B y: Robert Kirkman (writer), Charlies Adlard (art), Cliff Rathburn (gray tones), Russ Wooton (letters) & Sina Grace (editor)
The Story: As life passes in the sleepy little enclave, danger is closing in.
What’s Good: The tension was just palpable in this issue. It’s hard to discuss without getting a little SPOILERIFFIC so you’ve been warned.
Kirkman spends the entire issue bouncing from scenes inside the enclave (Note to Mr. Kirkman: Can you give this joint a name, please?) showing the survivors going about their lives and discussing the fallout from the last few issues. The whole thing is a pretty classic horror movie set-up. Show normal stuff. Show impending doom and everything about this issue screams “BAD THINGS ARE ABOUT TO HAPPEN!!!!” So, every time we leave a discussion of Rick and Andrea discussing her sniper skills during the shootout in the last issue to bounce over to Abraham and gang on construction duty, we kinda cringe. I like Abraham, but you know he isn’t safe (since no one is safe in TWD).
Kirkman uses this tension very well and he doesn’t spoil his own stories by releasing 7 page previews of his comics, but he did start teasing issue #80 a few months ago. We know that we’re headed for a big zombie mess in that issue, so Kirkman works with that and spends the whole issue just teasing us. When you think about it, the zombies themselves haven’t really been a problem since Rick, Abraham and Carl got caught in the zombie herd around issue 58 or so. That’s almost two years without a zombie attack. It’s time.
The theme of this issue could also be “life goes on”. We touch base with most of the major characters. Budding romances are discussed. Changes in leadership are afoot. People are happy. People are sad. Andrea is wearing Dales hat. But through it all, we keep seeing Abraham and gang doing routine zombie clean-up. This won’t end well!
What more can we say about Adlard’s art. Every issue is just an exercise in excellence from him. I especially appreciate the fact that he isn’t looking to show off all the time. It is just panel-after-panel of drawing the pictures that tell the story. Very professional.
What’s Not So Good: This issue almost felt a little disjointed. The bouncing between Abraham’s scenes and those inside the fence just got a little clunky in places. It wasn’t bad but was not as smooth as I’ve gotten used to with Kirkman and TWD. Kirkman has gotten so smooth with his storytelling that we almost take it for granted, so even though I’m listing this as a negative, it should really make us appreciate how hard he works at his craft. And we can forgive a hiccup…..since I’m sure the TV show is pulling on his calendar a little bit. 🙂
Conclusion: A rare place filler issue for TWD. It is forgivable because next episode the SHTF (Google it). Won’t issue #80 be GREAT Christmas reading?!?!
Grade: B-
-Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion