Essentially The End: The Walking Dead Book Ten Escalates The Negan Threat!

The Good: None, really.
The Bad: Poor artwork, Oppressive mood, No real character development
The Basics: The Walking Dead - Book Ten finds Rick Grimes and his survivors menaced by Negan and his people.


Arguably, the benefit of reading the books in The Walking Dead is that the general direction of the television show The Walking Dead becomes known. As the graphic novel series progresses, it serves as a decent guide for measuring how worthwhile it will be to stick with the television series. Should the television series ever get to the point of The Walking Dead - Book Ten, I’m out. Given that the antagonist for this arc has just been introduced in the fifth season of The Walking Dead, I already have an exit strategy for watching the television show.

The reason for my plan to abandon the television series as it develops the conflict between Rick Grimes’s survivors and Negan is that the tone in the books has become so far beyond oppressive that there is no joy in reading it. No longer anything close to the story of surviving the zombie apocalypse, by the point of The Walking Dead - Book Ten, the villains are all human and the sense of oppression is so overwhelming that there is nothing enjoyable about suffering through reading it.

Menaced by Negan, who has made Rick’s settlement a fiefdom, Rick and his people live in constant fear that Negan and his people will subjugate them with more than just the threat of violence. Tired of having to continue to give Negan the lionshare of their supplies, Rick’s people are pushed to the breaking point. When Negan and his people come through to get their supplies, Rick has to keep his people from attacking Negan. The tensions boil over and Negan is about to kill some of Rick’s people again when Carl shoots Negan’s beloved weapon and decides he is done being a “nice guy.”

Eugene manages to manufacture more ammunition and, so bolstered, Rick leads an attack on Negan’s sanctuary. While Negan refuses to surrender, Rick’s people use the walkers and elements within Negan’s camp to assert pressure upon the local despot. But the plan does not go entirely according to Rick’s designs and he and his people find themselves risking their lives in ways they never had before.

There is nothing enjoyable about The Walking Dead - Book Ten and Negan is hardly a worthwhile villain; he’s just a bully who threatens everyone around him. Given the way he brained Glenn, the people around Alexandria and Hilltop live with reasonable fear. It’s an oppressive situation and in The Walking Dead - Book Ten Rick’s survivors are not surviving, they are being beaten down.

The artwork in The Walking Dead - Book Ten is entirely mediocre. As with many other volumes, there are several characters who look like one another and the sense of action and movement is not well-presented.

On the character front, The Walking Dead - Book Ten is where Rick has, largely, lost his own moral compass. So long ago, The Governor used Walkers as a way to menace his enemies and in The Walking Dead - Book Ten, Rick uses essentially the same tactic. Carl is threatened by Negan and he threatens Negan, which makes it hard to even consider him a child anymore.

The result is a book that makes The Walking Dead unbearable to read.
For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five
Fear The Hunters
Life Among Them
Book Seven
Book Eight
Book Nine

0/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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This Is Where They Lost Me: The Walking Dead – Book Nine!

The Good: The plot progresses
The Bad: Mediocre artwork, Entirely oppressive mood, Unlikable new characters
The Basics: The Walking Dead - Book Nine marks the arrival of Negan . . . and the point where the series becomes unbearable to read.


While I was on vacation in September of last year, my wife and I visited the Mall Of America (reviewed here!). At one point, while she was shopping at stores I had no interest in, I decided to go and get some reading done at the Barnes & Noble there. I was pretty psyched at the time because there was a copy of The Walking Dead – Book Nine there (which was not available to me locally). So, while my wife shopped, I read and, alas, it quickly turned into the low point of my vacation for me.

The Walking Dead – Book Nine was unenjoyable to read because it is the point where everything in the series has built up to a point where there is such an oppressive tone that there is no joy in the experience. As horrible as what Rick and Michonne suffered at the hands of The Governor, there was at least the hope that they might overcome and thwart the leader of Woodbury. That part of The Walking Dead has a decent catharsis and it came fast-enough to make for an enjoyable, if gruesome, read. With the introduction of Negan in The Walking Dead – Book Nine, the series begins a downward spiral into misery. In fact, it becomes so unpleasant to read The Walking Dead – Book Nine that I had to pick up the subsequent volumes and skim through key plot points for one important reason: I had to know if continuing to invest in the series was going to be worth it. At the last point I skimmed to, the plotline involving Negan finally came to an end and its resolution was fairly unsatisfying. Still, I went back to finish The Walking Dead – Book Nine and it’s hard for me to imagine wanting to return to the world of The Walking Dead afterward.

On the way back to the Alexandria community from Hilltop, Rick Grimes and his party encounter a motorcycle gang. The motorcyclists are working for Negan and they demand a tribute for Negan. Michonne and Andrea kill three of the four people working for Negan. Rick sends the last one back to Negan to tell Negan to leave Hilltop alone. While Abraham and Eugene are out scavenging for ammunition, Abraham is killed and Eugene is captured. Brought to the gates of Alexandria by Dwight, Eugene is threatened, but manages to break free and give Rick’s survivors the chance to turn the tables on Negan’s people.

When Rick refuses to take things lying down, he and a small team prepare to leave for Hilltop (including Glenn and Maggie, who is now pregnant, who want to relocate to the safer location). On the road, though, they meet Negan, who menaces the group and then beats in the head of one of Rick’s closest friends with his barbed wire-covered baseball bat, which he has named Lucille. Forcing Rick into a position of fealty to him, Negan begins his oppressive reign over Alexandria. Visiting Rick’s town, Negan and his people take what they want and when Carl sneaks back with him, Carl sees just what Negan has built.

On the character front, The Walking Dead – Book Nine sees a progression of the relationship between Rick Grimes and Andrea. The change in their relationship status seems largely to provide a weird pair of mirror scenes in the book. When Carl walks in on Andrea and Rick after they have had sex, Rick avoids having “the talk” with Carl. This conversation is mirrored by a creepy “show and tell” wherein Negan gives Carl a tour of his brothel and admits that the end of the world has been better for his sex life than the world was before. The difference between the determined Rick and the sadistic Negan is played out throughout The Walking Dead – Book Nine and the genuine affection Rick has for Andrea is a foil for Negan’s careless collecting of women.

The Walking Dead – Book Nine has big, significant deaths and the siege mentality that results and the psychological torment of Carl by Negan makes for an utterly unpleasant book. There is no joy in seeing how Rick Grimes and his people survive at this point; instead, they are at a point of prolonged suffering and the sense that they will be miserable for a long time is more than just a mood in The Walking Dead – Book Nine. Rick, Maggie, Carl, and the others readers have invested their time and affection in will be suffering for books to come and given how harsh Book Nine is, it is impossible to recommend, much less recommending continuing with the series.

