Write Or Wrong 75

Death Becomes Them

Imagine a world where the dead begin to walk again. A world where society is turned on it's head and cities are patrolled by mindless, flesh-craving zombies. It's a world where the people who haven't become zombies have to fend for themselves without electricity, running water, or any of the modern amenities that we are blessed with. Money is useless and canned foods are as valuable as gold. Gone are the days of going to the local supermarket and purchasing food for the week. Now it's a time to actually hunt if you want fresh meat. It's a time to stockpile non-perishables and ration fresh water. These are the times where all the excess bullshit of world politics, smutty entertainment and senseless crime melt away. They are replaced by a new age of survival and fellowship. This is the world of "The Walking Dead", written by Robert Kirkman.

We've all seen it before in movies, television shows, and video games: Zombies. The "Resident Evil" video games taught us that we could survive a zombie holocaust with a shotgun, some herbs, and a lot of puzzle solving. The George Romero zombie movies showed us that locking ourselves away in a mall would stave off the zombies for a while. And "28 Days" later showed us the inhumanity that humanity is capable of in the face of such a situation. But, to be honest, all of these storylines have left us out in the cold simply because of the medium that they inhabit. Each one can tell a story of great quality and involvement, yet only last for two hours (for the movies) or sixteen to twenty hours (for the video games). With "the Walking Dead", a fairly new comic book published by Image Comics, we get to witness the survival of the main characters from month to month without the fear of hitting the two-hour mark and the story ending.

The comic chronicles the quest for survival and a sense of semi-normalcy by a group of survivors of the aforementioned "zombie holocaust". The beauty of this book is that we never really see how the world's zombie problems began. We don't see the origin of the zombies or even how the governments of the world reacted. What we do get is the aftermath. We get to see how a small town cop will traverse great distances and put aside fear just to find his displaced wife and son. We get glimpses of how a young man will risk his life on a daily basis by journeying into zombie-infested territory just to bring back canned foods and supplies for his fellow survivors. Without giving away too much, I just have to say that this is a series set in a world full of zombies and there is survival involved, but it's not about continuously fighting zombies. The story is a character study on human nature. We get to see how people react in the face of the horror that the world has become. When technology and all other extraneous things are stripped away, all we have is each other. And when all we have is each other, what's to keep us from turning on one another?

This is true genre storytelling at it's best. It's using the genre of survival-horror as a vehicle to explore humanity. And I love it. I've been focusing primarily on the writing of the book but I have to say that the art is every bit as good. The first six issues were penciled by rising star, Tony Moore. His artwork is reminiscent of Steve Dillon's "talking heads" skills and fluid panel work with a bit of Cully Hamner's angular human anatomy and superbly fluid action. It's a look that achieves detailed realism with just a touch of softness to let you remember that things can still be light hearted and fun, even when things looks bad. And recently Tony Moore left the book and was replaced by Charlie Adlard, whose work is quite different from Moore's. And while it's different it's far from bad. Adlard keeps the fluid panel work of the first few arcs and combines it with slightly darker and rougher sketched characters to immerse us a bit more in the reality of Kirkman's zombie-infested world. Add to this the fact that all the art is done in "black & white" gray-tones (by Cliff Rathburn) and you get the feel of an old horror movie. The lack of a bright pallet instils in the reader a sense of attention to what's going on all around the characters. Those bright hues that would usually distract you in a normal comic are non-existent and let you see how the characters see things now. Sure, they'd like comfort, but right now, it's life or death.

So that's my review. I thought I'd go a different route this week and spotlight something that I've taken a great liking to and that seems to be gaining a great deal of buzz in many circles. So, if you like human drama with a little dose of zombie action, then check out "The Walking Dead".