REVIEW: “Haunt” by Kirkman and Mac Farlane
Posted on May 28th, 2010 by ekko
Robert Kirkman has established his narrative credibility with The Walking Dead series. It is aptly named, because the book is essentially a very, very long walk through the lives of the survivors of a zombie plague. It has no clear end in sight (other than death), no five-issue story arcs, no predictable characters or cyphers, no spandex, and no color. And even if borrowed heavily from the classic film 28 Days Later in its first issue, any cribbing disappeared quickly and left no lasting effects. The book has been recognized as a masterpiece by no less than The New York Times, and if you haven’t read it yet, this is the perfect time: The first 50 issues were recently compiled in a doorstop-heavy single volume. That may sound intimidating, but I guarantee you’ll read it fast. And want more. But The Walking Dead is so “un-comic-book” that you might be wondering if Kirkman can do anything more conventional.
Well, he has written for some of Marvel’s more off-kilter titles (Marvel Zombies, Ultimate X-Men) and even some straightforward stuff on Captain America. He’s also got his own “family of heroes” title, “Invincible,” which has gotten good reviews but it never really worked for me. I haven’t had the time or money to check out “The Astounding Wolf-Man” and “Capes,” which a lot of folks rave about. (Note: Kirkman recently announced that Wolf-Man will end with #25, so I expect there will be a big bound volume available soon.) But I did see the first Trade Paperback of Haunt on the shelf at Victory Comics in Falls Church and figured I’d give it a try.
The series is part Firestorm, part espionage, and part gore-filled monster flick. The writing is solid, exciting, taut and completely unpredictable. It’s as good as Kirkman’s work on The Walking Dead, but also very difficult to compare. Haunt is more conventional, in that the first Trade is a clear story arc (“The Origin!”), and it’s got more traditional characters as well. But Kirkman handles it expertly–so that it is as fresh as anything else you’ll read.
As for the art, I’ve never liked Todd MacFarlane more. MacFarlane is best known for his Spider-Man work, but unless he was drawing Carnage or Venom, he never really worked for me on that book–his stuff is a lot like John Romita, Jr., but it’s a little too . . . Creepy. His Spawn project was pretty good, but the story never got me. Here, he’s a perfect match. Å possessed secret agent, “Haunt” is a lanky, fluid character with large eyes and claws. In short, he looks like Spider-Man. And the story is in constant motion, just like MacFarlane’s “posed” style. Every frame is a poster. It’s that good. And the pages are well-arranged, laid out with clear vision.
This book gets an A+ from me. You need to buy it. Now.
Tags: Comic books, Horror, Zombies

of Teen Titans, only a little tweaked. This version of the junior Justice League will have Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Artemis and Aqualad. Now, if they could just bring back that great Superboy and the Legion series from a few years ago . . .

impressive—but previews of his Thor drawings for the free comic book are awesome. Anyway, I’m hopeful for the Fraction Thor book because, like JMS and Walt Simonson before him, Fraction has a proven track record of being able to reboot characters with long histories, stay true to past legend, but also make the book completely accessible to new readers. He did it twice already, with Iron Fist and Iron Man. Thor will be his first non-ferrous reboot!

It’s actually kind of a remake of a foreign film that I can’t recall the name of. I think it was Italian. It was almost an identical plot, except at the end I think the train actually hits the guy or something. I can’t remember. And it’s not important.





exhausting. (Although it seems like they have no shortage of folks who will buy anything with Wolverine in it.)



H is for Heartless Bastards-Searching for the Ghost.


