This column covers material read digitally, oddly enough, from my comiXology account...And this particular edition covers: Impulse #1, The Infidel #1, Inhuman #1, Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Three #1, The Mire #1, and Invincible #s 1 & 118...
Impulse #1 (DC)
From 1995.
This is not the first time I've read it. Back in the '90s I was as big a fan of Mark Waid as you could find, and especially of his Flash comics. And then he launched Impulse and I found something I loved even more.
Going back to this issue is something like rediscovering it. In the early going it reads very much like Edward Furlong in Terminator 2, and even the great Humberto Ramos, in these pages, looks like that's exactly what he's evoking in the art. It's not until Bart Allen is in the same room as Max Mercury that the issue truly becomes alive. Now, Max was always my favorite. From his introduction in the seminal "Return of Barry Allen" arc, Max was a brand-new character, a mentor who wasn't really a mentor at all, more like a reluctant observer/guardian, especially once given responsibility for the ADHD poster child Bart, Waid's vision of video game corruption as feared for years by excitable parents and social watchdogs everywhere. Reading Max now is like discovering that he could easily be Arnold Schwarzenegger as seen in Maggie, that hulking figure who seems completely incongruous in the given situation but otherwise tries to make the best of it...
And Bart? Never mind that Ramos finally becomes recognizable as Bart and Max interact, Bart suddenly seems like an emissary from the future. No, not the fictional one from his origin, but from Pixar, from films like Frozen. Yes, a full twenty years ahead of his time, instead of a teenager culled from a movie four years in the past.
Needless to say, but Bart didn't stay like that for long. Even before Geoff Johns revamped the character in the pages of Teen Titans, Bart had become a victim of his own quirks, bereft of the innocent charm Waid and Ramos gave him and made into a cartoon of a cartoon. And I liked that version. But it wasn't Bart at his best. That was always Waid's Bart. And Humberto Ramos on art. Ramos has actually aged the best out of all three. He later graduated to another youthful character, Spider-Man, and seemed perfectly at home from the start. More people know this work than ever cared about Bart and Max. This is okay, because it's a rare second act in comics that builds on the first effortlessly. Usually when a given act is transplanted, something is definitely lost in translation.
But this is to say, there's a good deal to rediscover. With DC delving into its past so gleefully these days, now might be a good time to dig up this version of Bart Allen. Something tells me that at the very least, a really good movie could be made out of it.
The Infidel, featuring Pigman #1 (Bosch)
From 2011.
For people who want a sanitized version of Frank Miller's Holy Terror. The cover image even seems to evoke it.
Inhuman #1 (Marvel)
From 2014.
Hmm. So, maybe the Inhumans are not completely pointless after all. You'll forgive me for believing that all this time, because as far as I could tell previously, even with potential they had been completely pointless for, oh, fifty years. They were an attempt to duplicate the idea of mutants but in a different context. Handled better they could very easily be the best thing Marvel has ever done. Well, imagine that.
This isn't the first step in making them relevant, but it's a neat little package and it's written by Charles Soule, signer of that infernal exclusive deal with Marvel that took him away from a lot of good DC work. I can't ascribe all of this new potential to Soule, but as far as I'm concerned...why not? Because there's the hallmark of work I am familiar with from the pages of Red Lanterns, blown up to epic proportions. The Inhumans are the product of genetic engineering from an ancient Kree visit to Earth, and a society that until recently was pretty exclusive and self-contained. Except now things have gone all to hell. The Terrigen Mist was released as Inhumans are popping up left and right. It's kind of like what Marvel tried doing with mutants once it had done a complete hash job of keeping them relevant, but done...better. Possibly because this is a story that's building rather than attempting to continue.
And this may be one of the many reasons I finally give up on Ms. Marvel, because technically its premise is entirely predicated on this bold new Inhumans arc but without any real understanding as to its potential.
Here, as in something Brian Michael Bendis was the last X-Men writer I've seen trying to salvage the mutant version therein from the early issues of All-New X-Men, new Inhumans are being inducted to the ongoing war of ideology among this clan. And I use clan because the full potential of all this could very much be a Game of Thrones situation, completely subverting the biggest weakness that had previously plagued the Inhumans in that they used to be just another superhero team with a quasi-gimmick to try and set them apart (which didn't work or didn't seem interesting, and so this long fallow publishing history). Soule did some of that in Red Lanterns, and even Swamp Thing was ultimately about this very concept.
If he and/or other writers actually pull it off, the Inhumans really could be the next big thing. As represented in this particular issue, it really could be. If he's built on this foundation profitably in the meantime, that time could actually be now. (Marvel Now! Heh.)
I'll have to have a look around...
Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Three #1 (DC)
From 2014.
Based on a video game...and wouldn't you know, that is not all you need to know! Like Inhuman above, this is a pleasant surprise. As the somewhat laborious title suggests, this has been going on for some time already. This particular debut issue drops the reader in the middle of the action with minimal context (basically, key good guys are kind of key bad guys, leaving some of the more unconventional good guys to do the good guy bit), starring John Constantine (late of his own TV show these days) as he attempts to protect his daughter from things that go bump in the night. Along the way we also come across Zatanna (along with Black Canary, perennially doing what she can to keep the spirit of fishnets alive!) and Dr. Fate (Constantine has a good quip against him). And finally, Detective Chimp. A veteran reader of Shadowpact, I know how awesome Detective Chimp is. I'm curious what other readers (and/or game players?) think when they see him dropped into the story, with such an auspicious introduction. I've heard that the Injustice comics were good, but I'd avoided them because, y'know, based on a video game. But seriously, DC takes this stuff seriously. You could very easily read this exclusively and get a very healthy DC fix. The writer on record is Tom Taylor, who also helped out Earth 2 for a while. But I think he's since slipped away from DC. Either way, the dude's got talent.
The Mire #1 (Ink & Thunder)
From 2012.
...This is the kind of comiXology session you always hope for...Which is to say, I keep finding stuff that's fantastic today. This was listed under Ink & Thunder, and so I listed that here as publisher. But it's self-published by Becky Cloonan, a name I keep coming across, apparently because she's been around DC and/or Vertigo for a while now. And suddenly she's another thing I want to further investigate. Because The Mire is kind of that version of Lord of the Rings without all the quasi-epic history involved, just the intimate, character-centric kind you always suspected Tolkien could have focused on and made his work better, which is the thing Peter Jackson did that was absolutely the best part of his films (and so yes, when he went back with the Hobbit trilogy, you know exactly what I think he did best there)...And I guess this was pretty much a standalone tale, but I absolutely loved it. Good stuff, Cloonan.
Invincible #1 (Image)
From 2003.
