Walking Dead (a recap)

Series: The Walking Dead

Words: Robert Kirkman

Images: Tony More (at first) followed by Charlie Adlard

Issue Number: n/a

Release Date: n/a

Format: Trades

I wasn’t planning on reviewing The Walking Dead. I figure everyone and their dog has heard of it. Even if you have not read it yet. But this weekend I have been talking to a bunch of people about comics. Quite a few people I was ranting to had no idea what Walking Dead was. Other people were familiar with the show but had no idea it was based off of a comic.

Before I get into reviewing the comic itself I want to give people a few suggestions on timing for when you should read it.

If you have no idea what I am talking about.

If you have never read the comic or seen the T.V. show? First I would wonder what rock you have been living under over the last few years. If you like horror and you are interested in Zombies read or watch as soon as possible.

How you approach this depends on how you enjoy your media. Typically nothing measures up to reading for me. If you are like me I would suggest watching the show first and then reading the comic for the best experience. I started reading the comics before the show was announced and it has taken some effort for me to separate the two enough to actually enjoy the show.

If you have only been watching the TV show?

Wait. Very few people are able to read and enjoy the comic and watch the show at the same time. There are a lot of differences between the show and the comic but if you read ahead you will miss out on some of the dramatic tension the show is building. Since it is a honking long collection of comic books? You may want to buy the trades at the end of each season to catch yourself up with them while you are stuck during the break with no zombie fix.

Waiting though is hard.

We got Walking Dead last year. It was on the list of things the mister wanted for his birthday. Being a good geeky girlfriend I got him the large hard covers 1 to 6 (which had two trades worth in one). I think when he finished with them I read them all in all of a few days.

The art? Is great. I am not always fond of black and white comics. But with the Walking Dead it adds to the whole mood. The black, white and gray world that the survivors live in is very effective. I found that my mind was filling in the blanks while I read. Providing little details about colours itself and that made the characters far more relatable and people I got far more attached to. I cared more about the little boy who had dark hair that my brain had decided matched my cousin's or the woman with dark hair that clearly matched my coworkers.

At various times I have hated pretty much ever single character in the comic. Also? At various times I have felt for most of them and have rooted for them to survive or win or succeed in what they are trying to do.

The comic is much darker then the T.V. show to date. Much, much, much, much darker. Granted the author of the comic can probably push a few more boundaries then something on T.V.. It is probably one of the darkest graphic novels I have read. More often than not in the comic the biggest dangers come from other people. Sure the zombies are there. Sure they are a threat and they will eat people but most of the actual evil seems to come from other humans. With such a long running book there are a whole ton of different scenarios that the author explores from rape to suicide, murder to blood lust, PTSD to hope.  

I do caution you that in large doses I was finding myself overdosing on the Walking Dead. As much as I love zombies. As much as I love horror and humanity being evil and trying to survive in horrific situations?  There is so much of it that it does become quite a slog.

If you do not like zombies. If you are sick of zombies. If you just over dosed on zombies. Well then I would suggest staying away from this one. As much as I have enjoyed it The Walking Dead is a huge investment of time and potentially money. There are tons of issues out now and a bit of a back log to get through to catch up.

For those of you who want to catch up I would suggest buying either the trade paper backs or the hard covers that have two trades worth of comics in them. Jumping in with the monthly comic wouldn't give that connection to the characters that makes this such a good story.

Locke & Key

Series: Locke & Key
Words: Joe Hill
Images: Gabriel Rodriguez
Issue Number: 1-3
Release Date:
Format: Trade Paperback

 

I am a little late to the Locke & Key party since it started coming out in 2008. But it is a comic that is new to me.

A horror comic that starts out by naming issue one Welcome to Lovecraft gives itself some pretty big boots to fill. Luckily for Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez Locke & Key seems to be a hit. It has only just come to my attention that on top of writing Locke and Key Hill also writes books with out pictures. I may have to also pick up one of those.

