After Rick delivers Carl to Hilltop to start their new lives apart, a threat emerges from within the walker hordes that no one could expect. A threat that will leave readers speechless. Collects The Walking Dead #133-144.
Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead, Invincible for Image Comics, as well as Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt. He is one of the five partners of Image Comics, and the only one of the five who was not one of the original co-founders of that publisher.
Robert Kirkman's first comic books were self-published under his own Funk-o-Tron label. Along with childhood friend Tony Moore, Kirkman created Battle Pope which was published in late 2001. Battle Pope ran for over 2 years along with other Funk-o-Tron published books such as InkPunks and Double Take.
In July of 2002, Robert's first work for another company began, with a 4-part SuperPatriot series for Image, along with Battle Pope backup story artist Cory Walker. Robert's creator-owned projects followed shortly thereafter, including Tech Jacket, Invincible and Walking Dead.
I read this so quickly! There was a point in this where I didn't think I would love it because Carl was being a little shit and I just wasn't feeling it but then the story went kind of crazy in an unexpected way and oh man it was so good. I love the characters and honestly it is crazy clever that we are shown such small interactions between them but they feel super real.
Just when you thought everything was going to turn out pretty well, it goes crazy. The ending was unbelievably horrible. I guess most of the books are but this one, oh man. Bad!! (In a good bad way.)
From Goodreads: After Rick delivers Carl to Hilltop to start their new lives apart, a threat emerges from within the walker hordes that no one could expect. A threat that will leave readers speechless. Collects The Walking Dead #133-144.
So, Book Eleven had me going WTF at the end and Book Twelve delivers the answer. And what an answer it is. Holy shit! That’s just crazy! And crazy can be dangerous and so completely fucked up that you wonder how anyone would believe that shit. A favorite character is back and I’m happy. Negan is up to something and I’m not sure what. Some shit goes down involving Maggie. Can I just say, Wow? And Carl. *sigh* That kid causes more shit to happen, it’s ridiculous. But be prepared. A dozen people die at the end. Yes, I said a dozen. No one I truly cared about, but some of them are people that have been around for awhile. It’s totally and completely fucked up. I so cannot wait to see Rick’s reaction. Come on, Book Thirteen!
Ever since the very first introduction of Carl, he has been my least favorite character. He was annoying before and he is annoying now. Basically the kid (who keeps insisting he is a grown up), wants to possibly put what seems like hundred people in a risk of getting captured or killed over one girl who shows him acceptance to his current looks. I am sorry if that is a spoiler but how idiotic can this kid be? He already has a possible love interest who actually cares about him. You can't defend her, start a big argument among people, and just leave her. Besides, she would have eventually become almost the same if not better than the new girl.
I will not give this book a better rating until he is killed off. That sounds horrible but my hate for him is that strong.
P.S. the young girl is freakyyy I also thought that the plot twist from last book was not as exciting as it turned out to be.
Viimeinen kokoelma-albumi luettu, nyt on edessä pitkä odottelu seuraavan ilmestymiseen. Edellisen albumin viimeisillä sivuilla esiteltiin uusi pahis, joka on minun mielestäni tähän mennessä The Walking Deadin maailmassa (ja muutenkin) aivan mahtava. jonka idea on aivan pökerryttävän kammottava ja juuri siksi huikea. Miksei tätä ole aikaisemmin käytetty näin laajassa kaavassa? Mielenkiintoista nähdä mihin suuntaan selviytyjien tarina etenee ja kuka kuolee seuraavaksi - sillä TWD:n maailmassa kukaan ei ole turvassa!
Just when you think that there can't be any more unimaginable horrors, another one surfaces. Robert Kirkman and company are masters of what evil humans are capable of in this world. I can't help wondering if the survivors will ever be able to pass beyond surviving and are able to live. I guess that is why I keep reading. The story and the artwork are so compelling.
