The Walking Dead

I've been wanting to write a review about this ongoing comic book series. People have been fascinated about the TV series and some don't even know that it started out as a comic book.

I'm not a fan of zombies but I was more than fascinated by the series. First of, my thanks to a very good friend and fellow geek, Dr. Eugene Baje, who urged me to start reading the series. In his words, he said that it's not the typical zombie comic book. Thank goodness I listened to him though it took quite a while for me to be convinced.

By the way, I don't watch the TV series. Like I said, I'm not a fan of zombies. Thus, I just stick to the reading part. This post is not about the TV series. So, if you were expecting something about the TV series, you would be disappointed.  I do mention something about the TV series and that's it.

What fascinates me about The Walking Dead comic book is how it is more about how people respond to a zombie apocalypse and not really about the zombies.  The series focuses on the people who have not been "turned" and shows how these people will do anything to stay alive.  I just got reminded now that it is similar to Y: The Last Man only this time, there are other guys walking around and not just girls.  In an apocalypse, people will do what needs to be done (and sex is certainly part of it!).

Robert Kirkman (the writer) has certainly made Image Comics relevant again.  I've read his Invincible series (and that's another series to write about) but I never expected The Walking Dead to be this good.  It doesn't even matter that The Walking Dead is in black and white.  Frankly, it's still so good.  Being in black and white just seems to fit to a zombie apocalypse book.  Props to the penciller Charlie Adlard.

About the TV series: Kirkman has mentioned that it won't be the same as the comic book because he wants something different.  There are similarities though and I enjoy "spoiling" some parts of the comic book to TV series enthusiasts.

For TV series enthusiasts: pick up the comic book series and start with number 1.  It's so much better.  The story moves fast and it's nerve wracking.  It really is worth the time and effort.

Image United

Image United #1 just got released. A brief overview: it features a story by Robert Kirkman and layout art by Rob Liefeld. The comic book features all founding creators of Image contributing art chores on their created character/s.

As a comic book fan having my (comic book) consciousness awakened during the "hot days" of Image, I'm kind of surprised with Image United #1 and its lack of (or my lack of seeing any) fanfare.

Back then (say, 13 or 14 years ago), a "crossover" in this regard would have been considered a "super" event. The founding creators of Image back once more and in 1 (gigantic) comic book! With an exclamation mark, of course.

How hot was Image Comics back then? The creators (most notably Liefeld, Jim Lee, and Marc Silvestri) continuously churned up new characters and new monthly comic books out of the blue. Each new monthly would be described as hot, hot, hot! Image Comics practically owned the Top 10 comic book sales during those times. It seemed that nothing could go wrong with whatever they released. Fans would continue to gobble up new releases even if they were tardy (I had to admit that I was one of those fans). They were that godly.

Something noticeably obscure that happened back then were the cover wars. It seemed that every milestone event sported a cover that wanted to top the latest cover technology. There were foils, holograms, die-cut, holofoil, chromium, and probably all sorts of combinations that can be thought of. This was way back they introduced the variant craze.

Did anybody ever notice the stories that they turned out with all the new characters? A good chunk of the comic books didn't last long. Liefeld was notorious with coming up with one copycat character or team after another. A typical superhero team had any or all of the following: gun-toting, cigar-chomping leader that had a bad-ass attitude, a wild and feisty clawed character, the sexy female that every male wanted to go to bed with, and the usually dumb heavy muscled bouncer.

An event that I could compare the current Image United to would be the creator crossover that they did. The founding creators swapped assignments (probably drew lots to decide on who got who). Best of all, no fan knew what artist did what before the actual comic book got released. The surprise was part of the enticement to buy all 8 issues of the event. I even thought of buying an issue of Shadowhawk just for the heck of it. Fans were so excited then. The event didn't go too well and a little bit of quarreling happened regarding how a character was treated and the usual tardiness of Image releases also kicked in.

It's been a wild decade ever since. They've quarreled some more and have gone their separate ways. They've become like Kiss - touring around conventions and reuniting for signing sessions. They've continued to produce comics still. I still appreciate Jim Lee's creations with Wildstorm. Todd McFarlane has always stayed true to form. Erik Larsen does not boast great sales figures but he's still there. Jim Valentino did an AIDS story with his character and that was that.

Image has gone a long way from its former status as the next company that could topple or compete with the big 2 of comic books, Marvel and DC. I always thought a decade would change the way they came out with stories.

And so, with Image United, I expected a grand improvement. But still, it's the same old senseless "I'll punch you and you punch back" style dialog. I thought Robert Kirkman would do justice with a DC-like Crisis event bringing in all the characters but nah... It's pretty obvious that getting all the characters together in one mash-up story is difficult to do. I guess, all I wanted to say was that if it was difficult in the first place, it shouldn't have been done. It brings back all the senseless Image stories that I read a decade ago.

But hey, it's just one issue so far. I hope to be impressed in the next.