lived Marvel reprint series.
Following the premiere, all the Zombie stories were by Gerber and artist Pablo Marcos (one of these in collaboration with writer Doug Moench and artist Alfredo Alcala. The original series' finale, set at Garth's daughter's wedding in issue #9, was a three-chapter story written by Tony Isabella (chapter 2 with co-scripter Chris Claremont), and drawn by pencilers Virgilio Redondo, Yong Montano, and Ron Wilson, respectively, and inker by Alcala (chapters 1-2) and Marcos (chapter 3).
Tales of the Zombie published the last work of Golden Age great Syd Shores, Captain America's first penciler following Jack Kirby's departure from the character in 1941. A trouper to the end, Shores finished penciling two-thirds of the eight-page story "Voodoo War" for issue #5 (May 1974) before dying of a heart seizure. Dick Ayers penciled the remainder of writer Tony Isabella's anthological horror tale.
Although laid to peaceful rest in Tales of the Zombie # 9 (he did not appear in the following, final issue, which contained a Brother Voodoo story and three anthological tales), Simon Garth was reanimated in the horror-comics magazine Bizarre Adventures #33 (Dec. 1982), in an out-of-chronology story hard to reconcile with the remainder of the character's continuity. The Zombie returned to color comic books in a backup story in Daredevil Annual # 9 (July 1993). At the time of that appearance, the Zombie remained unearthed, controlled by Donna, who pledged to have him eliminate other such enthralled undead.
The Zombie thereafter appeared in Peter Parker: Spider-Man Annual '97 (1997); in a behind-the-scenes references in Blade: Crescent City Blues #1 (March 1998) leading into a guest appearance in Spider-Man Unlimited #20 (May 1998); and in a solo story in the anthology series Strange Tales vol. 3, #1 (Sept. 1998).
In 2006, he briefly returned, with other 1970s Marvel-monster characters, as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in Nick Fury's Howling Commandos.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Simon William Garth was in life a work-obsessed executive of Garth Manor coffee, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Ambushed and kidnapped by his former gardener, whom he had fired, Garth was to be a voodoo cult's human sacrifice. However, the cult's priestess, Layla, recognized Garth as her own everyday-life employer, with whom she was in love. Though her attempt to let him escape was thwarted, and though she was forced to turn his corpse into a zombie whom holders of the matching amulet could control, Layla, with her grandfather, Papa Doc Kabel, tried throughout the series to help the uncomprehending Zombie reach his final rest.
Supernaturally strong and able to heal mystically from injuries, he retained some vestige of his soul. Layla and Papa Doc, for instance, allowed Garth 24 hours in his restored human self in order that he might attend the wedding of his daughter, Donna.
[edit] Alternate continuities
A four-issue Zombie miniseries (Nov. 2006 - Feb. 2007) written by Mike Raicht and illustrated by Kyle Hotz, published under the alternate reality Marvel MAX adult imprint, depicted Simon Garth as a bank teller who with his coworker Layla becomes tangled in the affairs of two robbers and an infectious zombifying gas.
