Revival (comics)

In what becomes known as Revival Day, everyone who died within a few miles of Wausau, Wisconsin, on January 1 returns to life on January 2. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) quarantines the area to study the phenomenon and search for a cause. A partnership between the local sheriff's office and the CDC creates a task force to process any crime that involves one of the twenty-three known "revivers" (people who came back to life). It is led by detective Dana Cypress and CDC doctor Ibrahim Ramin. Dana learns her college-aged sister, Em, is also a reviver. Em was murdered, but cannot remember the events leading to her death. Dana agrees to keep Em's status a secret while they investigate her death. Meanwhile, various townspeople begin to see glowing ghost-like figures in the surrounding woods (referred to as "creeps" in writer Tim Seeley's scripts).^[1]

The revivers are immortal and heal from all wounds. Some of them begin to take physical and non-physical risks because they do not fear physical or emotional harm to themselves or others. When they experience strong negative emotions, they cry blood and become violent. As a result, Dana and Ramin investigate several murders in the weeks following Revival Day. Meanwhile, some people outside the quarantine area believe the government is covering up a religious miracle. Others believe they can absorb the revivers' immortality by ingesting their flesh, leading to an active smuggling business that moves body parts of revivers and other recently dead individuals.

Some CDC researchers discover high levels of heavy water in creeks surrounding Wausau. As a precaution, they confiscate and slaughter all the local livestock. Edmund Holt, a local man paranoid about government overreach, organizes a group to resist what he believes are unlawful actions. At the same time, he oversees a tunnel that smuggles sick Christians who believe being baptized in the water will heal their ailments. Meanwhile, Em discovers she is pregnant.

Secretly, the CDC uses a former dairy farm to detain revivers who have been reported as dangerous. When its existence is discovered, it causes a rift between the CDC and sheriff's office generally, and between Dana and Ramin specifically. The Wausau mayor organizes a meeting to reconcile the issues and invites some revivers to participate. Holt uses a suicidal reviver to smuggle a bomb into the meeting. It kills the mayor and several other people. General Louise Cale is installed as a temporary governor and uses her power to move all known revivers to the dairy farm facility. She and the military experiment on the revivers and captured creeps. They learn the ghost figures are the disembodied souls of the revivers, and that reuniting them causes permanent death.

During the response to the bombing, Em's reviver status is discovered and she is confined to the dairy farm. Following a lead, Dana learns that Em's murderer has bribed a guard at the facility to abduct Em to prevent a formal investigation into her death. Dana arrives in time to save Em and escape. Because they are unable to leave the quarantine, they go into hiding.

As tensions mount between the military and the people of Wausau, a riot is started at a picket line. The revivers and the creeps escape the dairy farm and attack the military. Creeps are able to possess bodies, prompting a shoot-on-sight response from panicked soldiers.

Dana discovers Em was killed by Lester Majak, an aging local celebrity. Majak was a physical trainer who was convinced his fitness regime would extend his life. When he began to notice his growing frailty, he researched a legend of immortality from India. A particular creek near Wausau met the requirements for the legend, and Majak murdered Em near it in a ritual to extend his life. However, Em's recent pregnancy provided additional life force and caused an imbalance that resulted in Revival Day. The imbalance is still affecting the river, and will grow to threaten all life on Earth. To restore balance, Em must give birth before she reunites with her soul and permanently dies. As she delivers her daughter, the remaining revivers merge with their souls as well.

Two years later, life in Wausau has returned to normal. Dana is now sheriff and is in a relationship with Ramin. They are raising Dana's niece.