If you like to read horror then Locke & Key is well worth checking out. If you like reading speculative fiction or weird fiction I would also suggest checking it out. I would describe Locke & Key as existing some where in the borders or those three groups. At times it verges on disturbing and a little on the violent side. There is some blending between that and an engaging supernatural story.

You get to watch the characters deal with both real life evil (the murder of their father) and trauma and then also deal with the supernatural evil (the thing that lives in the well house) and the just plain weird (the keys that change reality slightly). Following the murder of their father the kids move to their father’s childhood home in New England with their mother. Each character is imperfectly dealing with their father’s death, their own sense of survivor’s guilt and PTSD. They are all flawed, broken and just trying to keep it together.

By the end of the first trade I was hooked but I had a hard time thinking that the series would continue to live up to expectations. Three trades in and each one has impressed me more and more.

Well worth reading even if you do not usually go for graphic novels.

American Vampires

Series: American Vampires
Words: Scott Snyder & Stephen King
Images: Rafael Albuquerque
Issue Number: 1
Release Date:
Format: Trade Paperback
To be honest? I was expecting to not fall in love with this one. It takes a heck of an impressive vampire story to impress me. American Vampires is a great example of horror with a twist. I loved it. I can’t wait to read more. As a matter of fact I have already lent this trade out to try and suck more friends into reading it (and I have only owned it for a forty eight hours).
It starts out telling two stories side by side that intersect. You have a Western story with a vampire twist and then a more recent (but not present day) story about an aspiring actress who has dreams of making it big.
One of the things that impressed me most about the writing was how seamlessly the two authors worked together. I have not seen two very different authors bend so well since I read Good Omens by Gaiman and Prachett. Usually I can pick up on author changes even in trades. American Vampires was seamless.
I devoured this trade. I will be buying more. I will probably be picking up the rest of the trades next week because well I lack will power and self control and… it was good. What was good about it? American Vampires takes a traditional vampire story and gives it a twist.
It is a great story about the underdog who is fighting against establishment. Really is there any wonder it appealed to me?
And while the writers skirt the edges of creating MarySue like vampires in the female lead at least they give them enough weakness (both in the female leads compassion and caring for others and in terms of working in actual weaknesses) that well it actually seems to balance out.
I love the art. It is not as visually stunning as Batwoman but it does not have to be. The art compliments the story well. The level of detail was perfect.
By the end of the first trade I did not feel like I was reading mostly set up. By the end of what should have been the first comic I did not feel like I was reading mostly set up. What you get is a collection of self contained stories that continue to build on each other and overlap.
American Vampires is another great gate way comic for people who like graphic novels but shy away from the super heroes. If you love horror and you are not reading it you should be.

Sweet Tooth #1

Series: Sweet Tooth
Words: Jeff Lemire
Images: Jeff Lemire
Issue Number: 1
Release Date:
Format: Trade Paperback
This week has been stressful for me thus the lack of updates. Family stress. Life stress. Computer stress. So I indulged in a small amount of retail therapy. One being a new netbook. The other included a whole ton of trades. Sweet Tooth was an impulse buy based off of a random suggestion from the lovely person who works at our comic book store. She knew I was enjoying both new and old Animal Man and I essentially showed up and all but ordered her to help me drop over $100 dollars on graphic novels because I was having a bad day.
Essentially Sweet Tooth takes place in a post apocalyptic future. Most of the world becomes infected with some form of virus. Children born after that point are mutated with animal features. According to Wikipedia it can be considered Mad Max meets Bambi. While some what apt that description does not fully capture the hooks this story has gotten into me.
Most of the first trade sets up the story. I am really glad that I did not read it as a single issue comic. Because as I have established before. I am very impatient and dislike mostly set up.
The story is fairly simple for this trade at least. Future has gone to hell. Everyone is panicked. What is different is hunted down. Everyone is dying and humanity is horrible.
The main character (Gus, who has antlers) vaguely reminds me of a Prince Myshkin type character. A poor and good person thrown into a very corrupt world. For those of you not as obsessed with Russian Literature, that would be a Jesus type character.
In turn the side stories involve Jepperd who is a none mutated human who will likely soon be infected with the plague. I don’t want to give too much away about the story and at this stage talking about Jepperd and not giving anything away is tough. He is probably for all of his flaws one of my favourite characters. He is a probably once good man who has been corrupted by the world around him and is just trying to survive. I am hopeful to maybe see him continuing on with a side story in the next trade that explores more of people doing evil things not because they are horrible people but because they are making the best choice they can with the option they see available.
Personally I love this story. Not just the comic book but watching someone who is pure thrown into a very evil world and trying to navigate it.
It does get bonus points for being Canadian content. Hey do you think if I review enough Canadian comics I will get federal CRTC funding? Or a swanky Global review show (yes I am looking at you Reviews on the Run and Electric Playground)
If you are only into super heroes give this one a skip. But if you want to branch out from them. If you are looking for a cute End of Days story well then it may be worth checking out. Also, if you are a comic book fan who likes to stack their shelves with graphic novels to act as gateway comic this might be a decent buy. I will keep you posted on the next few trades at the very least.
I am certainly not going to wait until my next bad week to buy more.

