Monday, October 28, 2013

Comic Review: The Walking Dead: Days Gone By


Author: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Tony Moore
Published: September 26, 2006

An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months, society has crumbled: There is no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. Rick Grimes finds himself one of the few survivors in this terrifying future. A couple months ago he was a small town cop who had never fired a shot and only ever saw one dead body. Separated from his family, he must now sort through all the death and confusion to try and find his wife and son. In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally begin living.

I have this thing I do on Goodreads where I have to look at bad reviews of books. If I'm iffy about a book before I pick it up I'll look at the bad reviews then. If I really liked the book (or didn't like it at all) I'll look at the reviews after to see what other people felt about them and why.

I had bought Days Gone By sometime after the first season of The Walking Dead came on television. I had never been drawn to anything that was zombie related before then, but after the show got a huge follow I was curious about it and watched along. I thought the show was really well done and was curious about the original story. However, since the very beginning of the book and the first episode were mirrors of one another I put it down for the time. I finally came back to it at the beginning to this month thinking enough time had past that I wouldn't be bored with it or find it repetitive. After I finished this volume I consulted Goodreads for a sort of guideline on how I should write this review. I found an odd amount of 'one star' reviews so of course I had to read them, and now I feel like I have to defend this book.I haven't read past the first six issues of this series, and it seems like a lot of the one star reviewers didn't either so I feel like we're on equal ground.
*Reviewer's complaint #1- The plot was too simplistic.
Duh. It's an intro to an ongoing series Kirkman can't throw all the "drama of the show" at you at once. It would be schizophrenic and you feel lost and frustrated. The show had a similar build up in the first few episodes it just threw in more controversial characters at first to draw you in. That's what shows do.
*Reviewer's complaint #2- The art was messy.
I'm a stickler for art especially in a graphic novel and though Tony Moore's style isn't my favorite I think its simple lines and black and white coloring was a good choice. That way it didn't focus on the gore of the actual zombies but on the people around them. I also believe that he purpose left details out of a lot of the faces in the camp because you weren't supposed to be attached to them or even recall their faces much as I'm sure the characters themselves won't remember those faces after a while.
Reviewer's complaint #3- There was no character development.
First, and again this was introducing the main characters in this series. We as readers should probably get to know their thought processes first before they develop so we can see it as it happens.
Second. Did you just forget about Carl? I know he's a child but I would totally consider him as a more developed character by the end of the book. Same goes for Shane. Sure, I will agree that there wasn't much development as far as Rick and Laurie go but again this is part of a series and not a stand alone book so I'm not worried.

No comments:

Post a Comment