There’s a three-act structure familiar from thriller and horror flicks across the 16 pages of “Cambridge Versus Zombies”: We are introduced to a peaceful setting and its people; see everything go to hell; and are relieved as good beats evil. In the case of this sweet-natured zine of terror, there’s even room for a map, as though Cambridge is Middle-Earth, and a mid-credits scene on the inside back cover, as though Cambridge is a Marvel movie. Self-publisher Rich Tenorio, writing as Ribbit, knows the city well and sets the action among its community gardens and “Hahvid,” with a Zombie Biolab placed ominously somewhere over in Kendall. It’s no spoiler to say everything ends up well, but it’s sad to say everything ends up implausibly well for cartoon characters worrying explicitly about expiring visas and deportation. Even Ribbit’s literally black-and-white storybook ending doesn’t resolve the recurring menace of tech-based profit motive.
“Cambridge Versus Zombies” is available at The Million Year Picnic, 99 Mount Auburn St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, and Hub Comics, 19 Bow St., Union Square, Somerville, and from ribbitcartoons@proton.me.
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