For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five
Fear The Hunters
Life Among Them
Book Seven
Book Eight

2/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Transitions That Lead To Hope: The Walking Dead - Book Eight Might Be An Incredible Set-Up Book!

The Good: Good character development, Engaging-enough plot.
The Bad: Mediocre artwork, Repetitive in context
The Basics: The Walking Dead - Book Eight finds the survivors near Washington coming into contact with more survivors and foreshadowing a war to come!


As I prepare to binge-watch the entire fourth season of The Walking Dead, I am catching up on the graphic novels for The Walking Dead. While I have already reviewed The Walking Dead: We Find Ourselves (reviewed here!), I picked up the larger volume The Walking Dead - Book Eight, which includes that volume’s “chapters.” The story of The Walking Dead in Book Eight is the twelve issues of the serialized comic book (issues 85 – 95) in anthology form and the story is long-beyond the point where readers can simply pick up the book and start the series.

That said, The Walking Dead - Book Eight is a solid story for fans of the story of “survival horror.” More than most of the prior volumes, The Walking Dead - Book Eight has the characters in the universe of The Walking Dead moving beyond the day to day struggle against the undead who have been wandering the world since the outbreak. Almost two years after the initial outbreak, Rick Grimes and his survivors have found safety within the walls of a community near Alexandria, Virginia. The Walking Dead - Book Eight is a good transition book that involves Grimes and his community both getting settled and then moving into the world outside, which makes for a surprisingly compelling narrative, even if it is not the most complicated plot.

After Nicholas freaks out and draws a gun on Rick in the survivor’s community, the community consolidates and comes together. Weeks later, coming back from a supply run, the survivors are followed. Heading out, Michonne and Abraham encounter Paul Monroe. Monroe responds to the pair by defensively capturing Abraham until Rick Grimes appears to negotiate with him. Monroe, who is called Jesus by his community, tells Rick that he comes from a community, Hilltop, which has started trading with other survivors groups. After an extended interrogation, Rick comes to believe Jesus and he and a small team (which, much to his chagrin, includes Carl) go back to visit Hilltop.

At Hilltop, Jesus introduces Rick to Gregory, the community’s leader. Shortly after they meet, though, one of Hilltop’s citizens returns from a supply run and he tries to kill Gregory and then Rick. In self-defense, Rick kills the man and that inspires Jesus to open up to him. Hilltop is exactly what it seems; a community that has successfully started to trade with other survivor villages. Unfortunately, Hilltop is also under the thumb of Negan, a warlord who offers a protection racket from the walkers in exchange for half of all that Hilltop produces or trades for. Rick decides to take up the cause, offering defense to Hilltop in exchange for supplies.

The big decision Rick makes in The Walking Dead - Book Eight does not have any consequences within this book; it comes in far too late to be what the book is about. Instead, this volume is an essential as a bridge between the impossible problems faced by people living in a world where zombies ravage them at any opportunity and a narrative that might start to focus more on the challenges of the survivors reassembling the world. The Walking Dead - Book Eight is about how hardened humans relate to one another and how they begin to create relationships, communities and a world at large after the apocalypse. The story of The Walking Dead makes an important transition in Book Eight between a far less realistic adversary and the problems that would come from those who survive that experience trying to create something more.

The Walking Dead - Book Eight is a foreshadowing book and given the hope I have for where the story might go, it is very easy to recommend it. Rick Grimes makes some important decisions in The Walking Dead - Book Eight and the transition from nebulous hordes of zombie adversaries to another human enemy promises to shake up the formula of The Walking Dead.

Sadly, like normal, The Walking Dead - Book Eight features artwork that is often mediocre. Charlie Aldard does amazing artwork for the big splash pages, but the smaller panels have such a lack of detail that the story frequently has poor flow as a result. That said, The Walking Dead - Book Eight is not the most visual storyline, so the craptastic artwork does not matter as much as in some of the prior books. That, along with actually developing the characters makes The Walking Dead - Book Eight worth reading!

For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five
Fear The Hunters
Life Among Them
Book Seven

7.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Volume Between Things Actually Happening: The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves!

The Good: Good character work, Realism
The Bad: Artwork, Lack of events
The Basics: The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves is a book of non-events in the world of The Walking Dead.


In any long serialized story that strives for realism, there comes a time when the writers must choose between sensationalism and realism. In a sensational volume, events are constantly happening; there is no rest for the characters and at some point the readers have to ask themselves how people could survive on such constant adrenaline or drama or conflict. The Walking Dead seems to take the other tact: there are entire books where nothing much happens. The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves is one such volume.

Compiling issues 85 to 90 of The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves begins right after Book Seven (reviewed here!). Interestingly, this volume has enough recap to make clear virtually all that is within its pages without reading the prior anthology. The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves is a rebuilding book that chronicles the day or two after the last major attack on the town that Rick Grimes and his companions have joined. Rather than presenting the familiar (in the past usually while cleaning up after such an attack, someone else gets bitten and has to be put down), writer Robert Kirkman treads new territory; the clean-up goes fine and the characters have a chance for some introspection and reflection.

And it’s good, but thoroughly underwhelming for anyone who is not already invested in the continuing story of Rick Grimes and the survivors of the zombie apocalypse.

After Jessie’s death, Rick starts figuring out how to make the town into a new bastion of civilization. Intent on doing more than surviving, he has the members of the community come up with suggestions on how they can fortify the town so that roamers cannot get in any longer to menace the survivors. As Rick waits for Carl to wake up from the coma he is in following having a chunk of his skull blown off, Rosita leaves Abraham over his infidelity with Holly. When Carl does wake up, Rick is dismayed that he is unaware that Lori (Carl’s mother) is dead and he has no memory of the brief life of his sister.

With food running low, Rick decides to lead a team to thoroughly investigate the houses nearby outside the walls. But while his group is scouting the nearby houses and another team is digging a trench to trip up roamers, Nicholas starts planning to overthrow Rick. Resentful of how Rick has come in and taken over, Nicholas talks to other members of Douglas’s community about killing him, which Glenn overhears. When Nicholas and Glenn get into a fight and Rick and his party return, the tense situation turns into the first big test of Rick’s determined effort to recreate civilization.