Hands down the best volume I read in quite a while. Seriously, I couldn't put it down. Kirkman's text is so layered, it's breathtaking. I must come to terms with what I'm about to say: I'm in love with this story again.
This is one of the best Walking Dead I have read in a long time. I wasn't expected the story to rebound so well after the whole Negan thing but Kirkman has done a very good job.
I'd give this 3.5 stars, if that were an option. This is one of the better volumes and narrative arcs in this series. There's less of Kirkman's characteristic tic of having the characters endlessly express their feelings in dialogue, rather than showing us--indeed, there are actually a few panels where facial expression and body language are rendered effectively, which is not generally a strong point of this series. There is also a lot less of an emphasis on human/zombie violence in this sequence--one of the besetting sins of many an earlier arc was Kirkman's apparent belief that a zombie apocalypse comic had to have folk fighting zombies every issue. Here, instead, we get long sequences just of the human characters negotiating their own complex lives. This set of twelve issues coheres better than some of the other volumes do, mainly because the narrative arcs it includes meld well together. There are still plot developments arising out of characters doing dumb things (though less so than in the TV series!), but the Whisperers and their leader, Alpha, are a genuinely interesting addition to the world. Not only their model of assimilation but also their ideological insistence that humans are simply animals that have forgotten their nature, and need to return to it, represent the best attempt yet in the series to imagine what sort of social model might emerge in the context of a zombie apocalypse. Also, a boatload of fairly significant characters get wiped out--always nice to see!
That one was good, this series never ceases to amaze me. This one was so creepy it actually made the hairs stand up on my arm at some points.
I like watching Rick and Co. try and rebuild society. That's one of the things that makes this series great is the characters. Negan is still an evil, manipulative son of a bitch even behind bars. He's like Hannibal Lector the way he plays with everyone's heads while locked up. Alpha and the Whisperers are a bunch of sick, twisted fucks.
Can't wait to see how this plays out on the TV show. Onto book thirteen!
Wow. I know Walking Dead is famous for being unpredictable and vicious with its characters, but this volume may take the cake. I guess I'll just go ahead and say SPOILER ALERT, because there's no way to talk about this volume (which I will not spoil) without spoiling previous volumes (which I will). So, if you aren't caught up to Book Eleven, I guess don't read this.
First of all, a massive community of people who wear zombie skin to hide themselves from the dead is such a weird choice. It's so weird, that at first I kind of balked at it. It just seemed like such a big leap in logic that an entire society of these people could've been convinced to do this. But then I remembered that there are massive, insane cults all over the place in the current world, and our world didn't even end because of a zombie apocalypse (yet). So, I'm willing to go with Kirkman on this one.
This big, crazy choice could almost be TWD finally jumping an undead shark, but I don't think it is. Kirkman makes Alpha, their leader, so intimidating, and keeps the society's logic for why they made this choice so semi-sound (just like a real cult), that I'm into it. I get the distinct feeling this is going to be a very wild arc over the next few years, and I'm excited to watch this crazy shit play out.
Since Kirkman spends so much time making the TV show "grounded" (i.e. just a bunch of people arguing while zombies walk around in the distance), that he really decided to push himself in the comics. Between Negan's arc and the Whisperers (the previously mentioned zombie skin society), he's really doing some interesting stuff in the comics, proving once and for all in my mind that this is the best medium for TWD. I'm pissed I have to wait a full year to read the next hardcover collection.
I mean, it was okay... This series has been losing steam for a while. I'm glad that they've expanded the world and swung the focus around to other characters and other locations. Solid art, good pacing and plotting, the writing is good as well... but... well... (get your rotten eggs and fruit ready) I'm getting a little tired of the whole thing. The story as a whole hasn't really moved forward... not really. The plots have taken on a predictable formula with the intro of an even greater threat and an even crazier antagonist... it's like a contest... an endurance contest, and I think I'm getting a little fatigued. It was the Governor and the Woodbury-ites, and then Negan and the Saviors, and now Alpha and the Whisperers... Meh! I'd really love to see this story actually move forward and stop this, "just when you thought it was safe" bullshit. The extreme survival thing just feels like it's going flat... and even the "shocking" ending wasn't all that shocking. The world is screwed - I get it; and having Alpha hit the reader over the head with the "I'm strong and you're weak" garbage is just regurgitation. This series needs a new tune. It needs a resolution, even if that resolution is: everyone dies and the world is overrun by the dead. Great, fine. "The end." Milling the same grist over and over again is getting dull.
