IZombie

iZOMBIE
Cover page of #1
Publication information
Publisher	Vertigo
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Horror
Publication date	2010–2012
Number of issues	28
Main character(s)	Gwen Dylan, Ellie Stuart, Scott
Creative team
Writer(s)	Chris Roberson
Artist(s)	Michael Allred Jay Stephens Jason Bone James Rugg
Letterer(s)	Todd Klein
Colourist(s)	Laura Allred
Creator(s)	Roberson & Allred
Editor(s)	Shelly Bond
Collected editions
Dead to the World
uVampire
Six Feet Under & Rising
Repossessed

iZOMBIE is a comic book series created by writer Chris Roberson and artist Michael Allred, published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint beginning in 2010. The series deals with Gwen Dylan (née Gwendolyn Price), a revenant gravedigger in Eugene, Oregon and her friends Ellie, a 1960s ghost, and Scott, a were-terrier. iZOMBIE was nominated for the 2011 Eisner Award for Best New Series.

Gwen can pass for a regular girl, but she needs to eat a brain once a month to keep from losing her memories and intelligence. As a gravedigger, she has plenty of access to recently deceased people; when she consumes their brains she "inherits" part of the deceased's thoughts.

The "monsters" in iZOMBIE are explained via the concepts of over- and undersoul. The oversoul (as in Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Over-Soul") is "seated in the brain, contains the thoughts, memories, and personality", while the undersoul (as in Michael McClure's poem "Dark Brown") is "seated in the heart, contains the appetites, emotions and fears". Ghosts are thus bodiless oversouls; poltergeists, bodiless undersouls; vampires bodies without undersouls (thirsting for emotions); and zombies, bodies without oversouls. Revenants, like Gwen, are unique in that they possess both oversouls and undersouls. Souls can also "infect" the living, which accounts for the possessed and werewolves and the like. The characters of iZombie first appeared in a short story in the first House of Mystery Halloween Annual (2009). An iZOMBIE story was also included in the second House of Mystery Halloween Annual (2010).

The comic is notable for its use of real Eugene-area locations as settings, including the University of Oregon campus, the Shelton McMurphey Johnson House, the McDonald Theater, Eugene City Hall, and Ya-Po-Ah Terrace, as well as Portland's Oregon Convention Center and Oregon Zoo. The primary hangout spot, "Dixie's Firehouse", is also known as "Fins" and is located in Springfield, Oregon.