The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves does what it sets out to do, even if it is not the most exciting read. What Kirkman does absolutely right – even if it might not be the best use of the medium (it’s not terribly visual) – is have Rick both take a philosophical and emotional position and then test that new resolve. Rick has spent pretty much the entire series before this struggling violently to survive and he lost his hand as a result of the brutalism he has encountered in the dark new world following the outbreak. But after the hole in the wall is plugged – an event that would not have happened with Rick working all on his own – Rick finds he wants something more for himself and Carl. In The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves, the book starts heading in a different direction. At some point, the world will run out of undead and then the question is what kind of world will remain, what kind of people will live in it? Rick is asking all the right questions in The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves and he has a decent plan to make the town a place to live for the longterm.

Outside Rick’s struggle to define the future for his group and actually execute the plan, Rick’s story in We Find Ourselves is about him trying to get in touch with his feelings when he realizes Carl may have lost his ability to feel. Fearing Carl has become cold and distant robs Rick of the simple joy of his son being alive after getting shot pretty graphically in the head.

The rest of The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves is filled up with soap opera exchanges. Andrea pushes away her paramour, Glenn consoles Maggie when Maggie is worried about never feeling safe again, Rosita pushes Abraham away and Abraham and Holly have a “Lady MacBeth” moment. The supporting cast in the book have fairly banal problems at this point and the subplot with Nicholas comes up at a time when the volume is at the risk of being sappy.

The artwork in The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves continues to be thoroughly underwhelming. Several characters look like one another (there is a character who is a cleanshaven version of Rick Grimes in these pages that is somewhat confusing for those of us who have read prior books, forgotten this distant supporting character, but remember what Rick looks like without his stubble.

That said, The Walking Dead, Volume 15: We Find Ourselves is a fair transition book and given where the book ends, there is enough to make the reader want to come back for the next one, even if this volume seems like a “read once, never have to read it again” book.

For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five
Fear The Hunters
Life Among Them

5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Salvation Is Found And Threatened In The Walking Dead - Book Seven!

The Good: Good character development, Engaging-enough plot.
The Bad: Mediocre artwork, Seems expensive for the story . . .
The Basics: Rich Grimes and his group acclimate to a pretty normal life in The Walking Dead - Book Seven!


As the fourth season of The Walking Dead kicks off, I’ve been thrilled to pick up more of the books to read. Today, I whipped through The Walking Dead - Book Seven, which is one of the first books from The Walking Dead that has not had any incidents that have made it into the television series. That, for me, was refreshing in that for the first time in a long time, I had no idea or reasonable theories about who might live and who was likely to die in the book.

The Walking Dead - Book Seven is the two chapter hardcover anthology that follows up on The Walking Dead: Life Among Them (reviewed here!) and starts with Rick Grimes and his band of survivors safely ensconced in the walls of Douglas’s protected town. At this point, everyone who is a fan of the television show will only recognize seven of the characters in the book and that helps the book stand well on its own for those who are not fans of the show. In the book series, which precede the creation of the television show, The Walking Dead - Book Seven starts to hint at how a normal life might look for survivors of an apocalypse.

Having made it to safety within the walls of Douglas’s village near Alexandria, Virginia, Rick Grimes and his friends are acclimating to life without simple survival concerns. As the day dawns on the first day of work assignments, Abraham is not eager to go out on the other side of the wall. Out on the construction project building the wall, Abraham effectively takes over as a leader when he saves the life of one of the other workers and helps the workers fight the walkers that are advancing upon them. Despite Father Gabriel trying to convince Douglas that the Atlanta survivors are bad people, Douglas allows them to stay and even puts up with Rick wigging out on an abusive husband. After beating the crap out of Pete to protect Jessie and their son Ron, Rick seems to be on the outs with Douglas.

But when Pete shows his true colors and Douglas’s wife, Regina, ends up as a casualty and another group comes and tries to bully their way into the compound, Rick is vindicated. The sense that Rick Grimes has the leadership to keep everyone alive inside the compound is quickly destroyed by a herd of walkers that finds a weak spot in the wall. As the survivors try to stay alive, with Glenn and Andrea stuck outside the walls, Rick faces the last loss he might actually suffer!

The Walking Dead - Book Seven takes a long time to get to any horror or survivalist aspects, which might be what drives readers to The Walking Dead. But the internal struggle in The Walking Dead - Book Seven is a compelling and realistic one. The conflict is a more intimate one where abusive jerks are villains and Rick Grimes has the ability to see how quickly people revert to their lesser traits when the opportunity is offered. Instead of focusing on the nameless threats of walkers and the viral infection that has laid waste to the world, The Walking Dead - Book Seven explores how human nature does not change. Jerks are jerks and people who are stuck on the outside will violently try to take what they want from those who have the means.

The menace from the walkers comes and pops up at a realistic juncture and The Walking Dead - Book Seven smartly restores Rick Grimes to a more heroic or reasonable position before the book is sucked into an all-out bloodbath. The menace of the walkers is presented in a sufficiently horrifying way to make readers want to see just what will come next. Having no clue what comes next in the storyline, I’m actually excited for Book Eight.

As one might expect, The Walking Dead - Book Seven has casualties and while some of them are pretty much contained within this book (there are births and deaths of entire relationships in Book Seven) , there is only one big casualty of a character fans are likely to actually be invested in. The Walking Dead - Book Seven is a compelling volume, though, in that it takes the strong community and slowly weakens and undermines it, putting those who have survived so long in a position that is dangerous and precarious . . . and one I am eager to return to.

For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five
Fear The Hunters

7/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Rising Conflict: The Walking Dead Without Horror In Volume 12: Life Among Them!

The Good: Good character development, Decent rising action, Character reflections.
The Bad: Mediocre artwork, Virtually plotless
The Basics: The Walking Dead: Life Among Them is a graphic novel where almost nothing happens in the universe of The Walking Dead, but it is one of the most satisfying books of the series for those looking for realism and interesting characters.


As my wife and I rewatch The Walking Dead Season Three (reviewed here!) in advance of this Sunday’s fourth season premiere (marathon time!), I’ve been getting my fix of The Walking Dead in book form as well. After finally getting in and reading The Walking Dead, Volume 11: Fear The Hunters (reviewed here!), I was eager to read The Walking Dead, Volume 12: Life Among Them. For those still sticking with the series at this point, The Walking Dead: Life Among Them might well be the quickest read of the series yet.

Ironically, The Walking Dead: Life Among Them has the greatest amount of physical movement in the series to date . . . but almost nothing happens. It is in this book that Rick Grimes and the eleven companions he has at this point make it from the South to the Washington, D.C. area (Alexandria, Virginia, ultimately), and the journey happens surprisingly quickly. But The Walking Dead: Life Among Them is not a book of epic events; it is a far more introspective volume and instead of being about the journey, the series takes a hard look at the characters. By this point, Rick Grimes and his companions who have spent fourteen months surviving after a plague hits humanity and raises the dead, have been pretty much rocked by all of their experiences and most of the point of Life Among Them seems to be to illustrate that these survivors are no longer fit for what we would consider civilized society.

