Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: The Walking Dead vols 1-3 by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard ::
by William the Bloody
You remember the movie 28 Days Later? Well, this comic starts out kind of like that... Rick wakes up from a coma in the hospital. No nurses answer is calls for assistance, and after he gets dressed he finds out why; there are no nurses, but there are loads of zombies all over the damn place. First things first, he heads to his house in search of his wife and son, only to find it and the whole neighbourhood abandoned and ransacked. Rick finds one man and his son squatting near by and he tells him about how all this went down while Rick was asleep and that before broadcasting terminated, the government was trying to get people into the major cities to be easier to protect. Rick's a police officer, so he breaks into his precinct and loads up on weapons and takes a car as far as he can towards Atlanta (the nearest city), which is until he runs out of gas. Upon arriving at Atlanta, Rick discovers that the zombie problem has pretty much taken over the city and that whatever plans for protection the government had has failed miserably. In fact, if it weren't for a young man stealthily searching for supplies, Rick would have been overwhelmed by the zombie masses himself. The young man, Glenn, takes Rick to his camp where he and about a dozen other people who escaped the horrors of the city are holding out in a camper. Miraculously, Rick's wife and son are among these survivours, thanks to one of Rick's fellow police officers who escorted them to Atlanta. They hope that their situation is temporary; that the government will do something and that by being near a big city they'll be among the first rescued. However, they soon realized that much time as passed since everything went to hell and in all likelihood there is no government anymore, so they're on their own for their survival. Unfortunately, when there are no governing bodies or laws, what people do manage to survive soon find out that most of the time they are in even greater danger from each other than the walking dead could ever pose.
The Good: Writer Kirkman does a great job giving each character personality. The main character Rick is perfectly likeable, but he too feels the stress and urge to just let it all go in a world wrought with constant fear, danger, death, and despair. Characters also die constantly, no matter how attached to them or long-term they may feel, which is super cool because just about anyone is fair game at any time. The way the group tries to strategize around the zombies and devise methods of killing/disposing of them is always interesting. Also, they have to face life the hard way where running water is a superb luxury and sometimes there are days without food, which are aspects you don't always get in a zombie film because those are usually short term and this comic spans several months so far. Adlard's grey-scale art fits the zombie genre like a glove and it rocks my socks.
The Bad: In the trade paperback editions, you sort of get the feeling of a formula. Someone is guaranteed to die and the group find a spot they think they can settle down in within each book. I was starting to get a little tired of someone saying "we could start a new life here!" every few pages. Rick's wife really started to grate on me in volume three. She's getting way too emotional, makes a big deal out of EVERY decision, and jumps to false conclusions then apologizes for it all twenty minutes later claiming it to be hormones, like that makes it all okay. Blech. Please. Sometimes time just seems to zoom by without us knowing it until someone says something like "I can't believe it's been a month since..." Yeah, well, neither can we. I guess, in the panel break anything is possible.
All in all, it's a pretty darn good read, if you like zombies, and I know I do. You don't always get the opportunity for a long-haul zombie tale, and this one is a great starter. When day to day life is a constant struggle and the basic necessities are difficult to obtain, it's fascinating to see what route a person's rationale will take. In a world where death lurks behind every corner and anyone could die any day, how long before someone lets their own pettiness, jealousies, and panic take over into killing a live person and not just zombies or for survival? This comic is an interesting microcosm of a a society governed by chaos and not laws and it feels like you're really watching actual people in this horrific situation. There are lumbering dead corpses, quite a lot of violence, cursing and some nudity, so clearly this comic ain't for the kiddies, but for an adult, it's one heck of a great read. Each trade paperback retails for around 13 USD, and I think it's well worth it.
A
