The Walking Dead

Every time a big issue of “The Walking Dead” comes up, anticipation builds for a giant zombie blood bath. Time after time, Robert Kirkman has resisted this temptation and he continues that pattern with issue #150, creating a dramatic and life-changing comic at a relatively small scale. RELATED: LOOK: “The Walking Dead” #150 Variant Cover Heralds Return of Original Series Artist Simmering resentments and conflicts have only grown since Alpha killed a series of Rick Grimes’ people as a warning. However, the initial death toll isn’t the highest cost to be paid; it’s the reactions to that event that expose people’s most mistrusting and vengeful responses. We’ve seen that build up in recent issues, right up to the town meeting brawl, and it continues to pay off here. In this issue, Rick Grimes is attacked by Vincent, who lost his son to Alpha, and Morton, whose bullying son was attacked by Carl in defense of Sophia. It’s an interesting parallel where two people from two different angles b

“The Walking Dead” #148 is as bleak as you’d expect it to be. This is a character-focused issue, writer Robert Kirkman spending the installment moving pieces into place. Kirkman jumps between several different scenes but spends just enough time with each to lure fans in closer with each passing page. There is a horizon line of violence that is fast approaching as Alpha shows an emotional side before returning to vicious mode. Meanwhile, Rick tries to keep the community together as tensions rise to the breaking point, forcing him to turn to the last person anyone wants to see again. What’s fascinating about “The Walking Dead” as a book is that it is still such an exhausting comic to read. Kirkman’s command of tension is taxing on a readers’ emotions, but in the exact way one would want. Charlie Adlard assists in drawing this tension out through his steady, solid character work. Everyone, from children to adults, looks exhausted all of the time. It’s hard to live in this world and eve

In “The Walking Dead” #138, the Whisperers arrive at the Hilltop and Maggie has an easy decision to make to protect the safety of her people. Unfortunately, there’s something she doesn’t know that complicates things and leads to a decision that might just imperil the Hilltop in the long run. The drama that fans talk about when it comes to “The Walking Dead” is so often about who’s getting killed next and what craziness the Big Bad Guy will inflict on a favorite character. This issue is much more a political and personal one. The situation is perfectly staged by Robert Kirkman to bring characters into action. You can run down what each of them do and understand why they made the decisions they did. You can see it in their faces as Charlie Adlard and Stefano Gaudiano draw them. It’s all justifiable, but it might just be explosive in an issue or two. Over the course of the issue, Carl finds out that Lydia is being raped as part of the culture in her own community, so he vows to protect

Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s “The Walking Dead” #132 contains a smart, chilling revelation that mixes zombies with human ingenuity to terrifying results. Though the intriguing reveal that the dead were talking was largely bungled in execution a few issues back, the development of that idea in this issue is both chilling and expertly executed. A small horseback search party is sent out to find Ken, the injured man Marco had to leave behind as he escaped zombies that he claimed were whispering. The search party is ambushed by a herd of zombies and the survivors fight them off with an ingenious method that makes great worldbulding sense. However, some of the zombies have weapons and are not only whispering but also attacking, thinking and strategizing. For a moment, it seems like Kirkman has made a terrible error, tipping his story in a ridiculous direction, but as the battle ends, the real truth of this horror unfolds: that some of the zombies are actually people inside “zombie

Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s “The Walking Dead” #130 has an incredible plot twist that could have made for an exceptional issue, but the execution is mishandled and falls frustratingly flat. Kirkman is a talented and experienced storyteller, but he makes an odd misstep in this issue that lets the air out of the big reveal. Page seven contains a game-changing revelation: that the dead are talking to one another. It’s the kind of epic moment that changes everything and while it doesn’t land as powerfully as it should, it works well enough. Unfortunately, Kirkman opts to use the same information as a cliffhanger and it negatively affects the entire issue. There are other solid bits of character work on display with general plot movement, but the reveal is the most major aspect of the issue, and on balance, it just doesn’t work. Interestingly enough, an opening scene in which captured bad guy (and completely nightmare) Negan tries to trick newcomers into coming close to his cell