Manhunter

Series:  Manhunter
Words: Marc Andreyko
Images: Jesus Saiz
Issue Number: 1-5
Release Date:
Format: Trade Paperback

I am a little late to the Manhunter party. And for those of you familiar with the Manhunter mythos I am talking about Kate Spenser. For those of you who aren't familiar with the name let me just say that the D.C. universe had more Manhunter's then it knew what to do with.

I want to get one thing out there. Manhunter is not perfect. I have read criticisms by others about both the character, her body type and the art work are not the step forward people present it as. Curled Up With a Good Book summarizes the criticisms well especially about how the main character is still overtly sexualized through out the series. And while I do agree with the reviewer from Curled Up With a Good Book that Manhunter is not a perfect feminist character, I do still think she is a step forward.  

Her costume is functional and while tight is not overtly sexualized in design. There are no short skirts, there are no boob windows. There are no painfully high heels. Beyond what she wears both Kate Spenser and Manhunter have actual depth to them and actual flaws that they develop and grow beyond. By day she’s a high powered prosecution attorney fed up defendants escaping justice on technicalities. She is driven. She is assertive. She is failing horribly to balance her life. She deals with the realistic pressures of trying to be a good mother and trying to be a professional working woman. And I like that she does not get everything perfect. There is this very fine balance between making a developed female character who is someone I can relate to and starting to break down and disempowering female characters. I felt that Marc Andreyko balanced her fairly well.

There is some great witty banter in the comic that directly pokes at some of the depictions of other women in the D.C. universe. Especially in terms of how impractical a lot of the female costumes can be for running and fighting.

Also it features back ground LGBTQ characters in a fairly positive (for the most part) and friendly way. Kate’s assistant while a little stereotypical (at points) and not as developed as Kate eventually ends up in a relationship with another D.C. character. I like that it is a happy, healthy and functional relationship. I like that some of the issues around family and their lack of understanding are touched on. It is by far one of the more realistic portrayals of a gay male relationship that I have read in comics.

This series was also my introduction really to the Department of Extranormal Operations. I am not entirely sure why but I adore the DEO. This is odd because I typically end up disliking the government organizations whose goal is to monitor, control and contain.  At times there is some great interactions between the department head Bones and Kate especially in terms of race. Bones (if it wasn’t for his skin and organs being translucent) would be a person of colour. Kate at times tries to use that to pressure Bones into helping her dig into areas that he has clearly ordered her to stay well away from. The play out of a liberal white woman essentially bullying someone of colour to get her way in terms of creating what she thinks should be social change for people of colour (and the consequences) are interesting. Personally I found it slightly reflective of second wave feminisms and some branches of feminism that have come out of that where feminists of power and feminists of privilege try to force their values inappropriately. Like most of the social issues touched on in Manhunter it is very briefly done and it is not perfectly executed but I am pleased to see these conversations start to appear. I am hopeful that we will continue to see more of them.