Launched before Walking Dead, this is Robert Kirkman's original breakout series, one of those this-is-a-self-contained-superhero-comic-that's-not-even-published-by-DC-or-Marvel efforts that attempts to give readers a new venue with which to explore the genre. And it's probably a good way to know where Kirkman eventually takes Walking Dead, because unlike that series, he's already pushed Invincible to at least one climax (it's an Image thing; over in Spawn and Savage Dragon, the other long-lived superhero comics published by Image, definitive arcs have come and gone, and for some reason they keep getting published until the creators come up with, I don't know, another). Launched a few years after Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man, it's kind of the same experience as that, too. And for some reason, even though Walking Dead has since gone onto massive crossover success, Invincible is still sitting there pretty much ignored but still in publication. Probably because, Robert Kirkman, I guess. The beginning is all sweet and innocent, actually not so different from the Impulse experience. As a massive spoiler alert from the past, things become much, much more complicated. And anyway, as I said, if you don't want to wait decades (or however long Kirkman can actually draw it out), you probably can find out Walking Dead's future, because really, the two comics aren't really that different thematically. This is not a knock on Kirkman. Good writers have resonant themes in their work. This is the first time I realized Kirkman was probably doing that, too.
Invincible #118 (Image)
From 2015.
And...as it happens, the future is now. I had an issue from this year waiting for me, too. It's an isue designed to be a jumping-on point. Or at least intended to be. There's a massive recap of the series to date to start things off...and then we're dumped into the middle of the next arc just as if everything that follows makes perfect sense. Just 'cause! As I...may have suggested...I'm not really sure why Kirkman is still writing Incincible other than that it's a steady gig, and people...like steady gigs. It gives them stability. Life rarely comes prepackaged with that. But this issue makes the whole series, everything that's recapped, seem like just another series of stories, and that's kind of wrong for a series that seems predicated on breaking the mold, making it okay to delve into a superhero's life, because this is one creator's vision, everything means something, and the future isn't something that's as fictional as the character himself. Except...one-hundred and seventeen issues later, the lead character is still incredibly youthful, plopped into the middle of what comic books inevitably think growing up means, wife and one kid (see: Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows), trying desperately to figure out of that's a mistake or not. Comic book creators are amazingly bad at making sense of such developments. This issue also deals with the less-publicized notion of male rape victim, another thing comics inordinately fixate on (Dick Grayson was infamously such a victim, which fans reacted to as if this ruined the character, somewhat the obverse of the point I'm trying to make, and also a black stain on readers instead of just creators). Not something I'm taking lightly, but...well, maybe victims of either gender will benefit from it being explored regardless. Anyway, the greater point (that makes it sound like I'm sweeping aside the issue...) being, it doesn't paint the series in the best light, any of this. Even Bendis eventually moved on to a different Ultimate Spider-Man. Maybe Kirkman should do that?
Too bad I'm ending on a bad note, because most of this stuff really was good. In the random way I tend to collect comiXology material, that is never a given. So it really is good when it happens.
Showing posts with label Robert Kirkman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Kirkman. Show all posts
Monday, June 15, 2015
Monday, May 5, 2014
Reading Comics #122 "Bull Moose Grab Bag"
I love grab bags. One of the shops I frequent these days, which is actually an indy music/movie chain store that also has comic books, is Bull Moose in Lewiston, Maine. I've gotten a few grab bags from them over the last few months, and during the course of my reviews of the stuff I've been reading lately you might have seen some fairly negative ones. Since I've cut back on my spending, I've been reading far fewer comics than I used to, only the stuff that I'm really certain I'll appreciate, so that's the secret origin of that. Bull Moose grab bags are a great bargain (since it's highly unlikely that there will be a lot of Lewiston, Maine, natives in my reading audience, this does not count as a shameless plug), ten recent comics for five bucks. "Recent" means within the past year, usually within the last few months (although the one I got this Saturday must have been one of the older bags they had, because its contents were near a year old).
So at this point I've decided to bring back the roundup feature I sometimes fall back on here. When there's something I haven't really enjoyed I don't have to try and justify it too much. But there can be real gems in the bunch as well!
Cable and X-Force #18 (Marvel)
Cable and Bishop are time-traveling mutants who are fascinating in theory but are more often than not incapable of living up to their potential, possibly because writers aren't really thinking about what they can do but rather what they can't, which is explore the dystopias they come from. Bishop has had a much rougher path to follow than Cable (notice which one is in the title, and has had a lot of series over the years and which...hasn't), although he's been a favorite of mine since I first saw him in the old early '90s X-Men cartoon. (Hey, and speaking of which, is either one of these guys in X-Men: Days of the Future Past?) They've got the same curse every Marvel mutant has, actually, only amplified. Everyone knows that the X-Men are supposed to be a persecuted lot, but the logical gymnastics writers take to keep them that way, or ignore this concept entirely, can sometimes be ridiculous. Recently they've settled on making more Magneto characters, which is to say compromised figures trying to do the right thing but making all the wrong moves (read: Cyclops). Add Bishop to that bunch, unfortunately. And so that's what this issue is all about. Apparently someone also thought it was a good idea to have not one but two teams of X-Force running around (because you can never have too many competing concepts in Marvel), and so that's also what this comic's about. It's not very good, alas. And the art looks a little weird at points. It screws up Cable, for instance. (Since when was his metallic arm a covering for an actual arm? Who am I kidding? I don't care!) Long story short: this is not a comic book I would have read deliberately.
Earth 2 #19 (DC)
I kept trying to find the recent annual that basically mainlined the awesome Flashpoint concept from a few years back of Thomas Wayne becoming Batman instead of his son, but failed everywhere I looked (even though I do digital comics now and am clearly aware of the Internet, I still love operating in the physical world), so it was pretty awesome to randomly come across an issue of the regular series. This series, in case you're not aware, is set in one of DC's alternate realities. It was launched by James Robinson as a surrogate Justice Society landscape but set in the same context as the debut arc from Geoff Johns' Justice League, so that the Darkseid siege of Earth was more successful and so everyone had to figure out how to pick up the pieces. At the start the new versions of the classic JSA superheroes were occupying a landscape devoid of the more familiar DC icons because those guys had been eliminated. But recently they've been resurfacing, including the new Batman. I think it's evolved beautifully, and under the auspices of Tom Taylor remains a leading contender for a mainstream superhero comic that you could pick as your standalone experience should you want to know what that's like without having to worry about picking up any other series. And this is a good issue. Like I've said about Justice League all along, Earth 2 could easily be construed as an ongoing event book. Closing in on two years, that's not a bad thing to consider reading at all. At the moment, Batman and the altered version of Superman have been occupying the center stage, coming ever closing to a reckoning. Well, like I said, good stuff.
