The Walking Dead, Book 1

[paulvonscott]

Well, it was recommended on the board, and I was looking for something to buy, so I picked up Walking Dead, as it was cheap.

What did I think...  (may well contain spoilers)

Well, it was a bit 'hmmm...'

In the introduction it claimed to have more in common with Romero's movies than the splatterfest ones, and I'm not so sure.  I think the remake of Dawn beat this into a cocked hat on all fronts, never mind the original.

Not much happened, the start of the book was the same as 28 days later, a certain plot set up is resolved really quickly, and in my opinion hugely fucking coincidentally (millions of people and he finds the ones he wanted in a group of TEN survivors).

It's over emotional in all the wrong places, the guy cries so often he must have a hormone imbalance, slightly cringeworthy in this and the general gung-ho-edness.

I found the thought of seven year olds being armed with guns and killing people as well as zombies very distasteful.  Yeah so they look a bit sad when the kid kills someone, but fucking hell, this is gun nut whacko philosophy here.  'oh, if he does something bad with the gun, we'll take it off him'  Bloody hell!  And no, killing a man doesn't count, he was bad you see (bad in several ways really, when he goes onto his rant at the end, I would have happily shot him).

On the plus side, nice art, often too 'jokey and fun' for my liking but very nice.  There were a few nice characters, I liked the old man with the camper.  But nothing really meaty in the relationships.  Basically it's not bad, I just expect a lot more.

I've tried 3 american books recomended to me in the last year or two.  Hellboy, Y the last man, and now walking dead.  I have to say, they really all do come across as pretty lightweight pieces of entertainment.  Fluff, for want of a better term.  I think I'm better off not bothering with american comic books, they really just don't give me what I want.  Very dissapointing.

I'll be flogging this back off at bristol I reckon ;)

[Woolly]

Avoid the GN of 'Dawn of the Dead'. Its a load of poorly drawn crap.

[The Amstor Computer]

...and once again, in defence of Hellboy ;-)

HB is pure pulp: Kirby meets Nazi superfiends and world mythology. It's a very personal book to Mignola, but I don't believe it is - or is intended to be - anything more than an entertaining diversion. If you go looking for something more than that in the book, you're not going to find it.

[Rob Spalding]

I found this book to be much stronger than the review above.  Yeah, so he finds the people he's after in a convinient way, but the explantion doesn't seem that forced.
There is some great imagery, like the full page spread of zombies all over a tank and filling the entire street.
While I've not been able to get hold of it regularly, the later issues have built on the premise and it looks like it will be long running.  No usual end of zombie film "what happens now?" stuff.  The author has promised we will follow the hero all the way through.  He has recommended jumping off at about issue 70 or so as that's when he thinks he'll run out of zombie ideas and have aliens invade.

[Byron Virgo]

I've been enjoying the series since Adlard took over art duties, as it's got a bit more serious, and pretty damn tense as well! The characters feel a bit more relaxed and real as well.

Know what you mean about the others: I didn't rate Y at all, but Hellboy is lightweight fun - fantastic art, but not much of a story really.

Don't give up on American comics altogether though Paul, you've just got to search around a bit for the good stuff, but it is out there.

[frazer]

PVS

I kinda agree with u:) I do hear a lot of books recommended heartily by folks and most of em do end up being a little on the light side. Although I do enjoy them a lot more when I readjust my sensors to "do not expect earth shattering fiction" such as the Mighty Alan Moore's major works.

Dunno if this has been mentioned here yet, but I read one of the starman books recently, and that was indeed very good. It was called "grand guignol" and was a very good superduper book IMHO. Nice art too. I just ordered the other 8 books in the series to see if it all holds together.

I read Fables recently too, and that was pretty nice, tho I'm thinking these comics could do with some more compressed/dense srorytelling, as nothing seems to happen for page after page. The curse of reading 2000AD i think.