Following Carl’s admission that he killed Ben, Rick finally tries talking with his son about the monstrous act. Rick actually appears reasonably reassured when Carl admits that killing Ben was difficult and he has spent weeks sneaking away to cry. Accepting that Ben, who had exhibited psychopathic tendencies, actually needed to die before he killed anyone else, Rick and Carl do their best to put the incident behind them. After scavenging fairly unsuccessfully for food, the survivors are abruptly approached by Aaron, an apparently good-natured man who offers the survivors the impossible; a place in a community up the road where civilization has been restored. Aaron, when he regains consciousness after being knocked out by Rick, tells the survivors of the community established on the other side of Washington, D.C. (which no longer is the destination the survivors were convinced it was by Eugene).

Grudgingly accepting Aaron’s invitation, mostly due to the promise of food, the group heads north with Aaron and his other scout. En route, they rescue some of Aaron’s friends who get into a jam in Washington, D.C. while they scavenge for supplies. Arriving at the community, Rick and his people discover it is all they were promised. Under the direction of former-Congressman Douglas Monroe, the small community near Alexandria has survived and grown conservatively with each member of the community adding to it. While Rick is suspicious and watches everything and everyone in the community closely, others in the group become excited about the hot showers and food offered by the community. Cleaning up and introduced to everyone, with their weapons taken to an armory building, the survivors find themselves unsettled by community events like Halloween and getting jobs, but otherwise come to believe they may have found their promised land.

The Walking Dead: Life Among Them is not at all a horror book. Instead, it is a volume that wrestles with the effects of living in a horrible world . . . after the horrors have ended. The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters illustrates that those who survive in an uncivilized world are not prepared for a return to the trappings of civilization. Universally, the members of Rick Grimes’s group are paranoid and unsettled seeing children playing, getting jobs, and not living on the edge. Not one of Rick’s people balks at sharing Rick’s house the first few nights in the community while they quietly worry that Monroe’s people are trying to divide them up to weaken them.

But there is nothing explicitly wrong with the community in The Walking Dead: Life Among Them. Douglas Monroe seems nice, despite hitting relentlessly on Andrea, popping up awkwardly, and yelling at community members who mention the community’s original founder, Davidson. At this point, there is nothing unseemly about the community and writer Robert Kirkman is smart to keep the focus tight on the characters. It is in Life Among Them where it is made explicit that Eugene is not all that he initially seemed to be and that the hope the group – especially Abraham – has clung to has largely been false hope.

Smartly, The Walking Dead: Life Among Them keeps tightly focused on the characters we care about. The pastor picked up in Fear The Hunters is entirely a non-entity in Life Among Them and even Carl is somewhat minimized. Instead, Life Among Them focuses on Rick’s paranoia over the community appearing too good to be true and his concerns with how Carl is failing to integrate with the children there. It has Michonne finding it difficult to give up her sword and Andrea wrestling with the consequences of making and losing an entire family in the fourteen months since the outbreak. Andrea’s moments of reflection are absolutely essential following Dale’s demise in Fear The Hunters and her emotional scenes nicely balance Monroe’s longwinded monologues in Life Among Them.

As well, Robert Kirkman’s implicit statement in Life Among Them is a worthwhile one. Surviving a savage world makes civilization an unobtainable goal. In doing what one must to survive, there is no soft re-entry into normal society and the paranoia and fear exhibited by Rick’s people when they are handed the answer to all their prayers is completely normal. In fact, Kirkman’s frequent references to Woodbury strengthen the idea that something must not be right in the community and that plays up the sense of looming horror and uncertainty for the reader . . . even though it is not present in the community. Indeed, one of the best moments of Life Among Them is Abraham’s simple, quiet, revelation to Rosita that after a few days inside the walls, he is terrified to leave the community for the construction work he is assigned to.

The artwork in The Walking Dead: Life Among Them is not great, but new characters like Douglas Monroe and the cleaned-up version of Rick Grimes are very recognizable. In fact, Charlie Adlard smartly puts the cleaned-up version of Rick far away from Aaron (who looks strikingly similar) in the book. Because there is surprisingly little movement and a lot of talking in Life Among Them, the artwork in the book is hardly as distracting as in some of the other The Walking Dead books.

For those looking for a purpose to The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Life Among Them finally provides it. After all the horror, inhumanity, and gore, the series takes a break for a quiet volume of character introspection, one that actually explores the human condition . . . and realistically asserts that after fighting for survival on a daily basis, attempting to be something more and create a society based on ethics and trust, is no easy task.

For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five

8.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Writers Of The Walking Dead Want Us To Fear The Hunters For Good Reason!

The Good: Decent character development
The Bad: Mediocre artwork, Very simple plot
The Basics: In the six-issue trade paperback anthology, The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters, Rick Grimes’s survivors encounter homicide and cannibalism!


Despite my appreciation for how the television show The Walking Dead has been going (season three is reviewed here!), it seems it has been quite a while since I sat down and read a The Walking Dead graphic novel. My local library system has been sluggish to get in some of the bigger books, so in lieu of Book Six, I’m reading and reviewing The Walking Dead, Volume 11: Fear The Hunters and (forthcoming) The Walking Dead, Volume 12: Life Among Them. Picking up The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters throws the reader into the middle of a story where fans of the television show would likely be completely lost. Fans of the books get caught up ridiculously quickly.

The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters has very few of the original survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse left alive. Led by Rick Grimes, Glenn, Maggie, Dale, Andrea, Michonne, Morgan, Sophia, Billy, Ben, Carl, and Abraham and his two companions have found a car by the side of the road and that is cause for momentary jubilation. The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters continues the trend in The Walking Dead of adding a character and slaughtering more. In fact, in the six issues that are anthologized in The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters have one of the higher body counts for intimate deaths; the books almost entirely neglect the Walkers and focus instead on two incidents of human on human barbarism that forces Rick to wrestle with the deeper questions of who humans are becoming in the post-apocalyptic world.

Following Ben butchering his twin brother Billy, the survivors camp is in shock. As Andrea and Dale wrestle with what to do about Ben, the group is traumatized again when one among them murders the surviving boy. As the survivors turn upon one another in the wake of the mysterious murder, Dale goes missing and Father Gabriel Stokes appears. Giving the group sanctuary in his church, Father Gabriel is criticized by Rick, but the group comes to appreciate the tactical retreat to his church.

