Comic Review - The Walking Dead #103

            By now, I think everyone knows of the Robert Kirkman cash cow that is The Walking Dead.  There is a TV show, action figures, video games, books and magazine devoted to it (where is the breakfast cereal? You can’t tell me someone wouldn’t jump all over a Zombie Brains breakfast cereal).  Did you know that it all started out as a comic book?  Did you also know that that comic book is still going strong, 103 issues in to be exact?  Yeah, it all started many years ago and this week in our horror comic October (which has coincidentally turned into zombie comic October) we review the newest issue of The Walking Dead.

Cover:

            The cover was drawn by Charlie Adlard, the interior artist.  I know, that may seem foreign to you individuals that are relatively new to comics, but the interior artist drawing the covers is actually how things used to be (and how it still is in many non-Marvel companies).  This cover is a prime example why the interior artist should also be responsible for the first image readers see.  First of all, the cover actually has to do with the story and is not just some lame pinup.  Not what actually happens in the story, though, it has to do with the story symbolically.  Adlard just made you think.  The image on the cover itself is incredible as well.  The relatively small characters combined with the use of cast shadows and the slight gradient of the background make it unlike any cover that I have seen in many years.  The coloring is subtle and adds to the image instead of distracting from it.  I am sure by this point, this is just second nature to Adlard, but a great cover needs to be recognized; and this is a great cover.

            The Walking Dead logo is simple but incredibly effective.  By incorporating both the black and white stroke around the colored letters, it is assured that the logo will work on pretty much any color background.  It is little things like this that have helped make The Walking Dead the longstanding hit that it is.

10/10 – Could be one of the best covers of the year.  Period.

Story:

            Let me start out by saying that I watch The Walking Dead television show.  I am a season behind because I do not have cable, but I watch it.  I don’t like it, but I watch it.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the premise and the effects, but I hate the writing and the characters.  Seriously, I have never wanted an entire cast of characters to die horrible deaths more than this cast; and I have seen Glee! 

            I do however, after reading this issue, know where the shitty characters in the television series come from.  They are shitty here as well!  There is not one likable character in this issue.  I like Kirkman as a writer for the most part.  I love Invincible, it is the best superhero book currently being published, but this writing is just bad.  Barely anyone is identified by name, making the entire book inaccessible to new readers.  The opening sequence is cool, but we never see any of the characters for the rest of the book, nor do we learn who any of them are.  The rest of the characters are very wooden and one dimensional, making me care about them as much as I do their television counterparts. 

            The worst offender is the “villain”, Negan.  Aside from being told that he is the villain, I am shown that he is because he says “fuck” in every sentence.  Seriously.  It looks like Kirkman either didn’t know how to show he was a bad guy without giving him the foulest mouth this side of Deadwood, or he just created the character so that he could write “fuck” a lot. 

3/10 – I am probably giving Kirkman too much credit here because the pacing in some spots is great, but that might be Adlard’s doing.  However the characterization and the dialogue are incredibly unimpressive. 

Art:

            First off, I love the grey tones of the book.  It works so much better than if this had been a full color book.  Adlard’s storytelling ability is top-notch.  While most artists nowadays are looking for the cool shot, or the panel that they can blow up into a poster to sell at a convention, Adlard uses the entire page to tell a story, content with using shadows and long shots as opposed to full body shots of the characters in action.  This could be part of the genre however as there are obviously no superheroes or brightly costumed characters that will hog the spotlight.  Adlard must be credited for handling the subject matter with such professionalism and expertise though.  His use of silent panels is the best I have seen since Jeff Smith’s Bone.  That is the only thing that saves this book from being terrible, so thank you Charlie Adlard, well done.

Adlard shows you the full gamut of emotions that female (I'm going to call her that because Kirkman never gives me a name) feels in one page, five panels and only two word balloons.  Masterful.

A great example of the use of light and shadow, as well as action that Adlard is depicting.  Love the panel of the zombie falling off the bridge!

8/10 – Some of the art feels repetitive in sections but it is obvious that Adlard has a mastery of the not only the medium but the genre.

Overall:  5/10 – For something that is considered the modern zombie tale “gold standard” I expect more.  Could it be a slow issue that is building up to something bigger?  Probably, I am sure that Kirkman has many big things planned, based on this issue though, I will not be around to see them.  Get this for the art, or look for a print of the phenomenal cover, do not waste your time purchasing single issues of the comic book.