But as for US comics not giving what u want, well theres' a lot out there and I'd say that the stuff you WOULD like is most likely going to be the stuff that people WON'T reccomend, as is always the case. So I won't suggest anything:)

F

[paulvonscott]

Considering all of it's ingredients, hellboy should be much more entertaining than it is.  It's laregely style over substance, which, fair enough is probably what it was meant to be.  I've read three collections, all very shoulder shrugging stuff.

In WD, he does say he's going to carry the story on.  Whether that's to the point where it's stayed beyond it's welcome, I'm not sure.  Still, it's not a great goal, just in itself.  Maybe he's purposefully missed out the start of the book, and started where we normnally leave zombie movies, but I think that was a mistake.

Plus I don't give his family long, they'll be emotional zombie fodder soon enough.  I bet he can't go 2 issues without a big old weep.

In six episodes all that happened was:

Man wakes up in hospital to find zombies have taken over.  He returns to his house, gets some guns and goes to find his wife in atlanta.  He finds her in a camp of about a dozen people, he doesn't like the camp's location, he's proved right, and his friend has an episode and tries to kill him in a jealous rage.

And er, that's it.  70 issues of this doesn't seem like hard work to me.

As for how society crumbled, well, they all were told to go to the cities, and all the people, died.  Grrreat.  I also think sending people to the cities (unless you intend to nuke them to remove the problem of an undead population) is a really dumb idea.

I'm sure it develops more later on, and is entertaining enough.  But the promise the author sets out at the start is not fulfilled in the book I read.

[Bico]

Most US comics are pish, but I quite liked Walking Dead.  The art was great in the first GN, and I'll have to reserve judgement on Adlard's run until I get to see the next tpb in the series, but I'd certainly recommend checking out the first one.
I believe PVS has one going spare.

[Byron Virgo]

Know what you mean about these stories taking a long time to get going. I tried reading a tpb of Fables, largely because I rate Mark Buckingham, but I just couldn't get into it, and wasn't sure what, ultimately, it was about.

Warren Ellis seems to suffer from this slow burning/rinsing stories. Sometimes it works (take a look at the early Planetary stories), but these days he seems to be a bit of a victim of his own successs, and he'll sometimes spend two (or even three) issues doing something that should have really been covered in half of one. Having said that, however, the most recent issue of Planetary was good, but then it does have John Cassaday on art duties.
But I think in terms of mainstream American writing, it's only Alan Moore who has an exact  and masterly grasp of pacing in comics.

The problem with American comics for me is that I stopped reading superhero titles proper about ten years ago, and I just can't really motivate myself to start reading about a load of egocentric, idiotic tosspots mincing about in PVC and leather. Unless of course it's Zenith.

Having said all that, you should definitely check out Fred the Clown, by Roger Langridge, which is excellent. Although it's not actually American. Just published by Fantagraphics.

[paulvonscott]

"The stuff you WOULD like is most likely going to be the stuff that people WON'T reccomend, as is always the case. So I won't suggest anything:)"

I'm sure that's true Fraze, but I buy stuff not just based upon anyone's reccomendation, more that it's a subject which really excites me to begin with and has been reccomended by someone I know, and can therefore gauge whether there's a chance I'll like it.  

The ideas behind Y, Hellboy and WD, we're all in my mind more exciting than the end result.  All okay, average comic books I guess.

The person who recommended the book isn't to blame, it just didn't do much for me.  As I said, it's not an awful book, it's just not good enough for me to want to read more.  The only books I'm tempted to borrow are the 100 bullets ones.  They sound very good.

I agree on the density of story telling.  I think it must be great to occasionally just enjoy the roomy space of a 24 page comic book, but really I need a bit more to it.  I too blame all those 5/6 page 2000AD stories and their super dense action.

[Byron Virgo]

I think you might find the same problem with 100 Bullets - I did. Azarello's writing is nice, often particularly Noirish, like in The Counterfifth Detective. Risso's art is amazing, but something just doesn't seem to live up to the initial promise of it for me, and it just seems to go up it's own arse a bit, too obsessed with it's own internal chronology.

