BEFORE WE SAIL / Script by CARLOS YACOICA / Art by MICHELLE LINO / Letters by DIEGO REIEVO / Published by ACES WEEKLY

The zombie apocalypse has come and Lima, Peru is almost entirely dead. It’s hard to fight the undead hordes when appropriate weapons are not as plentiful as in other countries. This has made what few survivors remain increasingly desperate to get out of town.

Jonathan and Kath are two such survivors. Jonathan needs medication to survive and is becoming increasingly suicidal. Kath is dealing with PTSD beyond the usual trauma most people in this time have developed. Together, they hope to find a boat and a way to relative safety. However, first will have to confront their own issues and a monster beyond the zombies.

Before We Sail is Carlos Yacolca’s first professional comic writing credit, but you’d never know it from reading it. Yacolca immediately distinguishes what makes Lima a distinctive setting, separating Before We Sail from other apocalypse fiction. I particularly like the emphasis on how rare guns are in Peru and how, even having one, finding the right ammunition is all but impossible.

Beyond the setting, Yacolca also does a fantastic job of establishing our heroes, Kath and Jonathan. Most of the story is revealed through their diary entries. Astonishingly, this avoids being overly expository and the story still shows us far more about the characters than it tells us directly. This is a brilliant conceit that helps to put us in their shoes, making Before We Sail as much a psychodrama as it is a work of apocalypse survival.

The artwork by Michelle Lino is a perfect match to the story. Lino alternates the art between traditional comic art and more expressionist techniques. There is a great use of negative space, for instance, with black panels highlighted by white outlines. These sequences add to the nightmarish quality of the story far better than any gritty or bloody splatter ever could.

There’s a lot to unpack in Before We Sail, but I think the story has broad appeal to many audiences. If you are a fan of Fallout or The Walking Dead, you will want to give it a shot to see an international take on the zombie apocalypse. This is also a must read for any fan of thoughtful stories about traumatized people overcoming their issues.

Before We Sail is now available for download at Aces Weekly.