So that's what all the fuss is about.
Though I've enjoyed Robert Kirkman's work before, the initial solicitations for The Walking Dead never really caught my eye, so I missed out on the initial issues. Buzz started to grow quickly about the title, though, and that did grab my attention. Word came of a collection edition, so I decided to wait on that to see what it was all about. Kirkman doesn't just do his usual good job here. He does a tremendous job. This isn't a story about dead people coming back from the grave to torment their living brethren. It's just about people and how we all take the world we have for granted. Well-realized characters and some vivid, effective artwork make for a riveting read.
Rick Grimes is a small-town cop shot in the line of duty, and after weeks, he finally awakens from a coma in a hospital bed. He's healed, but he's also alone, surprisingly. He soon discovers that during those weeks when he was out of commission, something went horribly, horribly wrong with America. The town is overrun by zombies, and just about all of the living survivors have fled. Rick sets out to find out if his wife and son are still alive, and he discovers a small group of survivors living together on the outskirts of Atlanta, relying on one another in order to survive.
There's no denying that Tony Moore's work here boasts a strong resemblance to the style of Steve (Preacher) Dillon. Moore boasts the same sort of simple yet realistic approach, and his characters are just as expressive. To a lesser degree, his work also seems to boast such influences of Ron (Thanos) Lim and Ty (Bigg Time) Templeton. He brings a greater level of detail to the undead characters, though. Those misshapen and ugly figures put me in mind of the work of such artists as Ethan (JSA) Van Sciver and Glenn (The Authority: Kev) Fabry. I love the variety of form that Moore brings to the cast of human characters and how he uses large panels and splash pages to shock the reader with the horror with which the characters are faced.
I don't care for zombie flicks. They're usually too gory for my taste, and I've never been one for scary movies in the first place. Kirkman, though, presents what may be the smartest zombie story ever, as it focuses not on the threat but on how the threat impacts the people subjected to it. Kirkman brings a level of depth to the characters and circumstances that no movie could ever hope to accomplish. The writer demonstrates that there are some stories that movies can't tell and that comics can.
My routine is a comfortable one. I get up, I go to work. I return home and veg with some TV watching and comics reading. I do some writing and I do some laundry. On the weekends, my girlfriend and I lose ourselves in each other and in hectic schedules we feel obligated to keep. Life is predictable and, as I said, comfortable. They say life is a struggle, but I can't really make such a claim these days. Kirkman explores the ultimate struggle that life could. We define living as enjoying a good meal and Seinfeld reruns. The writer approaches living from a different and fascinating perspective here. For these characyters, living means trying to stay alive and relying on those around us rather than locking ourselves up in our separate boxes.