Infinity #6 (Marvel)
This was last year's big Marvel event, sort of like something-something Thanos, something-something Inhumans (because Marvel keeps trying to make them a thing just like DC keeps trying to make the New Gods a thing, and only one of them actually has something interesting to explore) (and it's not Marvel). This was Jonathan Hickman's effort to duplicate the classic Jim Starlin stories featuring Thanos, no doubt thanks to the large-chin villain's cameo at the end of Avengers (although he won't appear as a main character until the third movie) (probably). I've always admired Hickman's ambition, but I'm not sure he's quite what Marvel keeps hoping he'll be, which is their own Grant Morrison. He's better than other writers who've tried to handle Thanos recently, but the result is still a fairly poor echo of Starlin's material. Still, the art is from Jim Cheung, who was half of the iconic original team on Young Avengers (along with Allan Heinberg). Good strong stuff there, anyway, as always. Glad to see him still considered a significant player.
Marvel Previews #14 (Marvel)
This is Marvel's separate catalog to the industry-standard, Diamond distributor version that handles...everyone else. I don't really know why this ended up in the grab bag. But it didn't exactly convince me to think any differently about Marvel's current output than I have been. On the cover is Nightcrawler, the latest returned-from-the-dead character. Oh, which reminds me, in case you had no idea, Nightcrawler's been dead lately. But apparently he got better.
Red Lanterns #25 (DC)
I haven't really been following the Green Lantern franchise, other than Geoff Johns, since the New 52 relaunch in 2011, but it's been nice knowing it exists, and in such force. One of the odder additions to the lineup was a Red Lanterns series, but it seems the longer it's lasted the better it's gotten. With Charles Soule, always good news, writing it these days, and Guy Gardner having become the face, it's probably as good or better than anything else you'll find in the lineup. Guy has repositioned the remaining members of the corps into defenders of his home turf, not so much on Earth but the territory (Space Sector 2814, to be precise). Soule has particular fun with Guy's allies, while he also continues the saga of Atrocitus, who once ruled the roost. It's as good a sci-fi title as I've read, which is actually pretty rare for a Green Lantern series. Which is pretty odd when you think about it.
The Sandman: Overture Special Edition #1 (Vertigo)
So, clearly I'm kind of the target audience for this series. I'm not sure how many new readers will be coming aboard for the journey, except maybe Neil Gaiman fans who came about after the end of the original series when he'd begun making a name for himself as a prose writer. The casual comics reader probably won't be spending too much time in the Vertigo sandbox, because with Image and a thousand indies running around, there's a lot more competition for the nonsuperhero set than ever before. As someone who loves Gaiman's Sandman but who hasn't read the complete series, I'm a curious phenomenon (for a lot of other reasons, too). I caught the original version of this debut issue of Overture, but was glad to randomly catch the special edition as well. It helped me digest it a little more, not just the bonus features, but being forced to read the comic itself over again. The Corinthian (the creepy dude with two additional mouths where his eyes ought to be) is in the spotlight once again, but only until our title hero stumbles into an existential conundrum that is not anywhere near finished by the end of the issue. Gaiman's approach is serialized in this effort, rather than in some of the fairly self-contained stories he told even in his arcs from the original Sandman. There's plenty to find familiar and interesting here. It certainly helps to have an artist the caliber of J.H. Williams III (there are few others capable of being anywhere near as awesome), whose sense of the page is virtually unparalleled, which as host of the special edition he's capable of walking through with the reader. If you're unsure of Overture, these special editions may actually be your better bet.
Sonic Universe #58 (Archie)
I'm just going to skip over this one. Better for you. Better for me. Better for them.
Swamp Thing #27 (DC)
There's whole corners of the New 52 landscape that have nothing to do with Superman or Batman or Green Lantern. No, really! One of them involves the so-called "dark" characters who most recently were handled by Vertigo rather than DC. Their return has been one of the most interesting things about the relauch (I know, if you hear much about it I bet you much more regularly hear all the complaints about what was lost rather than gained). I confess to not having really taken advantage of this stuff. But it's good. It's probably some of the best stuff DC has. But even fans who know about this corner find reasons to complain, especially since there have been a lot of crossovers. I don't see the problem with crossovers. If it's a shared universe, it's a lot more useful, sometimes, to have an out-and-out crossover rather than have a guest-star. Crossovers, when done right, have a good way of establishing context, and as far as I can tell, books like Swamp Thing have definitely understood that. Unsurprisingly, the writer here is also Charles Soule. The dude has quickly become indispensable. Where the heck did he come from??? A lot of what this particular character means comes from Alan Moore work from thirty years ago. This run, and even this very issue, is a chance for a fresh start. Good stuff.
Walking Dead #119 (Image)
(Comic Book Datebase locked me out of the issue listing without a login, so no cover for you.)
Obviously you know about Walking Dead. Whether from the comic or the TV series or both. Rather than discuss anything specifically from the issue, I want to address the letters column. In it, creator/writer Robert Kirkman discusses the future of the comic, how long he envisions it to last. A couple years ago he was talking a total length of 300 issues. And keep in mind we're only a third of the way there. But apparently now he's thinking 500. And he's already got fans talking about him padding his storytelling. Because of the huge success of the TV show, Kirkman could keep this thing going as long as he wants, long after the show is over. The one doesn't depend on the other. It just sounds ridiculous to me. No writer has five hundred issues worth of material to tell about one story. It's just this dude realizing he's got it made. No matter what else happens, he'll always have this in his back pocket. Now, there are certainly creators in any medium who spend their whole careers on the same property. In comics that's certainly been the case. But other than Dave Sim (who by the way did accomplish 300 issues, over the course of thirty years, on his Cerebus), there hasn't really been anyone who has managed to make such a dedicated run (it's worth noting Sim was his own artist). Kirkman probably ought to stop prognosticating. If fans are already complaining about his output now, he may have very few fans indeed decades from now who care about the latest shenanigans of survivors stumbling from scenario to scenario. Just saying.
Savage Wolverine #14 (Marvel)
Like Walking Dead above, I'm not really going to talk about the issue or the capable talents of Richard Isanove, but rather some of the ridiculous recent habits of Marvel. On the cover, as you can see, there's a giant #1 in the corner, even though this is not the first issue or some reboot (of a reboot of a reboot of a reboot...over the span of...just a handful of years). Marvel has always prided itself as never having rebooted its line. The stories you read today are theoretically related to stories that were done decades ago. And yet, there've been so many shenanigans that it doesn't really matter anymore. It's just one successful gimmick to keep fans interested after another. Such as the equally ridiculous Marvel Now! branding that is clearly Marvel's lackluster answer to DC's New 52. The cover also has the copy #14.now, which means...absolutely nothing. It's just one stupid, we're accessible! argument after another. I think in a few years Marvel will have finally worn out its welcome at the top. Hopefully. Well, I wish...