[Tweak72]

hummm well i like the walking deads pace in the first book and wilst i would aggree about it being a bit 28 day ish i liked the feel of it very creepy with the conveniant finding stuff like
that does happen long lost family members bumping in to each other in the street and such like so it could happen. as for Our Lord and Savour Mr. Moore... um... now dont all get all upset with me but... has anyone noticed his stuff getting abit... same-ie? i mean all his theams seem to be establish hero/heroin with long past (about 100 years) history so we have to find out "earlier" adventures in flash back hummm... dont kill me

[Rob Spalding]

One american comic I've yet to find anyone say about word about is JM Strazynski's "Rising Stars".  A group of children while "in vitro" (or in the womb" are given powers by a meteor type thing.  It's about how they fit into the world and how they use their powers.  Book 1 starts with someone exploiting their weaknesses to start killing them.  It's really good and the 3rd and fnal book should be out next year.  Well worth checking out.

[wrighty47]

Please, let's stop the 28 Days Later references right now. The waking up in hospital is not like 28 Days (even tho it is) but it's like John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids. That's where the idea originated from.

As for the pacing, well that's one of the thing's I loved about WD. Guess we all just like things differently. I do get where you're coming from Paul, it's just that I do like the slower pacing, which I find develops both character and atmosphere differently to the slam, bam action of Tooth and the like. Not to say it's better, I just think it works well with WD.

As for the DotD movies. Whilst I did enjoy the new film (as far as mindless action films go) I don't think it comes even close to the Romero original, nor to Walking Dead either. Whilst a brilliant roller-coaster ride, I think it misses the social comentary that Romero's films carried (and I hope WD develops).

I do think that vol. 2 of WD is better than the first. I'm not sure all your fears will be put aside, the book *is* as much survivalist soap opera as it is horror but the story does take some unexpected (and some obvious) twists with the 2nd volume.

I personally thought that the 7 year old with a gun was a tremendous way to portray the full horror of the situation the characters find themselves in. They know he shouldn't have a gun (the mother especially) but also realise that the world is now such a dangerous place that it's a sacrifie they have to risk.

Needless to say, I love WD and i'm a little saddened that you don't (in a I wish you hadn't wasted your money way). Personally I think it's a breath of fresh air in the mainstream comics industry.

Oh well, each to there own!

Alan!

[paulvonscott]

"Please, let's stop the 28 Days Later references right now. The waking up in hospital is not like 28 Days (even tho it is) but it's like John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids."

Yes, I am aware of mr Wyndham's work.  But you know, that's not where he took the idea from is it?  It's pretty obvious he saw 28 days later, the week before he started writing WD and copied it.  Call my cynical if ye want!  If I thought he was a Wyndham fan, well, maybe he'd get more credit!  There's certainly no other sign of it in the book.

"As for the pacing, well that's one of the thing's I loved about WD. Guess we all just like things differently. I do get where you're coming from Paul, it's just that I do like the slower pacing, which I find develops both character and atmosphere differently to the slam, bam action of Tooth and the like."

Ah, now I wasn't asking for wham bam action in it.  In fact I thought there was a lot of wham bam action in it, despite the authors protestations.  What I was actually complaining about was the lack of anything happening, including character development.  I'm a (terry nation's) Survivors fan, I love my post-apocalyptic personal drama, so that's not the reason I didn't like it.  

In the camp there was a man who was traumatised by what he'd seen, a jealous friend, an old guy (actually my favourite 'character'), a far right christian, and well, a few other people.  There isn't much that happened between them to write up is there in six issues?  Bar the slightly bonkers homicidal friend.  I thought at least we'd have some scary Straw Dogs hunting scene tension.  Er, nope.  An embarressing rant and a threat to kill resolved by a 7 year old NRA member dispensing street justice.

I also think there's flip all chance of any social comemntary coming in, there hasn't been any so far, apart from the gun nut philosophy.  I still don't think any seven year olds making choices to kill real living people is something we want to be encouraging!  And I can't imagine a more stupid, dangerous thing to do bar giving me a semi-automatic and a license to kill.

Who here really thinks that's a good idea and wouldn't end badly?