The Walking Dead: Get on it.

I've always liked comics, they have sweet art and often feature robots and superheroes. But as much as I've liked them, I've never been a full on fan. That seems to be changing and I believe it's because of a single book.

The Walking Dead series by Robert Kirkman has me by the balls. I picked the first volume up not long ago, and since then have been getting as many at a time as I can get my hands on.

The premise is a familiar one. Zombie apocalypse. Rag-tag crew of misfits fight to survive. Don't have you yet, do I? So why is this better than the standard zombie adventure? To be honest, a lot of zombie based outings are kind of brainless. Fun maybe, but the story often consists of "LOOK OUT! THERE BE ZOMBIES! LET'S BASH A FEW AND RUN! LOOK THERE'S A COP ONE! WOAH!" And then blood squirts out someone's eye. It's a well documented fact and is lampooned perfectly by the excellent Shaun of the Dead.

Here's why its good. The Walking Dead uses the zombie outbreak as a setting to look at how people might react in that situation. How would you cope? Would the stress eat away at you until you snapped? Could you face the future if everything you've known is lost?

The amount of zombie killin' action is actually kind of minimal. It's still present, but takes a back seat to the amazingly told human drama.

Funny in places, surprising and will genuinely make you feel something. I promise.

Seriously, get on this one.

-n

PS If you are already, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. Let's just sit here and smile with smug satisfaction.