Kevin usually has a fairly easy job; he’s a small town sheriff whose day usually revolves around minor paperwork, the occasional auto accident, and perhaps a stray dog. He also has to deal with the fact that he knows his wife has been sleeping with his best friend. But on one fateful afternoon, that ol’ stray dog starts biting the townspeople and the other dogs, turning all of them into raging, marauding, rabid zombies. Now Kevin has to find a way to not only keep his family together, but to actually keep them alive, as the population of rabid folks is exploding and no help is in sight. One by one, the remaining people gets bitten… so how long can they possibly hold out?

Master of the high concept, Jason M. Burns, strikes again with THE RABID, this time seeing him dabble in the horror genre. There truly seems to be no end to Burns’ ability to come up with screen-worthy plots. If I had a studio shingle, I’d put him on retainer and chain him to the keyboard. It seems to be Burns’ gift that he understands how to hit the beats on any number of genre stories, never limiting himself to one type of tale, and he never repeats himself. Certainly, THE EXPENDABLE ONE and DUMMY’S GUIDE TO DANGER bear no resemblance to THE RABID. Burns can extend himself.

This time around, he’s aided and abetted by Guy Lemay, who is another terrific find for Viper. Lemay is a true oddity in newer artists; when you look at his inspirational roots, it’s pure Paul Grist- something I really haven’t seen in anyone else. That give the book a really unique look and keeps the storytelling simple and moving at a solid pace.

My one complaint is that the plot to THE RABID sometimes feels a little too paint-by-numbers. Burns can rock the high-concept like nobody’s business, but the character depth here, and the conflicts, don’t set my world on fire. I want to see him stretch a bit more and show me some different tricks on the character end now.

Marc Mason