Undead Adventure

TFK Kid Reporter Meyer Ballas read The Last Kids on Earth: The Graphic Novel and interviewed Max Brallier, its author. Read Meyer’s thoughts below.

The Last Kids on Earth: The Graphic Novel is an illustrated version of the first book in Max Brallier’s best-selling Last Kids on Earth series. The original book came out in 2015. Now, along with illustrator Brian Churilla, Brallier has given graphic-novel lovers an opportunity to connect with this story.

The book takes place in a town called Wakefield during a zombie apocalypse. It’s written from the perspective of 13-year-old Jack Sullivan. Brailler told TIME for Kids that he likes the end of the world as a setting because there are no rules during the apocalypse. “As a kid, there are always rules everywhere,” he said. “If it’s midnight and you want to go outside, you can’t. But if the world was ending—‘Oh, we can!’”

Jack takes advantage of this setting and tries to make the zombie apocalypse more fun. He teams up with his friend Quint and the school bully, Dirk Savage. Jack’s most dramatic quest is to rescue the girl he likes, June del Toro. He believes that June needs a hero. But when he finds her hiding out in their school, she clearly doesn’t need to be rescued. Instead, Jack and his crew recruit her to join them. When they attempt to leave in the morning, a giant monster—Jack calls him Blarg—is waiting for them outside. Do they make it out alive?

Brailler said he likes to think of The Last Kids on Earth as “an adventure series first,” as opposed to a horror series. “There’s scary stuff to it—there are monsters and zombies,” he said. “But what I really hope is that it’s a big adventure story: the action, the comedy, with a little bit of horror.”

Brailler achieves this goal. I really enjoyed the comedic action. My favorite part is when Jack daydreams about June. I would recommend this book for comic-book lovers who enjoy comedy, action, and monsters.