Influenca

The anarchic spirit of underground comix survives in Peters’s raucous, darkly funny graphic novella debut set in the post-post-apocalypse. In a world wrung out by an apparently endless string of zombie epidemics, Dora, a recent college grad, builds a career as a zombie hunter with the help of her doting girlfriend, Bea. Killing the undead is simple, but making a living from it requires a social media presence, and Dora becomes a pioneer of a new breed of online “influencas.” A typical week for the power couple includes online brand-building, freelance gigs, nighttime zombie patrols, and waiting for the weekly delivery from “the bravest mailman in the world.” Much of the breakneck story is told through social media posts (“Stuck in my bunker for a while bc there’s a horde parked on top of it”) and clippings of press coverage, with Peters’s art toggling between manga-cute and Walking Dead–gritty. The lovey-dovey couple’s chosen lifestyle of “wrestling and fighting zombies” offers plenty of opportunities for enthusiastically drawn sex and violence. It’s an irreverent, cockeyed take on survival horror sure to entertain fans of zombie anarchy, LGBTQ romance, and punk attitude. (Feb.)