The Walking Dead Volume 7: The Calm Before

Title: The Walking Dead Volume 7: The Calm Before



ISBN: 9781582408286

Price: $14.99

Publisher/Year: Image,
2010

Artist:
Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard

Writer:
Robert Kirkman

Collects: The Walking Dead #37-42

Rating: 4/5

I realize this is the review for
Volume Seven of The Walking Dead series; however, can there be anything good
coming in volume eight when the title of the seventh chapter is The Calm
Before? Robert Kirkman takes an entire chapter to lull his readers into a bit
of complacency. Perhaps he is trying to get his readers to experience the idea
he is driving home in this volume: sit in safety long enough and you will
forget how to protect yourself.

The lack of good times and warm
moments seems all the more pronounced by the almost overwhelmingly good
feelings provided here by things like a small wedding, and of course, the
ultimate antithesis of death: birth. That’s not to say there aren’t some bad moments.
Another chapter falls, one loses a leg. Kirkman has established his mythos by
now, A bite like the one that claims ’Roger” in Dawn of the Dead is not a death
sentence in Kirkman’s world.

As has been the case throughout, the
characters in this saga act in very real, very identifiable ways. The
insecurities and uncertainties in all of us are manifested by the small band of
survivors. Their beauty and the power of this series come from their
‘realness’. The Calm Before exposes the frailties more definitely and does an
excellent job of setting the reader. It’s the thrill of sitting in a dark movie
theater, knowing something is going to jump out…then it does and you STILL
jump. That is the last three pages of volume seven.

The last page is a return to the
gut-wrenching, aggravating cliff hanger. This is the one that leaves you
furious. Fortunately, those of you reading these reviews have the option of
having chapter eight just a page away (if you own the hardcover compendium) or
sitting beside you.

For those of you new to this series,
I challenge you to just wait twenty-four hours. Savor the anguish of those
inside the prison fence, living in their false security. Then…grab volume eight
and quench your thirst for The Walking Dead.