Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Walking Dead #64

Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn


Another month, another excellent issue of The Walking Dead. I really have to hand it to Kirkman, Adlard, and crew - when they promised to stick to a schedule, they really came through, not just with timeliness, but with dependable, consistent quality.

In this issue, we get Dale's reaction to his current situation, which involves more mirth than one would expect, and a change in the relationship between Abraham and Rick. This issue places the group back into a siege situation, and I admire the way Kirkman is always able to find new situations full of dread, without having to give us endless re-treads of the same old thing. He's managed to keep a degree of novelty to the book.

The big news of the day is that AMC, a cable channel has acquired the rights to this book. This could be very good news, but they would have to stay faithful to the book's rotating cast to keep any real sense of dread in the series. If it falls into the old stand-by of the new character being the one to get killed every episode, the show won't work. One of the things that I like most about this comic is that, from issue to issue, there's no guarantee that anyone (except perhaps Rick) will survive.

On the flip side of this book, Image has included the first issue of Viking, for no extra charge. I liked it when they did this with Chew #1 last month, because I hadn't bought that book. In this case, as I'd already read and enjoyed Viking, it didn't do too much for me, but I enjoyed seeing how the book looks in standard size, and black and white. It's still a beautiful book, and a good read. If you pick this up and try it for the first time, trust me, the second issue is better still.

I like the idea of The Walking Dead being the Image free sample book, and I hope they continue with this, especially as they are promoting some high quality books that more people should be reading.

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