In the past, I've given The Walking Dead comic series in the past. Namely for my disliking of Robert Kirkman's inability to share a panel with the artist he's working with. Sure, there are a lot of silent panels that graces the pages, only after he's taken up an entire page with his word balloons. I stopped reading the series (in trade form) before I made it to the Governor arc. I don't know what possessed me to purchase Compendium One, I just did.
There was something that began to nag at me. Something, I couldn't put my finger on until I cracked the pages of Compendium Two (which I purchased yesterday, against my better judgement - monetary reasons, not taste). He makes no use of captions. Outside of comic strips and slice of life graphic novels, traditional comic books have made great usage of captions, even if it's just the "Meanwhile" piece. And that's when I cracked a knowing grin.
While I still feel Mr. Kirkman should stick to prose or TV scripting - he's a great writer, don't get me wrong, but his need for dialogue that often falls upon the repetitive and unnecessary still makes my skin crawl while reading his comic books - I've learned to reassess my opinion on his zombie series. If anyone should know that when it comes to the zombie genre it's often times the people that make the story flow, it's me. Loving the undead since a child, I respect the man's ability for us to draw our own conclusions and make our own captions subconsciously. He doesn't need that written down, doesn't need it to make his story flow from past to present to meanwhile.
It's a great job he's done, and he's won my respect.
The Walking Dead Compendium One is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Until next time, keep on huntin'.
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