Real Name

History: Simon Garth was a highly successful businessman and well known public figure who was notorious for treating his employees ruthlessly. Garth's gardener, Gyps, vowed to get revenge upon his employer for his years of mistreatment and recent firing. Kidnapping Garth, Gyps stabbed him to death with a garden shears in the Bayous near New Orleans. Gyps was not satisfied by Garth's relatively quick death, however, and so he turned the corpse over to a nearby voodoo cult and forced the voodooienne (voodoo queen) Layla to turn Garth into a zombie. Layla, who also happened to be Garth's secretary, called upon Damballah, the serpent god who is the most powerful of the Loa (the gods of voodoo), and with the aid of watching talismans, resurrected the corpse of her former employer as a mindless zombie. One of the two amulets was placed around Garth's neck; the other was given to Gyps. Using the amulet, Gyps could control the Zombie.

Finally, when Gyps tried to force Garth to kidnap his own daughter, a remaining portion of the spirit of the man he once was enabled the Zombie to resist his master despite the amulet, and Garth killed him.

For two years, Simon Garth walked the earth as a zombie, controlled by a succession of people who had possession of the mystic amulet. Among them were a chemist named Philip Bliss, a houngan (voodoo priest) named Papa Shorty, and a fireman named Fred Miller. At the command of Miller's friend Dora Katz, Garth struck Layla, severely injuring her. Layla still loved Garth, however, and with the aid of a friendly houngan named Papa Doc, she undertook a difficult voodoo ritual by which her ebbing life essence was mystically transferred to Garth. Thus as Layla died, Simon Garth returned to life for a period of 24 hours. In that time, Garth managed to put all of his affairs in order making up in some way to various people he had slighted during his first life. Garth then became a zombie once more, but was buried by Papa Doc, ending his existence as a zombie presumably forever.

Height: 6 ft. 4 in.
Weight: 220 lbs.
Eyes: White
Hair: Black
Unusual Features: The Zombie's skin was yellowish, coarse, brittle, and in a state of' decay.

Strength Level: As a zombie, Simon Garth possessed superhuman strength many times greater than what he possessed while alive. The Zombie could lift (press) about 1,200 pounds.

Known Superhuman Powers: As a zombie, Simon Garth possessed certain supernatural abilities derived from the loa (voodoo spirits) which inhabited and reanimated his form after death. Garth was not a typical zombie, however. For reasons beyond explanation, his spirit never fully left his body at death. Hence, at times, Garth's persona was able to assume partial control over his body's actions. This occurred only when the Zombie encountered situations which had heavy emotional connections to his mortal life.

Simon Garth's lifeless, reanimated body possessed a supernatural healing ability, enabling him to regenerate missing or injured tissue or mend broken bones. Thus he could fully recover from small burns, lacerations, and gunshot wounds within a matter of hours. The Zombie could not regenerate missing limbs, although a severed limb pressed against the area it came from would probably reattach itself. A zombie's flesh can be burned so totally that it cannot recover. To facilitate regeneration (and to prevent their bodies from rotting away completely), zombies have to consume the fleshy tissue of recently killed animals or human beings at least once per week. Not truly alive, zombies are immune to certain other mortal vulnerabilities, including suffocation, extremes of temperature and pressure, high voltage electricity, and poisonous gas. Garth's Zombie once walked the ocean floor without harm.

Zombies possess neglible brain activity and thus no reasoning, memory, or sensory capacities. They cannot see, hear, smell, taste, or feel. Zombies are impervious to pain. Instead of mortal senses, the Loa animating a zombie grant it certain primitive mystical senses. Most developed of these is a zombie's ability to perceive the call of its master, motivating it to move in that direction. Garth wore an amulet around his neck and could be verbally commanded by anyone in possession of its counterpart. Since zombies are incapable of independent thought, they cannot speak of their own accord. They can, however, respond in a designated manner if their master so directs them. The lingering presence of his spirit enabled Garth to speak independently on extremely rare occasions.

Zombies are vulnerable to the voodoo which gives them animation. The proper incantation and treatment of a voodoo doll can cause supernatural, debilitating pain to a zombie. A zombie can also be put to rest through the appropriate voodoo ceremony which forces the loa from his body.