Bonehead
Okay, so that was a little harsh. “What are you babbling about?” you ask.
I’m talking about my column of last week, the one in which there was a paragraph that could be read as a rank dismissal of Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore’s series The Walking Dead. A dismissal on the grounds of it being a derivative work lifted wholesale from the previous work of George Romero and his Living Dead films.
Harsh? Yes. Perhaps even overly harsh.
So let me try to make amends for that moment of overly critical judgmentality. And I only do this because The Walking Dead is a good book, something that I hear myself saying less and less of each month. Of course, people seem to be picking up on the fact that it’s a good book, because orders have been steadily going up, rather than going down.
This is mind-boggling for a number of reasons. First and foremost, neither of the creators working on the book currently (I understand that Mr. Moore is moving on to other projects shortly, to be replaced by the absurdly capable Charlie Adlard) are big names. True, Mr. Kirkman has put out a number of books with Image (Tech Jacket, Invincible and Brit come to mind) as well as the cult hit Battle Pope, but he’s hardly on the same level as other writers whose names come to mind (Ed Brubaker, Kurt Busiek, Mark Millar). Mr. Moore is much in the same boat, having worked on independent books and not too much smack dab in the mainstream.
Given today’s market, the fact that The Walking Dead is a black and white book (albeit one done with substantial greytones that add a lot to power of the art) should be a major strike against it. Personally, I love a book that works in black and white (but then I’m one of those lunatics who also loves flat color when it’s well done), and Walking Dead really works. Mr. Moore’s artwork is a great combination of the iconic and the realistic, if I may be permitted to crib from Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics here. Like anyone who works in a ‘cartoony’ style these days, Mr. Moore runs the risk of being lambasted for not bringing appropriate ‘seriousness’ to the subject at hand.
That’s a load of hogwash.
His simple linework and grasp of character’s expressions (as well as being able to make them INDIVIDUALS) brings a gravity to the artwork that a lot of other artists would be well advised to study and learn from. Mr. Moore’s characterization is crucial to the success of this book, and I’ll be sorry to see him go (but will be paying attention to see where he ends up.) But I’m getting sidetracked here.
Thirdly amazing is that The Walking Dead is doing as well as it is in a marketplace that’s dominated by genre superhero adventure books. If there’s one thing that Walking Dead isn’t, it’s genre adventure. Sure, there’s plenty of action and suspense, but that’s not the core of the book. There’s no swaggering cyber-mercenaries, cooler than ice and unstoppable when the armies of the villain du jour attack. There’s no simple morality plays to be seen. Yes, I suppose on its face, you could call The Walking Dead a horror book, given it’s zombie-infested status and all that. And really, even if it was just a simple horror book, launching one of those today without the Vertigo imprint on it is pretty foolhardy and should be applauded.
What is finally amazing about the success of Walking Dead and should be really be celebrated is that it’s ultimately a drama about people doing the best they can in the situation that’s been thrust upon them. It might be dressed in a scare mask and share some of the trappings of the horror genre, but it’s really an interpersonal drama disguised as a zombiefest. All the characters are pretty ordinary people in the middle of a situation that is anything but, and it’s all about how they get by and how the world changes them.
Imagine that. Characters going through arcs of change based on their external situation and in turn acting in a way that REVEALS those changes. Now that’s amazing, folks. This is story, unfolding before your very eyes. People make all kinds of decisions, good and bad ones, and the repercussions of those decisions are both unexpected and fitting and in some cases, disturbing.
The art and the script are actually working hand in hand here, to convey the story at all levels of action, from the gross of the gunfights and chopping hatchets to the subtle of a single glance.
The Walking Dead really is one of the better books on the stands right now, and it’d be that way even if I didn’t have a soft spot for zombies. It’s got believable characters driven by identifiable needs and desires and a dreadful world that they’ve chosen to survive rather than give in to. Yes, in the final analysis, they owe an awful lot to the works of George Romero. But they’ve crafted a human story as well as paid homage to the shambling hordes of the living dead. They’ve gone a lot further than the source material, and to potentially write them off as just another zombie book (in the vein of many that have been seen over the years, most of them rightfully forgotten, though Vince Locke’s artwork on Deadworld was outstanding) isn’t being fair.
If you’re looking for an intelligent book to get into, one that actually comes out every month and has a lot to offer, then open up a copy of The Walking Dead, which conveniently offers a trade collecting the first storyline just as the second one launches.
See, I told you I’d be more positive this week. And you didn’t believe me.
Next week, reporting from Wondercon in foggy San Francisco. See you then.