''Drums'' is a 2011 supernatural comic book

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered * Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number ...

created by writer

El Torres EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

and artists Abe Hernando and Kwaichang Kraneo. ''Drums'' follows FBI special agent Martin Irons as sinister forces work against him while he investigates the mass homicide of practitioners at a

Voodoo Voodoo may refer to: Religions * African or West African Vodun, practiced by Gbe-speaking ethnic groups * African diaspora religions, a list of related religions sometimes called Vodou/Voodoo ** Candomblé Jejé, also known as Brazilian Vodu ...

ceremony in Florida.

Synopsis

The series follows FBI agent Martin Irons, who is tasked with investigating the deaths of a large group of people during a Santeria ceremonial ritual in Florida. When one of the seemingly dead victims rises as a zombie, Irons must find out what exactly is going on and why.

Development

For the series, Torres brought in elements of several

Afrocaribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the t ...

religions, mainly Cuban Santería, Brazilian Candomblé,

Haitian Vodou Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism. There is ...

, and

New Orleans Voodoo Louisiana Voodoo (french: Vaudou louisianais, es, Vudú de Luisiana), also known as New Orleans Voodoo, is an African diasporic religion which originated in Louisiana, now in the southern United States. It arose through a process of syncretis ...

. Torres admitted that they took liberties with the representations of these religions for "dramatic purposes" and that brought in other Afro-Caribbean religions to avoid the "well known" clichés about Voodoo. In an interview with

Bloody Disgusting Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...

, Torres states that ''Drums'' was inspired by his desire to do a modern twist of Voodoo zombies from the Golden and Silver age of comic books.

Publication

The series was published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...

as four issues released from May to September 2011. A collected

trade paperback Trade paperback may refer to: * Trade paperback, a higher-quality softcover version of a book * Trade paperback (comics) In comics in the United States, a trade paperback (shortened: TPB or trade) is a collection of stories originally published ...

edition was released by Amigo Comics in August 2016.

Reception

Critical reception for the series has been mixed, with

praising the first issue and CNN's Geek Out blog calling it one of the "best comics of the year". A reviewer for Nj.com stated that the "strength of the story is not in the presence of the supernatural though, it is the fact that the supernatural is presented as a tool. The spirits may be powerful, deadly, and evil, but without human help they have no power in our world". Broken Frontier called the comic "well crafted" but criticized that the story was "too familiar". Crave Online also criticized the comic's familiarity, also citing that the artwork was "incredibly dull" and that the comic was "laid out like a bad SyFy movie".

References

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