With volume three, The Walking Dead crosses into its second year as a series and runs the risk that all new series do of becoming predictable or overly familiar to its audience. Kirkman and company dodge that particular bullet with the addition of more cast members, the death of others and a complete change of scenery, serving notice that while The Walking Dead may not be as new as it once was, it's not something anyone could ever call predictable. There are huge changes for all of the characters during this arc, as well as nice continuing character development on the longer-running relationships and of course some shocking moments of violence and dange to punctuate the character work that is the series' real strength.
Kirkman's writing style varies a little between projects, but if there's a common stylistic tic to be found, it's in the amount of things that happen in his book. It's the kind of thing that some writers don't handle well, and the book winds up feeling crowded or scenes get short shrift, but Kirkman uses this approach to make the story fast-moving and layered. Over the course of this story, we get the bloody culmination of the Chris/Julie resentment subplot, a murder mystery that resolves in an equally bloody and disturbing manner, some shocking deaths, a couple of shocking survivals and plenty of nice tension between characters who would have every reason to be tense in this kind of situation. Rather than these shocks taking away from one another, they help to reinforce the dangers (both physical and psychological) of the world that these survivors are now living in.
On top of really strong plot structure, Kirkman really knows how to deliver on the moment-to-moment writing. The bonding between Lori and Carol was well-written, and had a surprising little twist as well. The fate of Tyreese was a shocker. The interaction between the rest of the group and the man they assumed murdered the little girls gave us a couple of great scenes. And the final page, while maybe not a shocker (I had suspected that was the killer), is certainly another jaw-dropping cliffhanger. It's also kind of nice that Kirkman asks and answers one of the big questions about any post-apocalyptic survival story, namely what about hunger? Seeing the characters deal with the realities of survival in a world without elecricity right alongside the psychological effects and the sci-fi element of the zombies reinforces just how well-constructed The Walking Dead is.
This trade ends with some of the most densely plotted, twist-filled pages that Kirkman has served up over the entirety of the series. Shane's descent into madness was visible from early on, the rise of the dead in the gated community effectively foreshadowed, but the speed and brutality with which the shockwaves of the murdered girls resonate is just intense. I had some gripes with the way some characters acted (even the most bleeding heart of liberals would be unlikely to act the way that Patricia or Lori did), but it presents more dramatic conflict, so I can almost excuse it. More to the point, while the mystery of the killer is over pretty quickly and doesn't really offer much of a brain tease, the human effects of the killer are done so well that it's hard not to be pleased. Kirkman really shows how the many deaths are starting to effect and numb the characters, and it's easy to agree with Dexter that maybe these characters have been "broken" by all that they've been exposed to in this new world.
With Adlard and Rathburn settling nicely into an art groove that conveys the horror and charged emotion of the story, whether it's Tyreese's louder story moments, Rick's quiet anger or the aftermath of the girls' death, which gives way to one of the most creepy, horrible scenes we've seen in the book. While I still give it to Moore in terms of zombies, in every other way, this is now totally Adlard and Rathburn's book, and I'm back to being unable to imagine a different artist on the book. The central focus of the book is on the character interaction, and Adlard is really great with the subtleties of personal interaction. Every character has a vibe to them that reveals their character, whether it's the sleazy character of Axel, the creepy Richard, the pure bad-assedness of Rick, Tyreese and Dexter or the sweet vulnerability of Andrea. In addition, there's a lot to be said for how creepy a big, empty place can be, and Adlard and Rathburn really convey the sense that the prison could hide any number of dangers and secrets in its walls.
While the horror genre and specifically the zombie revival has given us a fair number of good to excellent comics, The Walking Dead is still reigning champion of the indie horror scene. For that matter, it remains one of only a few comics that I would call "must reads" even in the modern, crowded comic-book marketplace. 10/10