I've felt a little "meh" about the past few compendiums of The Walking Dead. After so much struggle, it's great to see the characters we've followed all these years overcoming some major obstacles and settling down into a semi-normal, somewhat-safer existence. But, my interest was waning. There was a lot of the same, and it seemed like Robert Kirkman might have fallen into a little bit of a rut.
I stand corrected. Like, in a big, big way.
Book Twelve of The Walking Dead is outstanding -- maybe the best in the series since the early issues. We have major character growth - some of it shocking. We have the development of new, plot-shifting relationships. We have power struggles. And most importantly, we have a new Big Bad to worry about -- one that doesn't want to play nice and be part of the trade route community network. The Whispers are the best dark thing to crawl out of Kirkman's imagination since Lucille.
I'm really thrilled to see new life in this great series, and can't wait to see how all the new twists play out.
While book 12 in this series is not the most fast-paced instalment, there are some major questions answered and a lot of important set up for events to come in this piece of the tale of continuing survival horror. Carl is truly becoming a man, and with that comes hard choices of adulthood. The majority of book 12 focuses on the choices Carl makes, and the long-reaching impact they have. The single most exciting part of this is finally finding out what happened to a character that has been missing in action for several issues. The answer is sad and delightful, which I cannot get into without giving spoilers. I wasn't glued to my seat, flipping through pages of white-knuckle action while reading. I wasn't shocked with gore. I know, though, as I read, that the next few issues are going to start new phase of life for our main characters.
One day I'm sure I'll tire of this series, but that day is not today. This volume pulls together issues 133-144 and finds the Hilltop community getting ready for a market fare after they have rebuilt physically and emotionally from the war with Negan and his people. And yet as ever, all is not calm. Instead not only does the community have to figure out how to deal with Negan, there is also dissention in the ranks that leads to some within the community taking certain matters into their own hands. There is also the added complication of another community, one that runs things in a very different way to that of Hilltop. Once again the story is supported by the superb greyscale illustrations showing all of the tender moments as well as all of the gory ones, not to mention the rather disturbing ones too.
Holy cow, just when I think I can't be shocked anymore, Walking Dead punches me right in the guts and laughs in my face. Damn, this one was brutal. It started off a little slow, Carl has some anger issues, finds a lady friend and... "becomes a man." Maggie has some crap to deal with at her camp and Rick wrestles with his humanity. Why is he really keeping Neegan alive? Underlying this whole book is a new threat, the whisperers, and they are even creepier then you could imagine. Seriously, this is the stuff that nightmares are made of. The ending... sigh. Awful. I don't want to have to wait to see what happens in the next installment!
Being a huge fan of the show, I wanted to see how the original writing started and how the show writers followed and deviated from the comics. My dislikes were that the comics are much more crude, crass, and unnecessarily violent. I did like the change in relationships and how people worked together differently, and the comics have a different creepiness feel than you get watching it on TV. Overall, I prefer the show, and probably will not finish out the comic book series.
Awesome continuation of the series. Trying to avoid spoliers, so I will simply say this sets things up for (what I presume) an awesome book thirteen. I am very hopeful Kirkman follows through with what I believe he's trying to do in this book.
Ok, by now we know that when things are going well and people are working things out in this world, it won't stay that way for too long. Loved the flow of the book, I am actually starting to like reading graphic novels. I was shocked by the final few pages of this book! Look Out!