The Walking Dead C/D

jesus this thing has taken some incredible twists and turns lately and the hunters storyline seems to be getting a lot of hype. I wish this would come out more often.

Ditto. It's quite alarming how seriously Kirkman takes his "no character is safe" philosophy.

I recently read the first seven issues, thought it was OK until Tony Moore left, then I realised most of my enjoyment had come from his art. Don't think I'll ever be bothered to read the rest. The writing's not bad, but it doesn't seem to be offering anything new to an already overcrowded genre, and the characters alone aren't good enough to make me want to invest my time. Six out of ten.

I thought this was Classic up until SPOILER dude loses his hand -- and they meet that psycho dude? SPOILEROFF and it was downhill enough from there that I dropped it. Should I go back to reading?

Enjoyable early issues became an exercise in torture porn - what even more horrible things can I inflict on these characters to titillate my audience? Gave up for good around the same time as Mordy.

Enjoyable early issues became an exercise in torture porn

I can completely see where you're coming from, while respectfully disagreeing. One bit--the abuse/rape of a major character--was too much for me, and yet I do like the way every risk is a REAL risk, and every threat to the characters has real consequences. A very "pleasant" antidote to the bullshit of superhero comics, where nothing every really matters or makes any difference.

Probably not the place to get into it, but I don't really buy that criticism of comic book -- that nothing even really happens. When a character is killed off (Superman, or Captain America, or whoever), they are withheld from readers for varying lengths of time. As far as fiction goes, that's as significant as death ever is. That they come back doesn't lessen that, and I don't feel a need to have permanent consequences for death as tho resurrection lessons the realism of the book. I mean, Walking Dead is about zombies taking over the world. Why do these horrible things to your characters? What is this "real risk?" They are still characters, so nothing is ACTUALLY happening to them.

(tho I guess if some people like it, then Kirkman is appealing to an audience. But I don't think he gets any cred for maiming/raping/murdering his protagonists. Also: all my friends who were reading this have since dropped it.)

Ugh. full of typos. "I don't really buy that criticism of comic books - that nothing ever really happens."

I mean, Walking Dead is about zombies taking over the world. Why do these horrible things to your characters? What is this "real risk?" They are still characters, so nothing is ACTUALLY happening to them.

Well, yes and no. But I'm not so divorced from the fictions that I enjoy that I think about them that way. There are still characters I care about, that I want to survive.

When a character is killed off (Superman, or Captain America, or whoever), they are withheld from readers for varying lengths of time.

Sure, but at that level you'd get the same effect by just not buying the book for a year or two.

guh.
maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
GRAHUH!
kuh.

recently read/re-read trades 5-8, still liking this. thought things got boring/too much of a soap opera after they found the prison, until the shit with woodbury.

man, some wikipedia editor type has taken all the plot summaries off the page. can someone give me a quick summary of what happened since the governor's men killed the entire cast except the main dude and the main dude started to go crazy?

Things get better, then they get worse. More characters die in horrific ways. Main dude gets crazier, then recovers his sanity to lay the smack down. Things get better, then they get worse. More characters die in horrific ways. Main dude gets crazier, then recovers his sanity to lay the smack down. Things get better...

^yep

Main dude and his son are now in a travelling party (with some new characters and some of the people who left the prison before the Governer killed everybody) which is supposed to be headed for Washington, DC. Main dude's son is now basically a psycho.

Wow, main dude's son is now psycho too. Major plot twist.

any new developments?

Now they're living in a walled town, with Rick as equivalent to sherriff, but he's viewed with suspicion by many after beating the crap out of a man who committed domestic violence. Also he may be planning a coup to take the place over.

fuck i should catch up on this man.

Just read the whole 80-odd issues over a few days and it made me moody and irritable. Kirkman has no boundaries to what he'll do, which is interesting, I guess, although not necessarily entertaining. Tension mostly seems to come from wondering when the next porn-eriffic double-page Death of Your Favourite Character will occur.

Having said that, if I'd actually paid for the sucker, I'd have quit after two issues.

I read the bulk of the first two hardback collections last night (have about 1/3 of the second one to go; in the prison, Rick's shot Dexter in the head), and really enjoyed it.

Tension mostly seems to come from wondering when the next porn-eriffic double-page Death of Your Favourite Character will occur

Yikes, OTM me, last year. Anyone read #100 yet?

Scik Mouthy, I don't really enjoy it, but I can see why other readers would -- which I guess is a weaselly way of saying I don't like it. But I guess it's rare for comics creators to get the time to build such an expansive world. I'm just not sure I like what he's done with it.

I gave up on the series a few years ago (pretty soon after half of the cast had been killed by the Evil Moustache Guy and his henchmen) because it didn't feel like Kirkman was willing to advance the main plot in any substantial way beyond Shocking Character Deaths, and those were getting tired too. I don't think zombie apocalypse is a good setting for a series that goes on year after year after year, because it severely limits the kind of stories you can tell within it, so if you at some point you need to actually conclude the story unless you want to bore the readers. (And in zombie apocalypse stories the conclusion usually involves either killing everyone, or a cure being found; is The Walking Dead's plot anywhere near something like that at the moment?) At least with Invincible Kirkman still manages to do some fresh things in his stories even after 10+ years, because the superhero setting has (by design) a lot more storytelling options than the zombie one.

I never regret turning my back on this series at issue #24.

is The Walking Dead's plot anywhere near something like that at the moment?)

Killing everyone--certainly very few of the original cast are left. But the back-matter is pretty much clear in stating that it will never go down the cure (or explaining the cause of the zombies) route

he got around to killing rick, if anyone still cares

My buddy was making a sweet living inking this for quite a few years but now what’s his name has decided to start inking himself :(

yeah, that's as of this issue right?
i imagine it was a plum gig.

does he get money off the trades?

i read the t0rrentz of this but it is basically pedestrian and boring and i should stop, plus kirkman seems like a terrible dickhead

That’s a good question. I don’t think so? I feel like the writer and penciller are usually considered the ‘composers’ of the piece.

Anyway Stefano is mad talented so it’ll be cool to see what he does next.

I have no interest in reading this & regret the loss of a job for a person, but it’s cool when long-time assembly-line artists change their process, especially when it means taking on more authorship