As Andrea pushes for the group to find Dale, Dale awakens to a new horror; his remaining foot has been cut off and eaten by his five captive. Dale, however, is filled with uncharacteristic mirth; he had been wandering off in the woods, having been bitten, when he was captured. Calling himself tainted meat, he awaits rescue or death at the hands of the captors, who leave him at the church to freak out the survivors. They, however, get more than they have bargained for when Rick leads a team to eliminate the threat to the survivors.

The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters is very much a small episode in the larger arc of The Walking Dead. This piece seems very insular and Father Stokes hardly seems like an essential new character. Similarly, the book ends long before Andrea can truly reflect on the magnitude of her losses in this sequence of events. The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters takes a huge toll on Andrea, but given how long it takes to build to the book’s final significant death – and how it is overshadowed with the revelation of who killed Ben.

Rick Grimes continues to be somewhat unhinged, talking on his telephone, which almost immediately gives readers the clues needed to figure out the book’s somewhat enduring mystery. Even so, the big character issue for Rick is largely glossed over in two pages that vaguely insinuate how horrible his actions are before he accidentally describes his own barbarism to Carl. Even so, in The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters Rick’s actions seem much more justified than crazed.

The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters feels a lot like a pruning episode. Outside the major character death, the book leaves the reader with the feeling that Robert Kirkman had realized the cast had become a bit too bloated. The deaths of the twins are emotionally inconsequential to the readers and even Dale’s demise seems more inevitable given he has been missing part of his leg for quite some time. The book barely uses Michonne or Morgan and Abraham has a surprisingly substantive role compared to more enduring characters like Glenn and Maggie.

The artwork in The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters is one of the biggest detractions to the book. The lack of color helps make character definitions that much harder to recognize. Once Dale loses his trademark hat, there are a slew of panels where the reader only knows if the character on the page is Dale or Rick by the context of their speech.

Ultimately, though, The Walking Dead: Fear The Hunters is a worthwhile read for anyone who has an interest in survivalist drama stories, though it is harder to get into for those not already invested in this particular story.

For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five

7/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Series Of (Mostly) Meaningless Tangents: Civil War Marvel Universe Underwhelms.

The Good: She-Hulk chapter, Some of the artwork
The Bad: No character development, Only one interesting character in the book, Erratic (and often-poor artwork), No coherent plot or plot threads
The Basics: Picking up some of the stray stories from the Marvel Civil War Saga, Civil War Marvel Universe collects stories about the b and c-rate heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe.


As my She-Hulk Year continues, I have been exposed to quite a bit of new (to me) Marvel Comics. Because Jennifer Walters is part of the Civil War Crossover Event, I have been picking up other books, outside Civil War (reviewed here!), from that event. The first of the “spinoff” books is Civil War Marvel Universe. This book proved to me that Marvel is no better than DC when it comes to crossover events. Just as DC had dubious inclusions in its major events, like Blackest Night: Rise Of The Black Lanterns (reviewed here!), that included stories of characters who had nothing to do with the event – like Jonah Hex and Starman – Marvel seems to try to make the bucks off the fringes of their events, too. Civil War Marvel Universe is that book for the Civil War Crossover Event.

It is important to note that Civil War Marvel Universe is not a single cohesive story. Instead, it is a collection of short stories – many only a few pages long – anthologized together because they are, essentially, the leftovers of the series. The only one that is truly vital is the She-Hulk story and it is the exact same chapter that is included in She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction (reviewed here!). That it is available elsewhere in a superior book makes it impossible to recommend bothering with Civil War Marvel Universe.

Civil War Marvel Universe is a bit of fractured storytelling from the disparate parts of the Marvel Universe. It opens with the She-Hulk section, which recaps the time she went on Larry King to advocate in favor of superhero registration (that actual interview is still not included!). Following her appearance on Larry King Live and being cured of the spell that has made Jennifer Walters invisible to those who want to do She-Hulk harm, Jennifer Walters finds herself once more able to exercise her abilities, unregulated, to transform into She-Hulk. Jennifer Walters begins defending the civil liberties of the last two Warriors before being targeted herself. She helps take out the perpetrator before John Jameson proposes to her. The artwork in this chapter is good, but it contains a number of elements that are serialized to the main She-Hulk story, none of which have to do with the Civil War.

After selling his movie rights, Macdonald Gargan kills a S.H.I.E.L.D. team, then turns into Venom to accept the amnesty offer being offered by the government. This chapter has no character development and it makes it entirely baffling why S.H.I.E.L.D. would even work with a guy like Gargan. Moreover, if the government and the superheroes know who he is, it seems like Venom would be one of the villains they would try to take out (one way or another) as opposed to offer amnesty and a position in the Thunderbolts to. This mundane chapter is plagued by sketchy artwork that makes the brief, dark scene seem cheap.

Another pointless story has Ant-Man helping a girl out of the war zone before wandering off to be a peeping tom.

As a fan of Daredevil, I was psyched to see a vignette from his corner of the Marvel Universe included in the book. However, Matt Murdock – having either been undercover with a new alias or captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. at this point in the narrative – is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Danny Rand, The Immortal Iron Fist, takes over for Matt Murdock as Daredevil in Hell’s Kitchen and walks into a trap. While the artwork in this story is consistent artwork with Daredevil, the muted colors and shady lines make less sense for his replacement. The artwork in Daredevil is arguably an expression of how Murdock “sees” the world, so it makes no sense for it to be the same in Danny Rand’s story.

U.S. Agent, who seems to be a cheap knock-off of Captain America, is almost killed by the Purple Man before joining Omega Flight in Canada. His story is irksome to read as it has two parallel storylines which are jumbled together . . . for no particular reason. This story has somewhat underdeveloped artwork.

In Cleveland, Howard The Duck tries to register but finds the local government denies his existence. This humorous, but somewhat pointless vignette has comic strip artwork.

“The Return” has Captain Marvel guarding the Negative Zone facility. A good chapter like this ought to get even those of us who do not know the character to invest in him or her. This chapter entirely failed to do that. I didn’t know the character and did not care about him after I was done reading this short story. This chapter does, however, have great artwork!

In another well-drawn, but pointless story, the Sentry decides to register.

“The Initiative” has Michael Pointer, “The Collective” brought in for Omega Flight. Civil War Marvel Universe concludes with stories wherein Hurricane is hunted by the villainous Thunderbolts and brought in and Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvel finds Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, and tries to talk her into registering. If it seems like I am not evaluating these so much, that it true, but there is not anything of substance to evaluate. Civil War Marvel Universe is not about significant plot or character developments; it’s about making sure every obscure character who can get a page in the narrative gets one. And it didn’t make me care, so I feel like spending no more time upon it!

