So I received a small surprise last night when I found out that Brian K. Vaughan had released a stand alone one-off comic for The Walking Dead world, entitled "The Alien". As far as I'm aware, it can only be purchased and read online, but if anyone hears anything of physical copies, let me know! I'll post the link first of all in case anyone hasn't already checked it out, because there is a HUGE spoiler ahead that affects one of the main Walking Dead survivors. You can name your price for this comic by the way, so whatever you think it would be worth, you pay that and then download and read away!
http://panelsyndicate.com/
Now to the review of the short comic. I actually really enjoyed this for what it was. We get introduced to a man named Jeff, living in Spain (I believe this is where "The Alien" comes from, regarding someone living abroad) and a woman named Claudia, who saves his life from a group of walkers. It is revealed that Claudia is trying to leave Spain and reach the US, where she has heard rumours of a cure being manufactured. This leads Jeff to accompanying her threw the sewers and to the docks, where there is a ship waiting for them to cross the Atlantic upon. Unfortunately there is a walker on board that distracts the two, and when they fall into the water, Jeff is bitten badly on the ankle while trying to get back on board.
Spoiler time...
As Claudia struggles to come to terms with the fact her new friend is basically a dead man walking, Jeff tells her that if she makes it to the States, she has to somehow find his brother, Richie, or, as he's more commonly known now...
...
RICK.
That's right folks, we've found out what's happened to Rick's long lost brother, who gets mentioned back in the start of the comic series. It appears he's been dead basically from the start of the outbreak. Personally, I thought it was a great little taste of how The Walking Dead universe can be expanded, and I would love to see this story continued with Claudia keeping to her word, trying to find Rick to tell him about his brother, and eventually seeing her cross over into the main comic series. The only negative, as a lot of others seem to be agreeing on, is that the artwork isn't too great. It's very plain in parts and not as detailed as the likes of the work of Charlie Adlar. That's okay though, those of us who have checked it out know that the story being told is worth the substandard quality of the art. That surprise at the end personally shocked me as I thought we were meeting some unconnected characters and hadn't even thought about the connection, so the reveal that Jeff is in fact Rick's brother had me like "whaaaaaaat?!". In terms of a score, it would have to be an 8/10. It loses a couple points for the bland artwork but besides that it was a really strong comic that I hope not only gets a physical release so I can own a copy, but gets to have it's story continued further.
You know the drill by now folks, as always share this review if you enjoyed it, tell me what you like and didn't like, go over to the facebook page and give that a like to keep up to date with the latest posts and follow me on twitter @filthymcnastie for talk of zombies/wrestling/random ramblings. I'll have my review of Fear The Walking Dead season 2 episode 3 up some time on Monday and also looking at doing full season reviews of Sons of Anarchy when I get a chance to start watching it, so look out for that. I may also do a review of the season 6 premier of Game of Thrones after it airs, but no guarantees on that front as I find it hard more often than not to review GoT. Never say never though!
Until next time, I'm checking out!