Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 Review

 

Writer: Zac Thompson

Artist: Daniel Irizarri

Colorist: Brittany Peer

Letterer: Andworld Design

Cover Artists: Daniel Irizarri, Martin Simmonds & Gegê Schall

Publisher: Oni Press

Price: $4.99

Release Date: August 13, 2025

 

You can play video games in your sleep with the Dreamwave console. If you die, no problem. You awaken refreshed the next morning. But rumors slither through the internet about Cemetery Kids who never awaken from the Nightmare Cemetery game. What happened to the four kids who came back but were forever changed? How are they navigating life now? Let’s put on our Dreamwave consoles, leap into Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1, and see!

 

Story

When Pik returned from the hospital, he seemed different. His sister, who went into the game to rescue him, also seems unsettled. One of their friends will never see right with one of her eyes again. A bandage circles Wilson's head. Of the four, Wilson pays attention to the online gaming forums. When a photo of Pik's mutilated body surfaces, participants assume it's to sell the next expansion. But Wilson fears it may be more.

 

Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 checks in on Pik, Birdie, and Wilson in Toronto, Canada. Wilson is receiving treatments for his affliction. Yet the allure of immersive gaming persists. They find a new friend in Maddy, who brings her new Dreamwave console to Pik and Birdie’s home. Despite getting caught in Nightmare Cemetery, Pik agrees to play The Blighted Sprawl with Maddy. Birdie can play with them, or like Wilson, monitor their game without actively participating.

 

Zac Thompson’s story taps into the infectious quality of computer and online games. Like gambling, the games quickly become addictive. There’s also a sense of Dungeons & Dragons, with gamers fighting beasts and nightmarish creatures in Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1. Yet what seems strangest of all is that Pik and Birdie's father, who nearly lost his children to the game and saw their friends forever changed, allows them to risk repeating history.

 

Art

Daniel Irizarri opens with a splash page of Pik hanging from a noose. His body is severed lengthwise. While his guts hang out, one half of his body is human. The other half resembles a creature from a game. A glimpse into the past shows Pik looking doped, with hair obscuring half his face. Birdie sits in her chair with her back to her friends, gazing at her brother through her large glasses. While their bandaged friends leave the house, Pik and Birdie’s dad keeps his back to them, a haunted look in his eyes.

 

Brittany Peer fills Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 with a loaded palette. Birdie, Pik, and their father have purple hair, while green hair dances atop the orangish scarred scalp of Wilson's brown face. Their new green-haired friend, Maddy, attacks a punk in the cafeteria with orange-red spiked hair who wears a Union Jack vest. While each kid's Dreamwave console is a different color, Wilson stares at the green one in his hands that matches his remaining strands of braided green hair.

 

Andworld Design fills white dialogue balloons with a delicate font, and colored narrative boxes with black, lowercase words. The uppercase dialogue grows bold for intonation and swells for raised voices. Sound effects enhance confrontations in Toronto, Canada, and an abandoned mall. Thanks to Oni Press for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

While Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1 probes addiction, parental responsibility, and what we are willing to risk for a good time, a cliffhanger ending leaves readers wanting to know more.

 

Rating 8.8/10

 

For more covers see my cover preview for Cemetery Kids Run Rabid #1.