For other Marvel graphic novels, please visit my reviews of:
The Avengers: The Search For She-Hulk
Deadpool Classic, Volume 1
Daredevil: Return Of The King

3.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Walking Dead Book Five Is The Rebuilding Of Hope And Character In The Walking Dead!

The Good: Character development, Plot progression
The Bad: Artwork
The Basics: Not much actually happens in The Walking Dead Book Five, but it develops the characters well and builds toward hope.


I’ll admit it: the only reason I am reading The Walking Dead graphic novels at this point is because I am a fan of the show and, given how dark it is, I like to know what is coming and I can prepare my wife for what might be coming (she was real happy to have the advance warning of the Governor’s loss of an eye, for example!). So, I hung on with reading The Walking Dead Book Five largely because I wanted to see the parallels with the television series and because I am so invested in that (and not, for example, with the artwork in these books). That said, The Walking Dead Book Five actually stands up well – despite very little happening on the plot front – because it takes the time to actually develop the characters in the book, most notably giving Rick Grimes a genuine character struggle to deal with.

It is pretty much impossible to discuss The Walking Dead Book Five without revealing some of how Book Four ended. That’s the closest to a “spoiler alert” I’ll do. As well, those looking for the differences and parallels between the books and the television series might be interested in knowing that the telephone gag used in Season Three of The Walking Dead is a part of The Walking Dead Book Five. It worked better in the television series, though, because: 1. Hershel knew the reality of the situation and 2. In the book, Carl is right near Rick on a few of the occasions it happens, so he should have noticed that the telephone did not actually ring.

The Walking Dead Book Five is very much a continuation of Book 4 and includes the chapters previously released in softcover as Here We Remain and What We Become. It opens in the aftermath of the second Woodbury assault on the prison where the survivors have holed up. With the fall of the prison and the slaughter of most of Rick’s friends and family, Rick and Carl flee the area. They take up in an abandoned house where Rick, having been wounded in the fight, falls ill, leaving Carl to fend for himself. Carl successfully keeps the roamers away while Rick’s fever breaks and soon they are reunited with Maggie, Glenn, Sophia, Andrea, Dale, Michonne and the twins. They return to Hershel’s farm, which is filled with ghosts for Maggie. There, they are visited by Sergeant Abraham Ford, his girlfriend, and Eugene. Ford wants to raid the farm for supplies, but the survivors stop him.

Eugene, as it turns out, is a scientist who claims to have been working on the project that started the plague (and created the zombies). He claims that in Washington, D.C. there is a government organization hunkered down and with the information he has, he can help end the plague. This has given Ford a mission and direction and, in proving to the survivors how dangerous the world has become, the farm is potentially overrun by the first herd of zombies Rick and his people have encountered. En route to Washington, Rick, Carl, and Ford make a side trip to Rick’s old neighborhood where he recovers the deeply traumatized Morgan (his son, Duane, having been turned at this point) and additional weapons and supplies. With the looming threat of a herd, Rick and his people must continue on to Washington.

The Walking Dead Book Five is all about the characters. Rick Grimes has been deeply traumatized by the loss of his wife and daughter and he hears his dead wife talking to him through a telephone, even after he knows that it is not real. This leads him to question his own sanity, but gives him something to bond with with Ford. The Walking Dead Book Five is a period of intense self-doubt for Rick and only Michonne stands by him completely faithfully. In fact, despite all of the dark plot turns that inevitably crop up in The Walking Dead Book Five, arguably the darkest character moment comes near the climax of the book when Dale talks to Andrea about how he has given up his hope in surviving with Rick.

Ford makes for an interesting character and writer Robert Kirkman smartly makes him instantly sympathetic. He is not a blind killer; he wrestles with all of the decisions he has been forced to make, much like Rick has and he does not relish killing people, but on his journey from Austin to Atlanta, he has learned quite a bit about what it takes to survive.

The return of Morgan to the books is a good one and it is sad when Duane is revealed as a zombie. The struggle to survive has taken a toll on Morgan, as well as Sophia (who now calls Maggie “mom” and denies any memory of Carol) and Maggie (who, having lost her brother and Hershel, attempts suicide) and that level of realism is engaging in The Walking Dead Book Five.

In The Walking Dead Book Five, the enemies are largely the humans. The story Ford tells is all about how his family was raped by humans who he had to tear apart in his vengeance. On the page, Rick, Ford, and Carl run into marauders on the Interstate and one of them attempts to rape Carl. I agree that after the apocalypse, people are likely to revert to some animalistic ways, but I’m upset by the theory Kirkman seems to be positing that either only all the pedophiles will survive or that in the wake of society’s collapse, pedophilic rape will be one of the most common means of social interaction in the new world order.

The Walking Dead Book Five features the characteristically medicocre artwork that The Walking Dead is known for. In fact, the very best artwork in the entire book is the cover gallery shot that features the thirteen characters who populate this section of the story in vivid, clear color. Black and white on the page, there are panels where it is virtually impossible to tell Carl, Maggie and Glenn apart. The Walking Dead Book Five also seems to have much rougher transitions between panels than prior volumes did.

Even so, The Walking Dead Book Five is good in that, after so much suffering and torment in prior books, Kirkman and his team take time to rebuild and refocus the series. Strongly character focused, The Walking Dead Book Five is enough to keep those already invested interested in The Walking Dead even if it is not likely to get newbies into the series.

For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four

6/10

For other graphic novels I have reviewed, be sure to check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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All Good Things Come To An End For The Survivors In The Walking Dead Book Four!

The Good: Good character development, Decent plot progression
The Bad: Terrible artwork that inhibits comprehension of events!
The Basics: In The Walking Dead Book Four, the survivors in the prison bond and survive for two months before an assault from Woodbury changes everything.


The very best advice I have for anyone watching The Walking Dead on television or DVD now is to read the graphic novels. Especially for female fans of the show, the very best advice is to know what is coming and decide in advance if it is the type of story you might want to watch. Having read the very brutal series of events that transpired when three of the survivors ended up in the nearby community of Woodbury (which is where the current season of the television version of The Walking Dead is!), I know I was glad to know what could be coming on the show in order to warn members of my family who are very sensitive to things such as torture, torment, and brutality, of how they need to be on guard.