All images via Comic Book Database.
So at this point I've decided to bring back the roundup feature I sometimes fall back on here. When there's something I haven't really enjoyed I don't have to try and justify it too much. But there can be real gems in the bunch as well!
Cable and Bishop are time-traveling mutants who are fascinating in theory but are more often than not incapable of living up to their potential, possibly because writers aren't really thinking about what they can do but rather what they can't, which is explore the dystopias they come from. Bishop has had a much rougher path to follow than Cable (notice which one is in the title, and has had a lot of series over the years and which...hasn't), although he's been a favorite of mine since I first saw him in the old early '90s X-Men cartoon. (Hey, and speaking of which, is either one of these guys in X-Men: Days of the Future Past?) They've got the same curse every Marvel mutant has, actually, only amplified. Everyone knows that the X-Men are supposed to be a persecuted lot, but the logical gymnastics writers take to keep them that way, or ignore this concept entirely, can sometimes be ridiculous. Recently they've settled on making more Magneto characters, which is to say compromised figures trying to do the right thing but making all the wrong moves (read: Cyclops). Add Bishop to that bunch, unfortunately. And so that's what this issue is all about. Apparently someone also thought it was a good idea to have not one but two teams of X-Force running around (because you can never have too many competing concepts in Marvel), and so that's also what this comic's about. It's not very good, alas. And the art looks a little weird at points. It screws up Cable, for instance. (Since when was his metallic arm a covering for an actual arm? Who am I kidding? I don't care!) Long story short: this is not a comic book I would have read deliberately.
I kept trying to find the recent annual that basically mainlined the awesome Flashpoint concept from a few years back of Thomas Wayne becoming Batman instead of his son, but failed everywhere I looked (even though I do digital comics now and am clearly aware of the Internet, I still love operating in the physical world), so it was pretty awesome to randomly come across an issue of the regular series. This series, in case you're not aware, is set in one of DC's alternate realities. It was launched by James Robinson as a surrogate Justice Society landscape but set in the same context as the debut arc from Geoff Johns' Justice League, so that the Darkseid siege of Earth was more successful and so everyone had to figure out how to pick up the pieces. At the start the new versions of the classic JSA superheroes were occupying a landscape devoid of the more familiar DC icons because those guys had been eliminated. But recently they've been resurfacing, including the new Batman. I think it's evolved beautifully, and under the auspices of Tom Taylor remains a leading contender for a mainstream superhero comic that you could pick as your standalone experience should you want to know what that's like without having to worry about picking up any other series. And this is a good issue. Like I've said about Justice League all along, Earth 2 could easily be construed as an ongoing event book. Closing in on two years, that's not a bad thing to consider reading at all. At the moment, Batman and the altered version of Superman have been occupying the center stage, coming ever closing to a reckoning. Well, like I said, good stuff.
This was last year's big Marvel event, sort of like something-something Thanos, something-something Inhumans (because Marvel keeps trying to make them a thing just like DC keeps trying to make the New Gods a thing, and only one of them actually has something interesting to explore) (and it's not Marvel). This was Jonathan Hickman's effort to duplicate the classic Jim Starlin stories featuring Thanos, no doubt thanks to the large-chin villain's cameo at the end of Avengers (although he won't appear as a main character until the third movie) (probably). I've always admired Hickman's ambition, but I'm not sure he's quite what Marvel keeps hoping he'll be, which is their own Grant Morrison. He's better than other writers who've tried to handle Thanos recently, but the result is still a fairly poor echo of Starlin's material. Still, the art is from Jim Cheung, who was half of the iconic original team on Young Avengers (along with Allan Heinberg). Good strong stuff there, anyway, as always. Glad to see him still considered a significant player.
Marvel Previews #14 (Marvel)
This is Marvel's separate catalog to the industry-standard, Diamond distributor version that handles...everyone else. I don't really know why this ended up in the grab bag. But it didn't exactly convince me to think any differently about Marvel's current output than I have been. On the cover is Nightcrawler, the latest returned-from-the-dead character. Oh, which reminds me, in case you had no idea, Nightcrawler's been dead lately. But apparently he got better.
I haven't really been following the Green Lantern franchise, other than Geoff Johns, since the New 52 relaunch in 2011, but it's been nice knowing it exists, and in such force. One of the odder additions to the lineup was a Red Lanterns series, but it seems the longer it's lasted the better it's gotten. With Charles Soule, always good news, writing it these days, and Guy Gardner having become the face, it's probably as good or better than anything else you'll find in the lineup. Guy has repositioned the remaining members of the corps into defenders of his home turf, not so much on Earth but the territory (Space Sector 2814, to be precise). Soule has particular fun with Guy's allies, while he also continues the saga of Atrocitus, who once ruled the roost. It's as good a sci-fi title as I've read, which is actually pretty rare for a Green Lantern series. Which is pretty odd when you think about it.
So, clearly I'm kind of the target audience for this series. I'm not sure how many new readers will be coming aboard for the journey, except maybe Neil Gaiman fans who came about after the end of the original series when he'd begun making a name for himself as a prose writer. The casual comics reader probably won't be spending too much time in the Vertigo sandbox, because with Image and a thousand indies running around, there's a lot more competition for the nonsuperhero set than ever before. As someone who loves Gaiman's Sandman but who hasn't read the complete series, I'm a curious phenomenon (for a lot of other reasons, too). I caught the original version of this debut issue of Overture, but was glad to randomly catch the special edition as well. It helped me digest it a little more, not just the bonus features, but being forced to read the comic itself over again. The Corinthian (the creepy dude with two additional mouths where his eyes ought to be) is in the spotlight once again, but only until our title hero stumbles into an existential conundrum that is not anywhere near finished by the end of the issue. Gaiman's approach is serialized in this effort, rather than in some of the fairly self-contained stories he told even in his arcs from the original Sandman. There's plenty to find familiar and interesting here. It certainly helps to have an artist the caliber of J.H. Williams III (there are few others capable of being anywhere near as awesome), whose sense of the page is virtually unparalleled, which as host of the special edition he's capable of walking through with the reader. If you're unsure of Overture, these special editions may actually be your better bet.
I'm just going to skip over this one. Better for you. Better for me. Better for them.
