Advanced Review: The Walking Dead #106

Now that we have seen the extent of Neegan’s insanity and his peoples unnerving loyalty in issue #105, it is high time to see the fate of Carl! Well, not quite yet!

Robert Kirkman does what he does best in this latest issue of TWD. He ropes you in, making the storyline surround you and begin to close in. Your fear for the characters and their fates becomes palpable, there is a moment when you are on the fringe, unnerved and clamoring for what comes next. And then he pulls back! He slows the tale down, giving some much needed time to the development of other characters, ones that might not pull on the heartstrings quite as much. And you can breathe again. 

This is exactly what transgresses between the pages of #106. We touch upon the fates of Carl and Rick, weaving in a little more uncertainty about the mental state of Neegan, and then we focus on others in the group and how they are dealing with the notion of Rick working with Neegan. It is a much slower pace than some of the last issues, but a much needed one as well. It gives the reader time to delve into the psyches of the second tier characters and how they are dealing with Rick’s lie. Some moments can be perceived as foreshadowing of worse things to come, but what can be worse than the fate awaiting Carl?

That’s where Kirkman truly encompasses the reader. The hints and misdirection, the foreshadowing and the let down, it’s the continual tease of what could happen next that makes this book so enticing! It is the subtle hints that all may not be well that drives you insane in his stories, but that’s the best kind of storytelling, the kind that makes you crave more!

By books end you are coaxed into a sense of comfort, you have made it through another great book with not too much blood on your hands. And then the hits come, the last page turns and the air is squeezed from your lungs. The cliffhanger rings out and you curse the next thirty days for being so long away.

Damn you Kirkman, why did you have to make these characters so good!