Walking Dead #111 (Image)

Rating: 4.5/5 – Still a great story focused on the people affected by the Zombie apocalypse

I’ve been a fan of the Walking Dead for a long time.  I came to the comics via the Trade paperbacks right around the time the 2^nd collection came out.  I read the series in collected edition for a couple of years before switching to the monthly issues because I just didn’t want to wait 6 months (or more) between installments.

This has been in my “Top 10” consistently over the years because Kirkman has done something special.  He has a zombie book that’s not really a zombie book.  The zombies are window dressing.  The backdrop to the post-apocalyptic situation he’s pout his characters into, and that world drives their thoughts and actions, but it’s the character development and what the characters do and how they act that keeps me coming back month after month to see what happens next.

Another thing Kirkman excels at is the way he advances the story in almost every issue and leave the story off on a very compelling story beat that makes me really WANT to get that next issue and read it.  That’s what has ultimately kept the book in my top 10 and it’s also what made me move to reading it in monthly installments.   I’ve been reading comics for over 40 years and what he’s been able to do here is very special, making the issues read as very compelling chunks of story in the monthly format and read equally well in the collected edition story arcs.  This is a tribute to his ability as a writer and also a tribute to putting himself in the shoes of his different types of customers and delivering something that is satisfying in whatever format you choose to consume the stories.

Many people are familiar with Walking Dead from the AMC TV series, which is great.  The comic is something similar, but also very different.  The story in the comic has advanced farther than the TV series and they key characters have also played out somewhat differently.  I must say that I like some of the changes made for the TV series better than what’s in the comics, but I also like some of the things in the comics better than on TV (the handling of the characters Andrea & Michonne are 2 that come immediately to mind as much better in the comic.

In this issue we get more of the current storyline where Rick & his people are struggling against Negan & The Saviors.  Negan is being fleshed out more and more over time to be a worthy successor to the Governor as a “big bad”.   It’s a common trope in post-apocalyptic stories to have various bad dudes setting themselves up with little fiefdoms, we’ve seen various takes on this over the course of the series, including what Rick & his group have built themselves.  Another very different take on this is what Ezekial has set up in The Kingdom, we got some especially compelling backstory on this in #110 last month.

This is not about spoilers so I won’t go into specifics about #111, but we get more insight into Negan as a character in this issue and it’s really building suspense for me for the next showdown between Rick & Negan.  Will it be the “final” showdown?  I’m not sure, Kirkman tends to keep us guessing so it may or may not be, but the storm’s coming and it’s going to be good.   This arc has now crossed the point where I can say it will truly rival the arc with the Governor, quite an accomplishment.

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall – bob@comicspectrum.com
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