With so many zombie stories in so many different types of media, can one tale stand out among the crowd? Ten years ago, Robert Kirkman started one of the greatest zombie stories, The Walking Dead, and that has grown to be the most watched cable TV show out there. With this and many other popular tales of the undead, should this indie comic sit beside The Walking Dead as one of the best? Is it good?
Other Dead #1 (IDW Publishing)
My favorite scene was the first. A band of hunters just took down a deer. Everyone is applauding the man who shot it so well. All is well until the deceased beast rises and attacks the other men. This is happening alongside narration with lots of symbolism and metaphors relating back to the hunting scene. This portion of the book is well written, tells a nice little bit about the coming of the apocalypse and really sets the tone for the book.
I will praise this book for its story construction. Throughout the course of this issue we witness many different portions of various people’s lives. We see a sick, young child; a stripper; a violent teenager and a few others. While these all might seem unrelated the author does a very nice job of piecing it all together and connecting all the different stories.
And the actual writing isn’t half bad, either. The dialogue is well-done and everyone sounds their age, something I often have a problem with. The little boy doesn’t sound like he’s too little, the teenager doesn’t sound like he is too old and the adults are appropriately mature but still remain lifelike. My only problem is some of the scenes are kind of hackish and not thought through. Not all of the scenes are 100% necessary in telling the story, and that kind of irks me.
7.5
- Solid story construction
- Writing is good
- Art is a little uncomfortable
- Nothing special here
Art wise, this book is pretty solid. The pencils are nice and accurate and the inks and shadings are right for the story and create a gloomy and somewhat hostile tone. While this helps convey a feeling it also makes the reader a little uncomfortable.
Is It Good?
It’s pretty good. There’s surely nothing really bad about it, but nothing makes this stand-out to me as anything particularly new or exciting.
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