The Walking Dead Book Four picks up after Rick, less one of his hands, and the other survivors make it back from Woodbury, with a new medic. This is, far and away, the very best The Walking Dead graphic novel I have yet read, largely because it takes the time to build to the inevitable while developing the characters present and being engaging as it builds on the plot front. Unfortunately, the artwork being rendered in black and white actually manages to obscure some of the events that it is trying to portray, which is a serious detriment for a graphic novel.

Following the incident in Woodbury, the residents of the prison prepare for an attack. As they wait, Lori has her baby – a girl she names Judith – and Carl and Maggie get married. On the night Lori gives birth to Judith, a team uses the RV to find the national guard station, getting ammo, gas, and supplies at a nearby Wal-Mart. The destruction of the National Guard depot draws the attention of a team from Woodbury, which the survivors kill in self-defense. While they are out, Dale is attacked by a roamer in the parking lot while scavenging for gasoline and is bit. His leg is amputated and he survives without turning. Despite seeming to get better, Carol uses the captured roamer to kill herself, leaving Sophia orphaned and traumatized. While Dale becomes worried that Andrea and Tyreese might be sleeping together, Andrea reassures him when she presents him with a prosthetic leg she designed for him.

Just as the survivors become complacent in the jail, the forces from Woodbury attack en masse. Despite being caught off guard, the residents of the prison effectively hold off the Governor and his untrained forces. Rick is shot in the conflict, but he survives. Michonne and Tyreese run off after the Governor’s forces to try to use surprise to take out some of their forces. Dale, Andrea, Glenn, and Maggie take Sophia and the twins out in the RV before the Governor’s forces can attack again. But, when the Governor’s forces capture Tyreese and return, the results are utterly disastrous.

The characters in The Walking Dead Book Four develop a siege mentality and it is easy to see how the readership might have fallen off from the comic book during this section of the storyline given how so little happens in the first half of the book. The characters are waiting, preparing, living with reasoned fear for an attack that has not come and does not come when they are anticipating it most. As a result, the book is more cerebral from the outset. This is not a volume about fighting off zombies, this is a time lapse story of the two months that give the survivors from Atlanta a chance to breathe before the pounding comes that they anticipated.

On the character front, Lori works hard to repair her marriage with Rick, by broaching the topic of Shane with him and she gets a surprising reaction from him. Other characters come and go and while Carol’s exit from the story is painfully abrupt, it paints well the face of mental illness or the suicidal mindset, making for a realism that is gruesome, but true.

There is also something deeply satisfying about how The Walking Dead Book Four defies the conventions of storytelling as well. Michonne was tortured and raped by the Governor, but she is not granted the obvious moment of revenge upon him (though he arrives in this volume thoroughly mutilated from their last encounter) that would be most cathartic for the reader. Instead, writer Robert Kirkman smartly inserts random elements to prevent the obvious catharsis and make for a surprising sequence, despite what seems like an obvious plot progression.

Unfortunately, the artwork is enough to inhibit the full enjoyment of the book. Things like Glenn getting shot, stripping off his body armor and exposing his chest means exceptionally little when the artwork does not make it clear that he has been severely bruised and probably cracked some of his ribs. There are several points where, if the artwork was better, the book would have more of an impact.

Even so, the writing is tight enough to present a story that is strong enough to enthusiastically recommend. As a story of survival, The Walking Dead Book Four is well-developed and engaging, even if the character designs do not make the story as clear as it should be.

For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Two
Book Three

7.5/10

For other book reviews, be sure to check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Artwork Hampers The Continuing Menace Of The Walking Dead, Book Two.

The Good: Moments of character interactions, Fairly solid (if simple) plot
The Bad: The artwork absolutely sucks, Melodramatic moments
The Basics: The Walking Dead, Book Two is an adequate continuation of the story of survival horror, but not much more.


Few works have illustrated to me the importance of color, depth and shading like The Walking Dead, Book Two. The Walking Dead, Book Two is a frustrating extension of the story that follows Rick Grimes and his band of survivors following a zombie apocalypse. The volume, a compilation of the previously released trade paperback anthologies Safety Behind Bars and The Heart’s Desire has an incredibly simple plot: the survivors start clearing the prison they have found of the dead, while beginning to acclimate to the living people they found there.

With a plot so incredibly easy to summarize, The Walking Dead, Book Two is only laudable for its character elements. But, because so many of the characters – Otis and Hershel, Carol and Andrea, etc. – are rendered in ways that make them look alike, far too much effort must be expended when reading The Walking Dead, Book Two to determine who exactly is speaking. And, by this point, The Walking Dead has a number of characters, most of whom feel like zombiebait more than truly vibrant and real, so it can be hard to care about them, especially when they begin expressing themselves in melodramatic terms.

Moreover, when characters reference how bad their clothes smell or not liking the bright orange color of the jumpers that Andrea has found for everyone to wear, the lack of color in the book begins to feel inorganic and problematic. The Walking Dead, Book Two would have been greatly improved by colored panels, even if that would not solve some of the problems with the artwork feeling largely static within the panels.

In The Walking Dead, Book Two, Rick Grimes and the RV full of survivors from Atlanta drives up to the gates of a prison. Managing to kill the walkers between the main gate and the actual prison, they enter the facility to find it remarkably intact. In the cafeteria, they find four prisoners who are still alive and remarkably healthy, having been isolated for months since the outbreak began. While all but one claim to be inside for minor crimes, Rick instantly fixates on Dexter, a prisoner who admits he was in for murdering his wife and his wife’s lover.

So, when the twins are beheaded, Rick’s suspicions instantly turn to Dexter. The murders follow on the heels of Tyreese’s daughter and her boyfriend unsuccessfully initiating a murder/suicide pact which Tyreese has to finish. When the perpetrator of the child murders is quickly revealed to be another prisoner, Rick begins laying down the law. With Hershel’s family now at the prison, Rick starts actually leading, though that infuriates Dexter. Dexter and his buddy raid the armory, in the process setting loose a hoard of roamers. In the process of cleaning out the yard, Rick uses the opportunity to dispatch Dexter. Between that and a questionable decision to amputate Allen’s leg, Rick and Tyreese come to blows even as Glenn and Maggie get closer and the group welcomes a new stranger who has survived on the outside longer than anyone they know of.

The Walking Dead, Book Two introduces a number of new characters, but it is not very long before those new characters are whittled down to two. Axel, a prisoner, actually seems to be exactly what he claims, an old, nonviolent prisoner who just wants to survives, and Michonne. Michonne arrives with her sword and poncho and two walkers chained to her. Her backstory is kept hidden throughout this book, yet she instantly begins to become a dynamic character in that she disrupts Tyreese’s relationship with Carol and is found talking to herself. Eager to live with Rick’s rules simply to be out of the wilderness, Michonne is characterized by others as tough.

