Tagged: 100

Awesome Hero Initiative / Walking Dead #100 Cover by Local Chris Herndon!

Had to take a second to give a shout out to Portland Oregon’s own Chris Herndon today as I just saw for the first time some artwork he did for The Hero Initiative 100 Project for The Walking Dead. The Hero Initiative is a charity dedicated to helping comic creators in medical and financial need, has drawn great acclaim for its “100 Projects” in recent years, in which 100 artists draw an original cover on a special anniversary issue. His artwork was for the shocking but otherwise rather dull milestone issue of The Walking Dead #100. Though I had my gripes about the issue itself it sure did generate some great zombie art!

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Herndon is a rad up and coming artist who had his work cut out for him on this piece as he was artist and co-creator on the indie series ‘Living With Zombies’. He currently works on Terra Tempo, a dinosaur themed graphic novel series, so his cover idea for Walking Dead #100 was a perfect blend of both his past & present comic book works. Check it below and like his Facebook page before this guy hits the big time!
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The Walking Dead #100 : Shocking Yet Oddly Unfulfilling….

So today ends the wait for issue number 100, an issue that writer Robert Kirkman never thought possible for the series when it all started. Issue 100 had a LOT of speculation and mystery surrounding it, people were waiting to be blown away. Well now the question is after all the hubbub did it deliver the goods? I didn’t think so personally…

I will say that it was truly the most brutal issue we’ve yet seen. Some of the panels were undeniably hard to look at. The blood ran cold and here we are once again with the death of one of the books longest lasting characters. Yes it was a sad and depressing issue and one that I have no doubt will have fans talking and mourning the death of Glenn for a long time to come. So what’s wrong with it then you might ask? I am most likely a minority here, but aside from the extreme carnage in this issue it really didn’t have much to offer even with it’s added extra pages. It seems to me that this book is in serious need of new ideas, new scenery and the sheer adventure that should fuel it’s readers. Issue 100 feels a little too “been there done that” to me.

Negan is clearly designed to be the books next “Governor”. However the Governor was done first and done better and really Kirkman after all the “Lucile is coming” hype it turns out that Lucile is a barbed wire baseball bat? Um… pretty disappointing. I feel like sometimes I may have been mistaking “good writing” in this series lately for the sudden shocking deaths of characters. It seems Kirkman can kill major characters every so often amidst a rather monotonous storyline and somehow get away with his book still being praised as the most epic series out there. Now don’t get me wrong, I still like The Walking Dead, I thought this was a good issue and I still will keep on board most likely until the series ends. However I can honestly say that I really don’t love it in the way I used to. I’d like to see something new brought to the table, I have grown seriously tired of the “sitting in one place and trying to start a community” scenario again and again. I think these characters need to get off their asses and get some answers to what is really going on, I’d like to see a little less of how terrible humanity is over and over. Yes we get it Kirkman, zombies bad, humans even worse. Let’s see a little supernatural development above the rather blah zombie infection or let’s send the crew off somewhere completely different, perhaps out to sea or hell as Kirkman continually jokes maybe now is the time for the Alien’s to appear! Heck I think it’d be more exciting than watching another “shocking” character death don’t you?

The Walking Dead #100 Predictions!

Wow I can’t believe we’re almost one hundred issues into The Walking Dead! Still one of my most anticipated comic books every month. Kirkman never thought it would become the sensation it is today. So now obviously this has gotten us all wondering what the hell is going to go down in the big issue? What could possibly top some of the last surprises we’ve endured? Carl getting shot, Tyreses’ death, the Governor being “killed” by Michonne, Lori and the baby’s death and most recently Abraham’s death were hands down some of the most intense and emotional deaths in comic book history. But is issue #100 going to be purely witnessing,  once again, deaths of our current roster of Rick’s minions? Only time will tell, however here are a couple things I think would be a big surprise for this milestone issue.

First let’s think about what Kirkman could possibly do to blow our minds. I have felt for quite sometime that perhaps Lori and / or their baby may not actually really be dead! My guess is that sometime soon, perhaps even in this next issue Lori could be revealed to still indeed be alive. We really only saw her get shot, it was never confirmed by anyone that she was truly dead. My guess is this would be a major move Kirkman has at the very least considered. Would this shock you?

Second would of course be the big one. Rick biting the dust! I am certain this won’t happen soon but I am certain it will happen and perhaps Carl will lead the team or grow into a leader. However imagine if Rick was bit and the disease took. This alone would pack a powerful punch, the issues that follow showing the remaining members of his group watching him slowly descend into becoming the walking dead. Imagine Carl and say Michonne heading out into the world on their own. This, when it happens is will be a powerful end or new beginning to the book.

I guess anything could really happen, however I highly doubt Michonne has anything to worry about as she just made her wildly popular tv appearance. Personally as much as I love the title I’d love to see it move into a different direction. I have been a little bored with this whole “setting up a community” thing for quite a while now. I would love to see them on the road again, it’s so much more exciting and I think more believable. I mean how many times are we going to see the gang meet up with psychotic people and get into an altercation? It’s all been good and fine up til now but i think we need to get a little more adventure back into the title.

Listen up Kirkman, I think a logical choice of action would be perhaps them trying to get to an island somewhere and finding a boat? Get to some water. I know that’s been an idea in movies already but so was your whole opening to the story which was basically a blatant rip from 28 Days Later. Expanding on that concept would be very intriguing. I think searching for a small plane or meeting a pilot would be a great exciting new direction for the crew. It seems a little strange to me that the characters seem content with giving up and just accepting making a community somewhere. They need someone who’s looking for solutions and bigger answers to the problem other than Rick’s flawed one dimensional thinking about restarting civilization at some purely random location without knowing what the hell is really going on. Doesn’t anyone wonder what the big picture is?!

I also am NOT a fan of Kirkman stating there will never be explanation for the undead. I feel not exploring that idea is uninspired. What if there was a mutation? What if there was more than just zombies out there to fear? The book needs something new and exciting to happen in it or we’ll get the same scenarios happening over and over. Yeah we all get it, the living people are more scary than the zombies, how about letting that idea rest for a bit and get back into the monsters being more threatening? It’s time to introduce some new ideas into this book while still keeping with the tone so far. So I hope for something great to down in issue #100 and not just an issue where more supporting characters die off. What about you?