Many More Words About “The Walking Dead” Comics

It’s such a genius move that you’d want to put Robert Kirkman and co. in charge of selling ALL comic books.  I’m referring to the fact that the most recent collection of the series, vol. 13 “Too Far Gone,” was released right in the middle of the TV series when interest in it was at a fever pitch.  Not only is it guaranteed to sell better than ever, but then they put out the next issue, #79, the very next week.  So if you wanted to start reading the monthly comics, you were in a perfect position to do so.  Utterly genius.

That said, I’m an avowed reader of the trade paperbacks and it’ll take more than good timing to get me to switch (for more than one issue, more on that later).  I like getting a good chunk of story with my purchases and trade paperbacks are still the best way to do that.  Even if it means waiting 6-7 months between volumes I have yet to be really disappointed by any volume I’ve read so far.

Now that I’ve said that, you can probably guess what my thoughts are regarding vol. 13.  After getting introduced to the community and its members in the previous volume, we get to see how Rick’s group acclimates to their new surroundings.  Most handle it well and some, like Abraham, even find ways to thrive in their new surroundings.  This is “The Walking Dead,” however, and nothing stays calm for long.  The threats come from sources both internal, such as Gabriel’s plea to Douglas about how dangerous the group is, and external as a group of looters find their way to this community.

The biggest threat, however, is shaping up to be Rick himself.  He’s slowly becoming more and more unhinged as his encounter with an acknowledged wife-beater causes him to lose it and pull a gun in the middle of the community.  This eventually leads to said wife-beater losing it and killing Douglas’ wife, Rick making more phone calls to Lori, and his face-off with the looters.  It’s his resolution of that scenario that causes Douglas to realize that Rick has what it takes to lead the community.  

Unfortunately, these people don’t have the benefit of seeing their story unfold in the pages of a comic book and they can’t see that this is only going to end in disaster.  Dale called it back in vol. 10 when he remarked about how Rick’s actions always ruin everything.  The man is turning into a living, breathing case of the cure being worse than the disease, and while I’m worried for the cast — I’m thrilled as a reader to see where Kirkman is going with this.

One other thing I liked about this volume is how Kirkman’s penchant for randomly killing off cast members in previous volumes is really paying off here in terms of drama.  At one point, Glenn takes off with one of the community members on a supply run into D.C. city, and I couldn’t help but think, “Oh man, that’s it.  He’s going to die out there.”  We’ve seen Glenn do supply runs before, but seeing him do one in a new environment had me completely on edge as I was worried that he was going to drop his guard for a second, and that was going to be it.  Just like so many other characters in this series.  I won’t say whether or not he died, but I felt a similar sense of anticipation through other scenes in this volume.  It’s hard to make the routine actions of the cast feel tense and fraught with drama, but Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard manage to pull it off here.

Kirkman also managed to get me to do something I’m not sure I’ve ever done before:  buy an issue of a series I already own in trade paperback form.  This volume collected issue #75, and to celebrate that milestone issue Kirkman and “Invincible” artist Ryan Ottley teamed up for a special seven-page story that shows you the truth behind the zombie invasion — that it was an alien plan to take over our world and harvest our water for their currency!  It’s utterly ridiculous and Kirkman goes all-out by bringing back Tyrese, Martinez, Axel, Lori, and The Governor in cameo appearances to flesh out the story.

This was a great “What If?” for “The Walking Dead” and while I think seven pages was the right length for a gag like this I’d love to see more bonuses like this.  I’m sure we’ll find out in due time as issue #100 is less than two years away now.  That said, this issue was $4 and while that might be too much for some I honestly don’t mind giving creators like Kirkman, Adlard and Ottley my money for something like this (plus the letters page was also pretty entertaining).  So not only have the parties involved earned the success that this series enjoys, they also deserve it by continuing to put out such consistently entertaining work.  Here’s hoping that the next thirteen volumes are just as good.