There's whole corners of the New 52 landscape that have nothing to do with Superman or Batman or Green Lantern. No, really! One of them involves the so-called "dark" characters who most recently were handled by Vertigo rather than DC. Their return has been one of the most interesting things about the relauch (I know, if you hear much about it I bet you much more regularly hear all the complaints about what was lost rather than gained). I confess to not having really taken advantage of this stuff. But it's good. It's probably some of the best stuff DC has. But even fans who know about this corner find reasons to complain, especially since there have been a lot of crossovers. I don't see the problem with crossovers. If it's a shared universe, it's a lot more useful, sometimes, to have an out-and-out crossover rather than have a guest-star. Crossovers, when done right, have a good way of establishing context, and as far as I can tell, books like Swamp Thing have definitely understood that. Unsurprisingly, the writer here is also Charles Soule. The dude has quickly become indispensable. Where the heck did he come from??? A lot of what this particular character means comes from Alan Moore work from thirty years ago. This run, and even this very issue, is a chance for a fresh start. Good stuff.
Walking Dead #119 (Image)
(Comic Book Datebase locked me out of the issue listing without a login, so no cover for you.)
Obviously you know about Walking Dead. Whether from the comic or the TV series or both. Rather than discuss anything specifically from the issue, I want to address the letters column. In it, creator/writer Robert Kirkman discusses the future of the comic, how long he envisions it to last. A couple years ago he was talking a total length of 300 issues. And keep in mind we're only a third of the way there. But apparently now he's thinking 500. And he's already got fans talking about him padding his storytelling. Because of the huge success of the TV show, Kirkman could keep this thing going as long as he wants, long after the show is over. The one doesn't depend on the other. It just sounds ridiculous to me. No writer has five hundred issues worth of material to tell about one story. It's just this dude realizing he's got it made. No matter what else happens, he'll always have this in his back pocket. Now, there are certainly creators in any medium who spend their whole careers on the same property. In comics that's certainly been the case. But other than Dave Sim (who by the way did accomplish 300 issues, over the course of thirty years, on his Cerebus), there hasn't really been anyone who has managed to make such a dedicated run (it's worth noting Sim was his own artist). Kirkman probably ought to stop prognosticating. If fans are already complaining about his output now, he may have very few fans indeed decades from now who care about the latest shenanigans of survivors stumbling from scenario to scenario. Just saying.
Like Walking Dead above, I'm not really going to talk about the issue or the capable talents of Richard Isanove, but rather some of the ridiculous recent habits of Marvel. On the cover, as you can see, there's a giant #1 in the corner, even though this is not the first issue or some reboot (of a reboot of a reboot of a reboot...over the span of...just a handful of years). Marvel has always prided itself as never having rebooted its line. The stories you read today are theoretically related to stories that were done decades ago. And yet, there've been so many shenanigans that it doesn't really matter anymore. It's just one successful gimmick to keep fans interested after another. Such as the equally ridiculous Marvel Now! branding that is clearly Marvel's lackluster answer to DC's New 52. The cover also has the copy #14.now, which means...absolutely nothing. It's just one stupid, we're accessible! argument after another. I think in a few years Marvel will have finally worn out its welcome at the top. Hopefully. Well, I wish...
All images via Comic Book Database.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Reading Comics #113 "Free Comic Book Day, Part 2"
By Saturday evening I'd lost my opportunity to experience Free Comic Book Day in its purest form, and yet the hangover proved perhaps more interesting than the regularly-scheduled celebration. I've previously discussed my visit to Muse Comics in Colorado Springs on the day itself. Now we'll talk about Sunday.
There are a surprising number of comic book stores in Colorado Springs. As of this year there are even two shops for Escape Velocity, formerly known as Bargain Comics, which should be considered the godfather of them all. There's also Heroes & Dragons, which was my entry point in the city when I moved here in 2007. Ed's Cards and Comics is the third of these, rounding out the shops carrying new releases on a regular basis. Yesterday I didn't go to any of these. Instead I felt like making a trip to CK Comics in Manitou Springs, just to visit it for the first time.
After some initial scouring I wasn't terribly impressed. It seemed like much more of a comics novelty shop than anything, and doesn't even overtly display new releases. Yet it had been advertised by the FCBD site as participating in the event. I already knew that Heroes & Dragons doesn't participate. Escape Velocity is usually good to have some extra copies after the day itself, but doubtfully the main ones. So CK it was...hopefully. I looked and I looked. Eventually I found one of those comic book boxes on the floor, and it contains oodles of FCBD comics. Not all of them, but at this point I'm far more of a beggar than a chooser, right?
Still, this was a bountiful offering. Here's what I got and what I thought of them:
Bongo Free-for-All (Bongo)
This publisher almost exclusively deals with Simpsons comics (with Futurama tossed in every now and again). I've read some of it, strictly on a sporadic basis. I love the cartoon, have for years (but mostly must abstain from the ever-persistent is-it-worse-than-before? debate as I don't get to watch on a regular basis these days, although every time I've watched new episodes I've still been amused), and the comics do a good job of capturing its spirit in a different format. The characters do in fact translate well even without their distinctive voices. There are several stories in the issue. The first involves Bart behaving atypically well, which itself isn't the apocalyptic development everyone takes t for, but merely the result of a bet he made with Milhouse, his best friend. It's the lead and best story. Another one features L'il Homer concerning his reluctance to take a bath and his father (known as Grampa or Abe) trying to tell him a cautionary tale that is welcomed much differently than intended. The art takes subtle liberties from the Matt Groening archetypes, which is always nice to see.
Chakra the Invincible (Graphic India)
The most notable thing about this one is that it's the latest of the latter-day Stan Lee creations. What's different about this one is that it's very much from the basic '60s archetype (I guess that's the word of the day) he established at Marvel, set in India. I don't know if there's a wide American audience for this, but seems much more natural and capable of sustaining more than just a novelty act than just about anything he's done for years. He's credited for concept and story, but he's not a writer. The other thing of note is the "Invincible" subtitle. Invincible is also a long-running Robert Kirkman series over at Image (a hundred issues and counting!), so it's a little funny to see this word (also frequently used in association with Iron Man) in use again.
Grimm #0 (Dynamite)
Dynamite is one of many smaller publishers that lives and breathes on licensed comics and established properties. Grimm is also a TV series, one that seems to be amassing a cult audience that grows over time. It's pretty clever, and this issue explains the whole concept, how the main character is a descendant of the famous brothers who helped codify fairy tales. He alone is capable of seeing the true faces of the monsters who have integrated themselves into modern society. The issue also includes a preview for the upcoming Damsels, which is a lot like what Bill Willingham has been doing in Vertigo's Fables, or the TV series Once Upon a Time, or even the cheesecakey comics of Zenescope. The writers, Leah Moore and John Reppion, have been Dynamite's in-house literary classics/adaptation experts since their work with Alice in Wonderland and Dracula. With the success of this spring's Oz the Great and Powerful in movie theaters, it may very well prove that fairy tale characters are due to succeed vampires and zombies as the new obsession.
