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The
Walking Dead
3/DEC/2003
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Pencils: Tony Moore
Inks: Tony Moore
Grey Tones: Tony Moore
Letters: Robert Kirkman
Price: $2.95 US/R10.00 SA
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Aaaaaargh! Zombieeeees! Join me as I take a walk on the dark side
with the latest in horror comics from Image, The Walking
Dead.
Rick has recovered from his injuries and rejoins Lori and Carl at
their camp outside the city. Rick is warned that Shane might be
his friend and have helped to save his family, but he might also
have eyes for his wife. Then Rick and Shane go off hunting while
the women go down to the river to wash the clothes.
Robert Kirkman [Invincible, Tech
Jacket] does a great job of giving this comic a realistic
feel. The premise of Zombie Horror comics is so cheesy and campy
that it’s almost destined to fail before most creators even
get going. This time things are different as Kirkman infiltrates
the standard horror script with humanity and the ‘surviving’
characters take the primary role over from the monsters.
It’s the ‘everydayness’ of this book that
helps the reader relate to the far out storyline. The people
caught in this mess are just like you or I and the rest of our families.
This creates a nice groundwork of normalcy which make the monsters
stand out as even more abhorrent and unnatural. It’s amazing
how straight up dialogue and survivalist everyday tasks, like going
to the river to wash clothes, manage to grasp your attention and
draw you into a plausible world, only for a flesh eating Zombie
to be decapitated right in front of your face. It’s this ‘draw
in and relax’ and then shock technique that made this issue
stand out for me.
The artwork by Tony Moore [Brit]
is solid and nice to look at. He helps to project Kirkman’s
‘everyman’ feel into the story by creating characters
with visual flaws who look like real people. Lori has a large flat
nose, Donna is old and overweight and there are a mixture of age
groups from very young children to teenagers and young adults to
old age people all mixed together.
The grey tone ‘colouring’ by Moore is most impressive
as is his use of lighting, this is especially evident with facial
tones. He also puts to use some nice background textures to keep
the less detailed panels from getting boring.
A nice horror based comic with a real world twist. The story and
dialogue will surprise you with is life-like charm and the Zombies
will have you running for the hills!
Score 7/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan
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Comic Reviews