Writer Tim Seeley (left) and artist Mike Norton (right) at the 2011 New York Comic Con

Seeley and artist Mike Norton first met in 2001, when they were both hired by Devil's Due Publishing to work on a G.I. Joe comic book.^[2] The two became friends and collaborated on other works, including some released through the Double Feature app in 2011.^[1] They subsequently shared work space at Four Star Studios in Chicago, Illinois.^[1][3]

Following the success of Seeley's series Hack/Slash through Image Comics, publisher Eric Stephenson suggested Seeley write another monthly book. Seeley knew he wanted to work with Norton again, and the two discussed ideas over the following months, mostly during lunch breaks.^[1] Seeley was interested in setting a story in a small town so he could write about the kind of crimes that happen in a place where people prefer to live far away from each other. Norton was interested in telling a new kind of zombie story, since he felt The Walking Dead had perfected the zombie survival story. They combined the two ideas to create the premise for Revival.^[4] They pitched the series as Fargo meets The Walking Dead, using the terms "Rural Noir" and "Farm Noir" to describe the hardboiled detective story set in a small town.^[1][5]

The series was formally announced on March 31, 2012, at Emerald City Comicon. In the week leading up to the series announcement, Image teased the release in the form of fake newspaper articles and ads.^[1][6]

Seeley and Norton both had heavy workloads when they began Revival, and the complexity of the story meant they needed to cut back on other projects.^[7] Because Seeley was excited to write about "real people" instead of typical heroes or archetypes, Revival is set in Seeley's boyhood home of Wausau, Wisconsin.^[1][8] Several of the unusual crimes in the first arc are based on actual events from the town, including the killing of the zebra-horse in the first issue.^[2][9][10] This setting meant religion would need to play a significant role in the plot because Wausau is a "very religious ... predominantly Christian" place.^[1] Seeley deliberately references Biblical events throughout the comic, but tries to do so with subtlety because it is "easy to do it way overdone".^[7]

Both Seeley and Norton are writers as well as artists, so each contributed to character designs and plot ideas. When promoting the series prior to release, Norton described Revival as the closest collaboration he had ever worked on.^[1] One character in particular, Em Cypress, had been a work in progress for nearly 20 years.^[11] She began as a sketch Seeley did in 1996 and was heavily influenced by The Crow. He continued to tweak the character over the years, and a version of her was pitched to Tokyopop for an original English-language manga in 2005. He also considered using her in Hack/Slash, but the initial concept underwent significant changes and eventually became the character Acid Angel.^[11]

The conclusion of the series was determined from the outset, but the path to the finale was adaptable and there were enough ideas to keep the comic going for as long as sales would support it.^[1] Only a few of the characters had predetermined storylines, and the supporting cast provided further subplots along the way.^[4] When issue 17 was published, the plot was "loosely" planned through 55 or 60 issues.^[12] By late 2015, they had decided to end Revival at issue 48.^[13]

Although most modern comics are told in three to six issue "arcs" that form a nearly complete story, Seeley feels that when several plot points climax at once, it provides readers an easy opportunity to quit reading without feeling dissatisfied about missing the true conclusion. For Revival, he and Norton decided to have new mysteries develop constantly.^[7] They had several discussions on the right point to begin the story. Early drafts of the first issue included scenes showing the worldwide response to Revival Day, but they were cut to focus on the people of Wausau. The creators decided to start the story after Revival Day partly because they wanted readers to relate to the cast's confusion, and partly as an homage to old superhero comics that told origin stories as quickly as possible to get to the action. They were inspired by Don DeLillo's novel White Noise, which follows people trying to escape an approaching cloud but no one knows what it actually is.^[7]

During the series, Norton and Seeley worked with colorist Mark Englert, letterer Christopher Crank (credited as "Crank!"), and cover artist and fellow studio partner Jenny Frison.^[12][14] Although the team planned for Frison to create the covers from the beginning, Norton provided the design for the cover of the first issue.^[14][15] At Seeley's suggestion, Norton drew the covers for the collected paperback editions.^[15] When the script for issue twelve called for a young character to draw his own comic within the story, five of the pages featured art by Art Baltazar and the cover was drawn by Skottie Young. Both artists are known for their cartoon-like style.^[16]

A one-shot crossover between Revival and Chew was announced on February 12, 2014, and released on May 28, 2014. The idea was proposed by Chew writer John Layman, but was initially opposed by all the other creators. Layman continued to push the concept, and eventually wrote the story anyway. He emailed it to Seeley, Norton, and Chew artist Rob Guillory, and after reading it they all agreed to participate.^[17] It was constructed as a double-sided book with two stories, one by each creative team. The chapter by Layman and Guillory was titled Chew / Revival, and the chapter by Seeley and Norton was titled Revival / Chew.^[18]