As a generic comic reader one of the biggest issues that I had with Manhunter was the pacing. In some cases I found that there were huge gaps of time in between the story lines of each trade paper back. During these gaps there are some pretty big shifts and changes. If you are going to pick up the trades keep that in mind going into the story. Manhunter was cancelled by DC in 2006 and issue 2) was supposed to be the end of her run. Due to fan pressure D.C. pushed that back to issue 30 (end of vol. 4). I get the impression that volume 5 of the graphic novel is mostly wrapping up a lot of extra loose ends. It is mostly a look at the characters in the distant future with her son’s graduation. While I was glad to have more things resolved I just felt that it was rushed. I am a little sad that we did not get to slowly explore the stories that got them to that point. However, I am pleased to see that Manhunter will be appearing in some of the post relaunch teams.

I found the strongest volumes to be the first trade and the fourth. I have to admit my love of the fourth may be how heavily it featured Wonder Woman and some outside D.C. storylines that I am familiar with. I probably would not suggest Manhunter as a D.C. starting point. While not essential having back ground knowledge of what is going on in the D.C. universe is helpful. Certainly to get the most out of Volume 4 I would suggest having already read Infinite Crisis

If you are familiar with D.C. and want some stronger female leads then I suggest Manhunter may be a good addition to your collection. Overall I will be keeping my eyes open for this author’s future works.

Batwoman

Series: Batwoman
Words: J.H. Williams & W. Haden Blackman
Images: J.H. Williams
Issue Number: 2
Release Date: In reality October 12, 2011  but our cover reads December
Format: Comic

As soon as I could I was tearing through the pages of Batwoman. The art in this comic continues to be amazing. For issue number two I think that art is even better then the stunning first issue. This is really unfair because it sets a very high standard for other artists. There is this blending of art styles and methods of drawing both characters and backgrounds that set a shifting and effective mood and tone for the comic. During one of the early fight scenes the image of x-rays is used to provide an illustration of how much physical damage is being done in a fight. And you do not have to just take my word for it Comic Book Resources had a preview of the comic (link here) that quite effectively show cases how amazing the art style is for story telling.

If you are a comic book fan you can also enjoy trying to find Warren Ellis' Desolation Jones in one of the panels. A great little Easter egg of sorts for longer term comic readers.

Stepping beyond the amazing art (which alone almost justifies buying this comic or buying Batwoman when it comes out in a trade) is this enjoyable story. It took a while for me to realize but most of this issue is filler and set up and getting the characters to where they need to be. I normally get very impatient with books or comics during these periods. I know I need this information for what comes next to make sense. But I don't want to wait. So usually I end up getting frustrated. Some how though the writers managed to slip me an issue filled with almost all set up and it was so enjoyable that I did not notice or mind. Instead of frustrated I am excited to find out where the story goes.

There is a little bit of relationship development between Batwoman and her side-kick. We get to see the first date with Kate Kane and her love interest Detective Sawyer. And as Detective Sawyer is upset that Batwoman interfered with her investigation in issue one I see foreshadowing for tension and conflict here. Issue two also marks the introduction of the Department of Extranormal Operations setting up all sorts of potential both good and bad. I've only recently become familiar with this department through the Green Lantern film and because it is also featured in Manhunter (which I am currently reading all of the trades of to review).

The only time I was taken out of the story was during an interaction between Batwoman and Batman where he cautions her that sidekicks have a tendency to die and come back as super villains. Being familiar with that back story in Batman's history it came across as a little flippant and a little out of character to me. But it did also get quite the chuckle out of me.

The only big concern I have with the story is the possibility of Batwoman joining Batman Inc. I am not sure if there is a way for that move to be spun with out her losing some of her strengths and some of her development. Currently Batwoman while within the Gotham / Batman universe was not trained by Bruce Wayne, she simply saw his costume and decided to take what she liked and operate on her own. At first her father was the person supporting her, helping with extra training and materials but at this point she has branched out on her own and is now training her own side kick.