Comic Review - Guarding the Globe #1

            Guarding the Globe #1 by Phil Hester and Todd Nauck takes the characters made popular by Robert Kirkman in his “Skybound” universe (along with the help of Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker) and gives them their own book.  For fans of Invincible, or some of Kirkman’s lesser known titles like Brit or Capes, this book is the coup de grace.  It brings all of those characters together in a comic that is very reminiscent of the aforementioned Capes comic that Kirkman penned back in 2003.  The whole premise is a global group of superheroes that look like they work for the United States government (if the inclusion of Invincible stalwart Cecil Steadman is any indication) instead of a private corporation of superheroes as was the premise of Capes.  Regardless of the similarities, this book tries hard to be a Kirkman/Ottley/Walker creation, but falls flat in areas that those creators would have most likely succeeded.

Cover:

            The cover is a wrap-around, very reminiscent of many of the superhero comics of the nineties.  It is obvious that Kirkman has a soft spot for nineties comics, based on his past collaborations, but this takes a lot of the bad things in comics from that decade and throws them together.  That starts with the cover itself, which is a decent cover that tries to look like an Ottley or Walker cover but fails by not doing the little things right.  The cover itself is made up of figures of the individual Guardians, but all of those figures look very stiff and many have wonky proportions.  Just look at the girl with the goggles on the front cover for an instance of that.  It looks like her torso has been stretched and curved.  I like the coloring on the cover as they tend to get softer as they recede into the background, as they should.  The logo for the book also pops out quite well, and is just well designed overall. 

4/10:  Good coloring and logo design does not save a good but generic cover that suffers from stiff characters with strange anatomy.

Story:

            There are certain parts of the story that really work, such as the side story that involves Brit being notified that his son may have autism and the aside with Donald trying to come to grips with the fact that he is now more machine than man.  That is something that would almost be expected from a Kirkman comic and Phil Hester does a great job of implementing that.  Hester also does a decent job of introducing the characters throughout the book as well, which is a pretty high order considering the amount of characters that are present in the book itself. 

            Where the story falls flat is that the whole story seems very generic, from the collection of heroes, to the main hero (in this case, Brit) getting pissed about the inclusion of a member that he deems a loose cannon, to the last page introduction of the villain.  Instead of a nice feeling of nostalgia that has done a good job of creeping in to many titles of late, this feels like a retread of an early nineties X-Men comic.  It is also fairly obvious that Hester is trying to write clever dialogue, which is one of my favorite things of Kirkman comics.  He hits on the dialogue in the smaller, more emotional moments (like the aforementioned autism scene), but scenes that Hester tries to write as lighthearted or funny (such as the seemingly useless smoking dog scene that really goes nowhere) fall completely flat.  Would someone else have been able to write that scene better?  Would someone even bother to try and fit that scene in when it does not seem like it has any significance to the story itself?  I really couldn’t tell you, but regardless, taken at face value it was something that didn’t work. 

3/10:  Being able to show the human side of superheroes is a nice touch, but it is the only touch that works here as the rest of the story is generic and uninspired.

Art:

            There are some good things done here.  Nauck doesn’t go crazy with strange panel layouts, and the storytelling is pretty well done.  Also, the facial expressions and general acting of the characters are very well done and actually lend a lot to the story.  The same quality coloring by John Rauch that was on display on the cover is going strong in the interiors as well, and I can’t tell you how much that makes this book more enjoyable than it could be.  The reason I say this is because on nearly every page, there is something in the art that just makes you go “huh?”  The same proportion problems that Nauck had on the cover rear their ugly heads in the interiors as well.  This is sad because as is previously mentioned, the storytelling is actually pretty good.

Between "Bobble Head Girl" in the top right panel and "Rubber Leg" in the bottom panel, this page is a mess.

Heads do not turn like that, not without the body moving more.

I just thought I should throw in the smoking dog, and there is something about that girl's torso that doesn't look right but I'm having trouble putting my finger on it.

Very nineties villain reveal with the tilted image and the lack of feet, but if this guy is supposed to be a major threat, he should probably at least be fully on the page.  And I must say that his character design is incredibly generic (now I suuuuuuck at character design so I can honestly say that I would have done no better).

4/10:  This could have been a high point of the book, but the proportion issues are a big blemish that solid storytelling can’t overcome.  +1 for the coloring though, that was actually really good, I would like to see more of Rauch’s coloring now (and I’m not a follow the colorist kind of guy).

Overall:  4/10:  I expected more, and who knows, maybe this will improve as the series moves along, but at this point it is not a title that can stand with Kirkman’s other creations.