But, despite the soap operatic elements – Glenn and Maggie’s developing relationship, Sophia and Carl’s childish flirtations, etc. - The Walking Dead, Book Two manages to have some solid character development, most of which centers on Rick and Tyreese. Both Rick and Tyreese murder in The Walking Dead, Book Two. Tyreese takes out Chris when Chris kills Julie before Julie can kill him in their murder/suicide pact. This is mirrored by Rick dispensing justice upon the childkiller, though each man’s reactions to the other as a result of their killing becomes a point of contention between them. The character struggles and conflict between Tyreese and Rick is the main rising action of The Walking Dead, Book Two and it is a compelling and sufficiently complex conflict to engage the reader (though it does degenerate into a rather simple fistfight).

The Walking Dead, Book Two is also the book where Rick and the survivors learn that whatever causes the dead to rise is in all of them. Witnessing characters who have not been bitten by zombies turn after death leads Rick to the dramatic conclusion at the end of the book that spells death for everyone in the infected world. The perspective – the slow learning curve that gives the survivors information without answers – is compelling and realistic and enough to recommend The Walking Dead, Book Two to mature readers.

And, poor artwork or not, The Walking Dead, Book Two is intended for mature readers. The sheer number of graphic deaths in the book, combined with people beating others to a bloody pulp, is not for the faint of heart.

For other The Walking Dead books, check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
Book One
Book Three

5.5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Worst Of Humanity After The Apocalypse Comes In The Walking Dead: Book Three.

The Good: Realism, Horror, Character work
The Bad: Not at all entertaining, Utterly horrific, Unrelenting, Artwork
The Basics: In The Walking Dead: Book Three, the tale of survival horror turns to a very disgusting form of human on human interaction that is tough to find entertainment value in.


I like mature works and The Walking Dead certainly qualifies for that. The story of life after the Zombie Apocalypse hits is dark and frightening, though arguably not as compelling at the television series. While I have enjoyed the television series, I have only recently begun reading the books. Even with a little lapse in between where I last read (The Walking Dead: Book One, reviewed here!) and now, it was very easy for me to pick up The Walking Dead: Book Three and not feel totally lost. I do, however, hesitate to say “enjoyed.” I’m not sure I enjoyed The Walking Dead: Book Three.

While The Walking Dead: Book Three continues the story of Rick, Lori, Dale, Tyreese, Glenn, and Michonne (whose entrance to the series happened somewhere in Book Two which I have not yet read), it takes the story in a brutal and disturbing direction. Like the final act of 28 Days Later (reviewed here!), the undead are not the primary threat in The Walking Dead: Book Three. Instead, it is humans who are the most fearsome enemies in The Walking Dead: Book Three and how inhuman they are makes for a particularly disturbing book. While I can appreciate the realism of this, if the television series closely mirrors the books in its descent into becoming utterly unpleasant stories of humans victimizing one another, I cannot imagine I’ll continue watching the show. As it is, I’m on the fence as to whether I’ll pick up and read The Walking Dead: Book Four.

That said, The Walking Dead: Book Three finds the survivors of the zombie apocalypse enjoying a relative haven and the character work in the book is actually interesting. The wind-up to the final pages explores Rick Grimes in a way that is compelling and asks important questions about humanity, which is what good and great literature, and certainly mature works, ought to do.

Now holed up in the prison, the survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse are feeling safe for the first time in quite some time. Despite a recent conflict that has left Tyreese and Rick at odds with one another, everyone seems to want to get along. After discovering some riot gear, Glenn and Rick spot a helicopter and when it crashes nearby, they – along with Michonne – go to investigate it. They discover that the occupants of the helicopter were taken from the crash site and, realizing this, they follow the trail to nearby Woodbury. There, they find a community of about forty people who live under a man who calls himself the Governor.

In addition to giving his citizens bloodsports to watch, the Governor protects his people by feeding incapacitated zombies any new humans that arrive. With Rick, Michonne, and Glenn, he decides to forego his usual murder to discover where they came from. Cutting off Rick’s right hand, imprisoning Glenn, and raping and beating Michonne repeatedly, the Governor hopes to learn the location of the prison. While Tyreese scours the area near where the trio abandoned their car, the three prisoners work to resist their tormentors until a chance for escape presents itself.

The Walking Dead: Book Three is a torture horror book. The situation in this volume is far from supernatural. The antagonistic Governor is an evil redneck who rules over his subjects with fear and a squad of thugs. While writer Robert Kirkman gives Philip (The Governor) one point of humanity – his daughter who has been turned and whom he keeps locked in his house – she is treated more as a plot-convenient Achilles heel. In a similar way, while the preserved heads of strangers the Governor has killed and fed to the zombies being kept in aquarium tanks that the Governor sits and watches makes for a disturbing image, it makes very little practical sense.

Even with this being my first experience with Michonne, it was impossible not to feel terrible for what she endures and the character-driven conflict that follows, where she worries about what kind of person she has become following her chance at revenge is a compelling one. But far, vastly more, than being about the conflict, The Walking Dead: Book Three is filled with gruesome pages where people are being tortured. That makes The Walking Dead: Book Three far from entertaining, though it does continue the series’ trend toward realism.

What works with The Walking Dead: Book Three is the way the characters continue to grow and evolve throughout the book. Lori finally stops worrying about Rick leaving all the time, Glenn and Maggie actually form a relationship, and Dale and Andrea start taking care of the twins. There is nothing static about the characters in The Walking Dead: Book Three, though not all of it works so well. Carol pitching an untraditional marriage to Lori seems to come out of nowhere, though she is right that old social paradigms are pretty much dead.

The artwork in The Walking Dead: Book Three is marginally better than in the prior volumes I read. The Governor is distinctly rendered, but some of the characters within the jail look a lot like Rick or Hershel and that makes the book a little harder to follow than it ought to be. Glenn, Michonne, and Rick, though, stand out – even if Alice and Andrea are virtually interchangeable for many of the panels in The Walking Dead: Book Three.

As an omnibus edition, The Walking Dead: Book Three also features a full-color cover gallery at the back of the book. This, along with a couple pages of sketches serve as the book’s “bonus features” and they are all-right. But largely, The Walking Dead: Book Three is a book of human suffering and if one picks it up expecting anything other than that, they are liable to be severely disappointed and distressed.

For other The Walking Dead works, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Days Gone Bye
The Walking Dead - Season 1
The Walking Dead - Season 2

5/10

For other book reviews, be sure to check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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