Acclaimed author Tillie Walden enters the world of Robert Kirkman's THE WALKING DEAD as 17-year-old Clementine must learn the difference between living and surviving in this intimate, coming-of-age YA graphic novel trilogy.
FROM THE WORLD OF ROBERT KIRKMAN'S THE WALKING DEAD...
...CLEMENTINE LIVES!
Clementine is back on the road, looking to put her traumatic past behind her and forge new path all her own.
But when she comes across an Amish teenager named Amos with his head in the clouds, the unlikely pair journeys North to an abandoned ski resort in Vermont, where they meet up with a small group of teenagers attempting to build a new, walker-free settlement.
As friendship, rivalry, and romance begin to blossom amongst the group, the harsh winter soon reveals that the biggest threat to their survival...might be each other.
A coming-of-age tale of survival written and illustrated by two-time Eisner award winner Tillie Walden (Spinning, On a Sunbeam).
Honestly, it was not that good as I wanted it to be... I was waiting for another 10/10 or so. But well, that's only a book 1. The second one will come this June, the third... maybe in the next June. But still, this first opening book isn't bad at all. I also thought I'd spend more time on it, but it's a lightweight reading, surprisingly: there's not THAT many words. Some pages look like they were made by Stan Lee and some are completely textless, but there's a good balance of dialogues, it doesn't become boring to read.
I have some mixed feelings about the art. It's mostly cute and dynamic, I appreciate that the manga-like black and white style is still here, this is canon. But sometimes it's really hard to understand what's happening - especially at night or in some dark caves or when it's snowy. And most of the time it's snowy or dark here... Some frames are drawn very carelessly and sometimes it works, but sometimes I feel like there could be more to it. But well, I can't say the art is bad. Plus I really appreciate when the writer illustrates their own work. If it's not Frank Miller with his modern art style, lol. Okay, the art is actually fine.
The story at first got me... Not bored, but... I mean, I saw this already! I played all 4 Telltale games and this comic seems to be a canon for them - it's actually what happened later on. But it began with Clem just wandering pointlessly again. It's nothing new and yeah, the book had some game flashbacks, it even closed the gap between this book and season 4, but I don't think it's how it should be. She shouldn't leave AJ behind. But okay, the writer needed Clem to start over again and after a few chapters she got really close with all these new people. At first I didn't care about them much, but I started almost before it was needed for the story, so I guess the writer did her work great. I only thought there would be a bigger story plot or some epic events, but it's just like another chapter of her life: new people, generic survival again and etc.
This story hardly adds something very new and interesting to Clementine's life, but I think it might be worths a reading. But only if you played those games - you will need them to get the best experience of this book. I don't know if the other books will be better or worse, but I'll definitely give them a chance, it's still cool to see Clem in action again, especially in a real comic book. I only hope the further chapters will be more thrilling and entertaining.