Jack is an idiot, and his girlfriend, Jill, is on the cusp of ditching him, when they run into a pair of terrifying guys, and things change very quickly indeed for the young couple.

There’s a nice sense of world building in this first issue of So-Called Living, which builds a world in which zombies are real, and bunnies seem to pose a genuinely deadly threat, in the background, while our apparent protagonists argue and ignore the apocalyptic threats as they order food from a truck.

It’s fun, and it’s drawn in a wonderfully exaggerated style that’s really appealing and very cartoony; it suits the humour that’s apparent in almost every line of dialogue brilliantly.

There was one thing in this first issue that didn’t sit right with me, and that’s the casual, off handed and off screen way that one character is dealt with. I have my suspicions that they’re not entirely gone, given the various types of monster that clearly inhabit the So-Called Living universe, but it still left a sour taste in the mouth.

Still, that aside this was a fun opening chapter,  which is very well constructed and features some genuinely amusing moments.

Spoilers follow in the review of issue 2 below; you have been warned!

So, if you’re still here and you’re curious about what happened in issue 1, or maybe you’ve read that first chapter and you’re keen to know where the second issue takes us, here’s a quick overview.

Jack is now a vampire, and he’s got to quickly adjust to his new state. Very quickly, as it happens, because when the sun comes up, we know what that means for those of the vampiric persuasion. Taking shelter in a coffee shop, he gathers a few friends and they discuss Jack’s transformation.

The little background details from the first issue are reinforced here, showing that the report on bunny attacks was no throwaway gag; likewise with the zombie news story too.

The recounting of the first issue’s story, with an unreliable narrator trick, is a neat touch, and even though Jill’s death feels even more callously dealt with here (told you there’d be spoilers), her presence introducing the flashback makes me even more suspicious that she’ll be back.

There’s also some setup of new villains, beyond the lunkheads who transformed Jack and killed Jill, along with some exploration of what rules Jack has to abide by, now that he’s one of the unliving.

It’s fun, amusing and really well written by creator Mark Maia, with Marco Leone’s artwork being a great fit for the script’s light-hearted tone, and Casbri Studio’s vibrant colours also giving the comic a jauntier look than you may expect, given the subject matter.

Overall, these two issues are really strong and set the series in motion nicely, with an excellent sense of humour, and great style in terms of its visuals.

Many thanks to the publisher for sending me digital copies of So-Called Living issues 1 and 2 for review purposes. You can check the comic out at its official website, here.