Infinity (Marvel)
A preview for an upcoming event book, Infinity is also a canny bid to capitalize on the appearance of Thanos in the credits of last summer's blockbuster Avengers flick. The company is making a concerted effort to shift its space-based properties to greater prominence, and this is a huge art of that. The writer is Jonathan Hickman, who continues to try and elevate his name in the comics pantheon (Thanos was previously the baby of legend Jim Starlin). The title is a nod to the classic Infinity Gauntlet (and its various sequels), which is also one of the odd bit of convergences between Marvel and DC, which bases a lot of its legacy on Crisis on Infinite Earths (and its various sequels). Most of this preview with weird alien creatures and a mythology that only in its final pages points to Thanos, thereby making the whole thing exactly like Avengers. (Marvel tends to repeat itself a lot.) The artist is Jim Cheung, whom I still associate with the original Young Avengers. He's got a playful yet serious style, which looks quite different in this altered context. There's also a reprint of a vintage Thanos appearance. For the record, Thanos has my vote as undisputed best Marvel villain.
KaBoom! Summer Blast! (Boom!)
KaBoom is the young readers imprint of Boom!, a company that at this point might as well admit that it has all but been driven into irrelevance by the licensed properties on display here. Adventure Time is a crudely animated cartoon series that captures the spirit of the way children play (when they're playing something other than video games). Amusingly (and confusingly), the story of Finn and Jake featured here takes the form of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books. There are a lot of crazy arrows directing how to read it, but it's almost as much fun (and appropriate) to read all of the possible directions at the same time. There are a few other such segments (including one based on te Ice Age movies), and there are also ones based on Peanuts and Garfield, two classic comic strips. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz has been dead for more than a decade, and newspapers have continued to rerun the old strips, plus the regular airing of the Christmas TV special, but it's good that these characters live on in new adventures. Amusingly, this one is all about Charlie Brown teaching the reader how to draw Linus, all while obsessing over baseball. In fact, he uses baseball images to guide the entire process! It's good stuff. If this special guides readers to any of the featured titles, would think they would undoubtedly be Adventure Time and Peanuts, unless readers don't like imaginative storytelling.
Star Wars/Captain Midnight/Avatar: The Last Airbender (Dark Horse)
This one's a grab bag, too, features three different spotlights, two of which are featured on the flipbook format's covers (the first and last I've listed). I'm mostly familiar with Last Airbender thanks to the M. Night Shyamalan movie (which I loved). The story in this issue is a tad like the Phil Hester comic I talked about in Part 1 of this FCBD series. The Captain Midnight episode, meanwhile, is part of the company's periodic effort to enter the superhero game, mostly using characters they tried in the '90s as well. A lot of these smaller publishers seem to equate prior publishing history as a built-in legacy that will compete with those of DC and Marvel. I think they're slightly mistaken. Captain Midnight is very much a pulp hero, which is something Dark Horse is going for this time (and so did DC when it did the Doc Savage comics a few years ago, in a line that also revived Will Eisner's The Spirit, while some other publishers are doing every unsigned Golden Age hero). Anyway, the final one is Brian Wood on Star Wars. Dark Horse has done thousands of Star Wars comics at this point, as much the definition of the expanded saga as any of the books. "Expanded" means mostly noncanonical, but that doesn't seem to bother the publisher. Wood is an indy star, and has recently burnished that reputation with Dark Horse as writer of The Massive (which reminded me of an earlier and superior series from the same publisher known as Zero Killer). He seems to think it's just as well as anyone else who has written Star Wars in comics or books to pretty much play fast and loose with logic in order to have "kewl" moments. In fact, that's what his whole story with Darth Vader, set just before the events of A New Hope, is all about, and yes, Boba Fett (as is often the case with these comics) is shoehorned into the story. Although Dark Horse does score some points from me for the soon-to-launch comics based on George Lucas's original notes for The Star Wars.
The Walking Dead (Image)
The extremely clever thing that Robert Kirkman did for this special issue was to include new material. Most of it is reprinted from origins of characters like Michonne and the Governor (both of whom were heavily featured in the latest season of the TV series), but one of the more obscure characters (as far as my experience goes) also gets some significant love. Tyreese appeared pretty early in the comics, but has really only just popped in the series. He's the one who gets the exclusive material. Apparently he was envisioned as the replacement Shane, who in my mind not only completely stole the second season but was also the best reason to watch both the season and series as a whole, emblematic of what I think is the true strength of the series, not the sensationalism but the very human foibles on display, whether in extreme circumstances or otherwise (although yes, Darryl was an immediate standout for me, too). I've read the comic sporadically (although pretty regularly for a few months), but I think the series does it more justice. Kirkman, especially in this special spotlighting reactions to a suddenly apocalyptic setting, does a good job of being thought-provoking, but I'm not sure if he's just incredibly cynical (although not as much as Cormac McCarthy was in The Road, and certainly not as redemptive as Stephen King in The Stand) or taking an extremely long time to explore his story (he says he envisions two hundred [or maybe it was three?] issues), and that just seems excessive and leaves most of it seem unfocused rather than methodical.
There are a surprising number of comic book stores in Colorado Springs. As of this year there are even two shops for Escape Velocity, formerly known as Bargain Comics, which should be considered the godfather of them all. There's also Heroes & Dragons, which was my entry point in the city when I moved here in 2007. Ed's Cards and Comics is the third of these, rounding out the shops carrying new releases on a regular basis. Yesterday I didn't go to any of these. Instead I felt like making a trip to CK Comics in Manitou Springs, just to visit it for the first time.
After some initial scouring I wasn't terribly impressed. It seemed like much more of a comics novelty shop than anything, and doesn't even overtly display new releases. Yet it had been advertised by the FCBD site as participating in the event. I already knew that Heroes & Dragons doesn't participate. Escape Velocity is usually good to have some extra copies after the day itself, but doubtfully the main ones. So CK it was...hopefully. I looked and I looked. Eventually I found one of those comic book boxes on the floor, and it contains oodles of FCBD comics. Not all of them, but at this point I'm far more of a beggar than a chooser, right?
Still, this was a bountiful offering. Here's what I got and what I thought of them:
Bongo Free-for-All (Bongo)
This publisher almost exclusively deals with Simpsons comics (with Futurama tossed in every now and again). I've read some of it, strictly on a sporadic basis. I love the cartoon, have for years (but mostly must abstain from the ever-persistent is-it-worse-than-before? debate as I don't get to watch on a regular basis these days, although every time I've watched new episodes I've still been amused), and the comics do a good job of capturing its spirit in a different format. The characters do in fact translate well even without their distinctive voices. There are several stories in the issue. The first involves Bart behaving atypically well, which itself isn't the apocalyptic development everyone takes t for, but merely the result of a bet he made with Milhouse, his best friend. It's the lead and best story. Another one features L'il Homer concerning his reluctance to take a bath and his father (known as Grampa or Abe) trying to tell him a cautionary tale that is welcomed much differently than intended. The art takes subtle liberties from the Matt Groening archetypes, which is always nice to see.
