Rotten is a zombie saga set in the American West in the 1870s, except it isn’t, since creators Mark Rahner and Robert Horton are careful never to use the “z” word, which would be an anachronism.  The innovative, genre-bending comic book series, which is drawn by Dan Dougherty and published by Moonstone, received a lengthy profile by John Geddes in USA Today.  Geddes notes that Rahner and Horton’s Rotten is a serious saga that eschews campy humor and sets its action in a precisely delineated historical period.

William Wade and J.J. Flynn, the two chief protagonists of Rotten, are special agents commissioned President Rutherford B. Hayes, who won the office thanks to a back room deal and in spite of the fact that his opponent Samuel J. Tilden received more votes.  Wade is a Civil War veteran who has been pressed back into service with a stop-loss order (another echo of the 21st Century that gives this saga additional resonance).

Certainly the work of filmmaker George Romero (Night of the Living Dead) is apparent in Rotten, though Rahner and Horton have an “evolutionary” approach to the undead, with some of the zombies having far greater powers of locomotion than others.  The X-Files is also a major influence on Rotten.  Sent to investigate a “terror crisis,” Wade and Flynn don’t have a clue at first, but gradually they begin to unravel a science-laced conspiracy.  The writers have deliberately chosen a stripped down cinematic narrative style that doesn’t cut any corners.  There are no thought balloons or narrative boxes in Rotten.  Readers see what Wade and Flynn encounter and have to puzzle the story out with them.

The seventh issue of Rotten is due out from Moonstone in July along with the trade paperback collection of the first six issues.