Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Walking Dead #77
Image Comics
Kirkman, Adlard & Rathburn
The latest issue starts out very much like the previous ones, with a few panels of various characters within the community, living their lives. There's some drama and a little tiny bit of confrontation but nothing too earth shattering, as was the case for the majority of the issues since Rick and company joined the new community. All of that changed with the events of the last few pages. No, these weren't the most shocking things seen in the run of this series but it certainly made this arc turn the corner in a big way, providing a lot momentum for the next issue.
The issue begins with Carl spotting his Dad speaking on a phone that isn't plugged in. Rick tries to explain to his son that he's having an imaginary conversation with his deceased wife. Carl has a brief moment of intrigue followed by disgust and disappoint in his father, who seems to clearly be losing his mind. Rick seems to be at one of his weaker points in the series during this interaction.
By the end of the issue Rick does a complete one-eighty. Another physical confrontation erupts between two of the community's residents and Rick, as the constable, is put in a position where he must act. Douglas, the leader, is also witness to the confrontation and commands Rick to act with shift and final justice. It reminded me of a scene from a mob movie. Rick is instantly placed back at the top of the pecking order and comes across as strong as ever.
Adlard provides detailed and perfect art for the issue. He's shown time and time again that drama is what he does best and this issue is back-loaded with it. We find a wide range of emotions throughout the issue that are all spot-on depictions. A minor achievement in the art department is the placement and band-aid count on two of the characters. As ridiculous as it sounds, two characters have some fifteen band-aids on their faces throughout the issue. I found it impressive that Adlard was able to keep their placement near perfect panel to panel no matter how the characters twisted their heads. However, the prize here is observing the precision from tender moments to violent rage.
Any faithful reader of this series knows by now that things never remain happy for the main cast. They have security behind their current walls and they have relative happiness in their community but that is about to become threatened. This series excels at surprising the reader and I'm getting anxious for the next one. It's been a great build up and this issue accelerates that all the more. This is definitely a very good read.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