Chakra the Invincible (Graphic India)
The most notable thing about this one is that it's the latest of the latter-day Stan Lee creations. What's different about this one is that it's very much from the basic '60s archetype (I guess that's the word of the day) he established at Marvel, set in India. I don't know if there's a wide American audience for this, but seems much more natural and capable of sustaining more than just a novelty act than just about anything he's done for years. He's credited for concept and story, but he's not a writer. The other thing of note is the "Invincible" subtitle. Invincible is also a long-running Robert Kirkman series over at Image (a hundred issues and counting!), so it's a little funny to see this word (also frequently used in association with Iron Man) in use again.
Grimm #0 (Dynamite)
Dynamite is one of many smaller publishers that lives and breathes on licensed comics and established properties. Grimm is also a TV series, one that seems to be amassing a cult audience that grows over time. It's pretty clever, and this issue explains the whole concept, how the main character is a descendant of the famous brothers who helped codify fairy tales. He alone is capable of seeing the true faces of the monsters who have integrated themselves into modern society. The issue also includes a preview for the upcoming Damsels, which is a lot like what Bill Willingham has been doing in Vertigo's Fables, or the TV series Once Upon a Time, or even the cheesecakey comics of Zenescope. The writers, Leah Moore and John Reppion, have been Dynamite's in-house literary classics/adaptation experts since their work with Alice in Wonderland and Dracula. With the success of this spring's Oz the Great and Powerful in movie theaters, it may very well prove that fairy tale characters are due to succeed vampires and zombies as the new obsession.
Infinity (Marvel)
A preview for an upcoming event book, Infinity is also a canny bid to capitalize on the appearance of Thanos in the credits of last summer's blockbuster Avengers flick. The company is making a concerted effort to shift its space-based properties to greater prominence, and this is a huge art of that. The writer is Jonathan Hickman, who continues to try and elevate his name in the comics pantheon (Thanos was previously the baby of legend Jim Starlin). The title is a nod to the classic Infinity Gauntlet (and its various sequels), which is also one of the odd bit of convergences between Marvel and DC, which bases a lot of its legacy on Crisis on Infinite Earths (and its various sequels). Most of this preview with weird alien creatures and a mythology that only in its final pages points to Thanos, thereby making the whole thing exactly like Avengers. (Marvel tends to repeat itself a lot.) The artist is Jim Cheung, whom I still associate with the original Young Avengers. He's got a playful yet serious style, which looks quite different in this altered context. There's also a reprint of a vintage Thanos appearance. For the record, Thanos has my vote as undisputed best Marvel villain.
KaBoom! Summer Blast! (Boom!)
KaBoom is the young readers imprint of Boom!, a company that at this point might as well admit that it has all but been driven into irrelevance by the licensed properties on display here. Adventure Time is a crudely animated cartoon series that captures the spirit of the way children play (when they're playing something other than video games). Amusingly (and confusingly), the story of Finn and Jake featured here takes the form of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books. There are a lot of crazy arrows directing how to read it, but it's almost as much fun (and appropriate) to read all of the possible directions at the same time. There are a few other such segments (including one based on te Ice Age movies), and there are also ones based on Peanuts and Garfield, two classic comic strips. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz has been dead for more than a decade, and newspapers have continued to rerun the old strips, plus the regular airing of the Christmas TV special, but it's good that these characters live on in new adventures. Amusingly, this one is all about Charlie Brown teaching the reader how to draw Linus, all while obsessing over baseball. In fact, he uses baseball images to guide the entire process! It's good stuff. If this special guides readers to any of the featured titles, would think they would undoubtedly be Adventure Time and Peanuts, unless readers don't like imaginative storytelling.
Star Wars/Captain Midnight/Avatar: The Last Airbender (Dark Horse)
This one's a grab bag, too, features three different spotlights, two of which are featured on the flipbook format's covers (the first and last I've listed). I'm mostly familiar with Last Airbender thanks to the M. Night Shyamalan movie (which I loved). The story in this issue is a tad like the Phil Hester comic I talked about in Part 1 of this FCBD series. The Captain Midnight episode, meanwhile, is part of the company's periodic effort to enter the superhero game, mostly using characters they tried in the '90s as well. A lot of these smaller publishers seem to equate prior publishing history as a built-in legacy that will compete with those of DC and Marvel. I think they're slightly mistaken. Captain Midnight is very much a pulp hero, which is something Dark Horse is going for this time (and so did DC when it did the Doc Savage comics a few years ago, in a line that also revived Will Eisner's The Spirit, while some other publishers are doing every unsigned Golden Age hero). Anyway, the final one is Brian Wood on Star Wars. Dark Horse has done thousands of Star Wars comics at this point, as much the definition of the expanded saga as any of the books. "Expanded" means mostly noncanonical, but that doesn't seem to bother the publisher. Wood is an indy star, and has recently burnished that reputation with Dark Horse as writer of The Massive (which reminded me of an earlier and superior series from the same publisher known as Zero Killer). He seems to think it's just as well as anyone else who has written Star Wars in comics or books to pretty much play fast and loose with logic in order to have "kewl" moments. In fact, that's what his whole story with Darth Vader, set just before the events of A New Hope, is all about, and yes, Boba Fett (as is often the case with these comics) is shoehorned into the story. Although Dark Horse does score some points from me for the soon-to-launch comics based on George Lucas's original notes for The Star Wars.
The Walking Dead (Image)
The extremely clever thing that Robert Kirkman did for this special issue was to include new material. Most of it is reprinted from origins of characters like Michonne and the Governor (both of whom were heavily featured in the latest season of the TV series), but one of the more obscure characters (as far as my experience goes) also gets some significant love. Tyreese appeared pretty early in the comics, but has really only just popped in the series. He's the one who gets the exclusive material. Apparently he was envisioned as the replacement Shane, who in my mind not only completely stole the second season but was also the best reason to watch both the season and series as a whole, emblematic of what I think is the true strength of the series, not the sensationalism but the very human foibles on display, whether in extreme circumstances or otherwise (although yes, Darryl was an immediate standout for me, too). I've read the comic sporadically (although pretty regularly for a few months), but I think the series does it more justice. Kirkman, especially in this special spotlighting reactions to a suddenly apocalyptic setting, does a good job of being thought-provoking, but I'm not sure if he's just incredibly cynical (although not as much as Cormac McCarthy was in The Road, and certainly not as redemptive as Stephen King in The Stand) or taking an extremely long time to explore his story (he says he envisions two hundred [or maybe it was three?] issues), and that just seems excessive and leaves most of it seem unfocused rather than methodical.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
The Walking Dead #1 (Image)
writer: Robert Kirkman
artist: Tony Moore
This may seem blasphemous, but you may actually want to skip the beginning of The Walking Dead. I know, I know. The TV series is extremely hot. The comics (now over a hundred issues!) are popular, and the collections are consistent bestsellers. Conventional wisdom certainly seems to suggest that you read from the start of the story. I have no problem with that. But this is a warning.