The further into the story Batwoman goes the more difficult it is going to be to just pick up the latest issue and read. The story flows from one comic to another building on a foundation. I will update you when this story arch ends and the next starts. It they continue with the artwork and the great stories then this is going to be an amazing trade paperback / graphic novel to own.

If you were going to read just one of the D.C. new 52 in either graphic novel or comic formats this should be the one you get.

Batgirl #2

Series: Batgirl
Words: Gail Simone
Images: Adrian Syaf, Vincent Cifuentes
Issue Number: 2
Release Date: In reality October 12th but our cover reads December 2011
Format: Comic

With the first issue I had a whole ton of concerns about Batgirl. Especially in terms of Barbara Gordon's ability to walk again. I just read the second issue while the mister and I were driving to his parents place. Luckily he was the on actually driving. In terms of disability? I am a little more reassured at this point. I am still not happy about the lack of people with disabilities in DC but Gail Simone has not used the reboot to magically sweep it under the rug. There is mention of the character not physically being able to maintain stunts and fights because while her spinal injury has greatly improved her physical stamina is still lacking. I am slightly reassured by this. I am still sulking a little bit (I hate change) but I'm also really excited to read more.

PTSD and Babs also has not magically disappeared especially with lines like "He pointed that gun at me, just where the Joker tore up my spine three years ago and I froze... the gun triggered something I thought was long over" A fairly classic symptom of PTSD is experiencing either a flash back or a dissociation when presented with stimuli that resemble or remind of the traumatic incident.

 One of the few things that took me out of the story is Babs going on a date with her physical therapist. There is no way in heck this guy could have any sort of relationship with Babs and it be okay with his registration board. As an allied health professional who works in the disability field it gave me pause. If you do not work in the field well then it will probably be a none issue for you. In retrospect I can understand why Simone opted to approach a relationship with the physical therapist. It gives more chances for her to explore some of the back story of how Babs' got from a wheel chair to standing. Gregor's background means that some context. Comments can be made about how sometimes with spinal cord injuries the unexpected does happen but it is very rare making this a much more realistic process.

I am very pleased to see that the return of Batgirl has not meant we have lost the strengths she had as Oracle. Physically unable to take the villain down Babs has to resort to her brains. Her ability to research and her ability to make computers do magical and wonderful things that no one else in Gotham or the D.C. universe can do.

Simone also made some commentary on class and social inequality during this issue of Batgirl that really impressed me. Slipped into the story are little gems along the lines of "... The only cemetery in downtown Gotham that hasn't been demolished. Oh, they've tried. Real estate developers have made a multitude of heatbreaingly sincere please to disinter the occupants of this place. Because we need more shopping and parking, you see. But it turns out, rich people don't like the idea of their loved ones switching accommodations for a new frogurt boutique. And unlike poor people who feel that way... they have the juice to make it not happen. Even here, there is a class system in Gotham." I am pleased to see more and more comic book authors making sociopolitical commentary.

I am really enjoying the level of depth given to the characters in Batgirl. I do have to confess that this issue of Batgirl made me cry. wince and smile. I found myself sniffling at the villain's back story. I have to admit he is quickly becoming one of my recent favorites among villains.

Again the colours and art were impressive. I love how the dark grey of Gotham is broken up with flashes of purple, a bright blue, and green tones consistently though the entire issue. The physical design of women in this comic has continued to impress me. There are more realistically sized. Babs has actual muscle and tone. There were a lot of moments where some of the great character development could have been set back by sexualized depictions of character taking away from Simone's work of developing her. Luckily for the story, the experience and the reader the Ardian Syaf and Vincente Cifuentes masterfully and smoothly avoided doing so.

The comics seem to be going fast. Some people on twitter have started saying that stores are sold out. If you like interesting female leads with a varied supporting cast I would suggest checking out Batgirl.