Yes, I’m no longer putting the date in the title of these entries ’cause I can’t imagine what anyone gets out of em. I am, however, numbering them to see how many of these I end up posting. Who knows - maybe we’ll get into double figures!

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The Walking Dead | Vol. 1-3 | Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard

Zombie movies are the most terrifying films there are, yet they’re also terribly fascinating because of what makes them so god-awful frightening to begin with. Loved ones coming back from the grave to eat you… Rotting corpses… Having to kill your girlfriend because she got bit… All horrible things, that’s for sure. The worst zombie-moment I’ve had to date was in Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” where the main character goes into a burger shop and ends up having to kill a little girl who tried to… well, devour him raw, I guess. No amount of blood or gore top something so profoundly disturbing as that.

Okay, back to ‘The Walking Dead’ now. This series begins very much like the aforementioned classic, “28 Days Later”: Rick wakes up from a coma after having been shot by a criminal while he was trying to arrest him. He quickly discovers that All Hell has broken loose while he was slumbering away and everyone are now either dead or zombie-fied. Rick quickly decides to head for Atlanta, the biggest town nearby, because he figures it has to survived the zombie attack better than his little town. And besides, Atlanta is also probably where his family went when they were being evacuated.

He eventually meets up with his wife and son, whose been living with a group of people just outside of Atlanta. Everything resembling civilization has broken down and the country side is riddled with zombies (of the slow-going, dumb type, mind you. If it was the hyper-zombies they’d be pretty fucked).

Kirkman does a very good job of showing a new side to the zombie tale. His story begins where other stories normally end, thus making it more about the people who survived than how they survived. If I was to mention one niggle, it’d be that I don’t think he’s managed to create a diverse enough cast of characters yet. I’ve read three volumes and I’m still struggling to tell the people in the group apart - especially so about the females who’re all very stereotypical. I’m sure this is something that will resolve itself as the series settles down, but it’s worth mentioning none the less… The stories have so far been very good, and it’s clear that they’re the thing that matters in this book; the art is black/white and nothing spectacular, but it does what it’s supposed to do, which is tell the tale and provide the necessary gory images.

I’m interested enough by now that I’ll probably read the rest of this series. The best volume so far has been the first one. The second one was clearly a step down, but the third was an improvement, if not as good as the first volume. There are some issues here that I’m very keen to get explained and I really hope Kirkman gets around to answering some of them sooner or later. Where is the military? Where did the zombies come from? I’ve got a grocery list full of these…

The Punisher MAX | Vol. 1 & 2 | Garth Ennis and Various Artists

My only experience with ‘The Punisher’ persona was via the horrible movie by the same name. However, while I was researching which series were worth checking out, the title ‘The Punisher MAX’ by Garth Ennis popped up with such a sinister frequency that I had to read it for myself.

And I’m glad I did, ’cause this was good stuff if you’re into the whole ‘blaze of glory’ and slaughter-fests that this book is all about. The Punisher goes around town, punishing people who more or less deserve getting killed, and it’s entertaining because beneath the all the blood you can see something looking like depth shining back at you. Not much so far, mind you - more like a kiddies pool worth of depth, but enough to make me want to get more of this goriest of comics. Besides, the art has been spectacular so far, which is a big plus.

DMZ | Vol. 1 | Brian Wood & Burchielli

DMZ stands for “Demilitarization zone” if you’re wondering, and it’s a what I’d describe as “one hell of cool comic”. The setting is a pretty current version of the US, but with one tinsy winsy exception: While the goverment was busy looking outside their country for threats, they forgot about their own people. A second major civil war broke out between, as far as I could tell, many of the same states as before, and the war is still raging. New York City has become the DMZ and Matthew Roth is sent in to report on what’s going on in No Man’s Land.

The first trade of DMZ reads much like the first issue of Warren Ellis’ “Transmetropolitan” series did, only with the crazy dialed down a couple thousand of notches. I liked it and smelled a lot of potential, so I’m definitely getting more of this series after I’m done reading the five thousand others I’ve got going on.

Planetary | Vol. 1 | Warren Ellis & John Cassaday

Saving the best for last, I herewith present you with ‘Planetary’ - one of Warren Ellis’ most acclaimed series. I knew I was in for a treat when the living legend Alan Moore was the one writing the foreword to this first volume of the series, and boy, was I right or what! This was everything I hoped for, and a little bit more.

‘Planetary’ is a secretive organisation that has a task force of “archaeologists” (or super-heroes if you’re a bit unfamiliar with the lingo in comics) who travel around the globe and digging up unknown history. Imagine it as one part ‘X-men’ and one part… hell, I don’t know what that other part would be. Maybe “pure Ellis genius” is the term I’m looking for, because ‘Planetary’ is by the best thing I’ve read by him so far. I really, really enjoyed it on so many different levels that I’m going to do a Big Review of it when I scrape together enough dough to buy the rest of the series.

Highly recommended.

Another Recommendation For the Road…

I was a devoted Amazon user for many years till I started reading comics. I quickly realized that paying shipping for every little tpb was going to cost me dearly, so I decided to give The Book Depository its long awaited chance because they don’t tax you for shipping.

So how did my venture fare? Oh, very well thanks. They rallied to the task with great aplomb and I was very pleased with everything about them. Sure, their interface isn’t as intelligently designed, nor do they do pre-orders or stock the same amount of awesomeness that Amazon does, but they shipped my items with the same speed as Amazon (who’re pretty quick) and they were all in perfect condition upon arrival. And they shipped the comics separately, which is a help for the post man. I may have to go back to Amazon to order special books and comics, but from now on till the day I die (or at least till something better comes along), I’ll always make use of The Book Depository whenever I can.