I've been a kind of peripheral fan of Robert Kirkman's zombie saga for a few years. I have been by no means a regular reader of the comic, though at one point I did string together a pretty regular reading cycle. I never got around to reading any of the collections. I watched the second season of the TV show, when it started becoming wildly popular, and apparently enjoyed it more than others. And that's about it.
Image recently printed dollar editions of several of its most notable current titles, and The Walking Dead #1 was among them. I figured it was my pop culture duty to finally read how the story begins. Turns out the TV pilot is pretty faithful (one of a few points of strict continuity between the two incarnations), so there wasn't much to learn there.
What I did learn was that Robert Kirkman at the beginning of The Walking Dead is not the Robert Kirkman of later issues. Specifically, he's at best a pretty hackneyed writer. Other than the concept, and my familiarity with the story and its success, I would probably outright have quit reading before the issue's end. It's that bad.
Well, it does tend to get better once Rick Grimes starts interacting with other people (that's pretty much what The Walking Dead is all about, what every single issue is, just like the show, lots of talking and occasional zombie mayhem), so it's not so surprising. But the early pages are exactly like the extremely bad indy comics I used to review when I first starting writing about comics on the Internet. I figured it was my duty to look beyond the DC/Marvel horizon. In almost every instance, when it was an upstart publisher it was horrible.
I should say now that I've gotten far better at selecting the stuff that's really worth reading outside of the major publishers, and not just from established indy labels like Image, Oni, IDW. I've simply stopped gambling. I've grown more selective.
At this point, if this were the first issue of The Walking Dead as created for a 2013 reader, I would absolutely not have gotten it.
So it's a darn good thing that it's a series that's been around for a while and definitely knows what it's doing. I would recommend, if you've never read the comic before, start with later or outright recent issues. You may eventually decide to read the complete run, but now you know what that really means. I don't read it regularly myself because Kirkman tends to keep the characters in an interminable holding pattern, one set piece after another (as the show has helped make clear for anyone who may doubt this), mostly waiting for one grizzly death of a main character after another. How much you care for them determines how much you care about the series as a whole.
Now, I want to make clear that my objections to the first issue have virtually nothing to do with the art of Tony Moore. You may or may not be aware that for the vast extent of the series it's been Charlie Adlard on art duties. There's not as big a gulf between Moore and Adlard as you might think. Where they differ is Moore's instinct to go a little more cartoonish, like Kirkman himself, which is distracting only in the sense that you may be aware that Walking Dead otherwise is pretty realistic.
The only question I have remaining is why Image chose to publish this series in the first place. If things hadn't smoothed out, The Walking Dead would be a memory for a few scattered readers at this point. If it had been me, especially if I were working for Image, I would have passed. Maybe Image has more material like this than I think. It's hard to imagine a greater transition for a series, from this viewpoint, a book that looked like it would at best be a good gimmick to a respected cornerstone and pop culture sensation.
Still, it's almost enough to make me tackle the collections and see where the transition really occurred, whether it was Moore's departure or if it was all Kirkman.
artist: Tony Moore
(from newsrama.com)
This may seem blasphemous, but you may actually want to skip the beginning of The Walking Dead. I know, I know. The TV series is extremely hot. The comics (now over a hundred issues!) are popular, and the collections are consistent bestsellers. Conventional wisdom certainly seems to suggest that you read from the start of the story. I have no problem with that. But this is a warning.
I've been a kind of peripheral fan of Robert Kirkman's zombie saga for a few years. I have been by no means a regular reader of the comic, though at one point I did string together a pretty regular reading cycle. I never got around to reading any of the collections. I watched the second season of the TV show, when it started becoming wildly popular, and apparently enjoyed it more than others. And that's about it.
Image recently printed dollar editions of several of its most notable current titles, and The Walking Dead #1 was among them. I figured it was my pop culture duty to finally read how the story begins. Turns out the TV pilot is pretty faithful (one of a few points of strict continuity between the two incarnations), so there wasn't much to learn there.
What I did learn was that Robert Kirkman at the beginning of The Walking Dead is not the Robert Kirkman of later issues. Specifically, he's at best a pretty hackneyed writer. Other than the concept, and my familiarity with the story and its success, I would probably outright have quit reading before the issue's end. It's that bad.
Well, it does tend to get better once Rick Grimes starts interacting with other people (that's pretty much what The Walking Dead is all about, what every single issue is, just like the show, lots of talking and occasional zombie mayhem), so it's not so surprising. But the early pages are exactly like the extremely bad indy comics I used to review when I first starting writing about comics on the Internet. I figured it was my duty to look beyond the DC/Marvel horizon. In almost every instance, when it was an upstart publisher it was horrible.
I should say now that I've gotten far better at selecting the stuff that's really worth reading outside of the major publishers, and not just from established indy labels like Image, Oni, IDW. I've simply stopped gambling. I've grown more selective.
At this point, if this were the first issue of The Walking Dead as created for a 2013 reader, I would absolutely not have gotten it.
So it's a darn good thing that it's a series that's been around for a while and definitely knows what it's doing. I would recommend, if you've never read the comic before, start with later or outright recent issues. You may eventually decide to read the complete run, but now you know what that really means. I don't read it regularly myself because Kirkman tends to keep the characters in an interminable holding pattern, one set piece after another (as the show has helped make clear for anyone who may doubt this), mostly waiting for one grizzly death of a main character after another. How much you care for them determines how much you care about the series as a whole.
Now, I want to make clear that my objections to the first issue have virtually nothing to do with the art of Tony Moore. You may or may not be aware that for the vast extent of the series it's been Charlie Adlard on art duties. There's not as big a gulf between Moore and Adlard as you might think. Where they differ is Moore's instinct to go a little more cartoonish, like Kirkman himself, which is distracting only in the sense that you may be aware that Walking Dead otherwise is pretty realistic.
The only question I have remaining is why Image chose to publish this series in the first place. If things hadn't smoothed out, The Walking Dead would be a memory for a few scattered readers at this point. If it had been me, especially if I were working for Image, I would have passed. Maybe Image has more material like this than I think. It's hard to imagine a greater transition for a series, from this viewpoint, a book that looked like it would at best be a good gimmick to a respected cornerstone and pop culture sensation.
Still, it's almost enough to make me tackle the collections and see where the transition really occurred, whether it was Moore's departure or if it was all Kirkman.
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