I realise this didn't exactly come out yesterday - January 6th is the publish date - but I'm only just getting to this review now as UK retailers have only seen to give me a decent delivery period recently. What I mean by that is there's no way I'm paying for postage that takes 4-6 weeks, and I've certainly learned my lesson in ordering from Forbidden Planet: just don't.

This will be my first comic review on Alltern8 and I'm a little torn on how much detail to give on the TPB. Do I analyse it in detail giving away key plot points, or do I keep it vague so it remains spoiler free and allow people to try before they buy in a sense? In the interest of having a little more to write about, I've opted more for the first version, so please - those of you not wanting to have too much spoiled, give Walking Dead Vol. 11 a read before you cast your eyes over this review as there will be some key plot details discussed.

For the uninitiated, Walking Dead is a stroke of comic genius penned and created by Robert Kirkman, the man behind Battle Pope, and The Invinibles; he has often joked zombies were actually quite a realistic direction for him. After the first TPB and a half, he teamed up with Charlie Adlard to do the art work, which has a great ammount of detail and depth despite the lack of colour in any of the work bar the cover. The story follows Rick, a policeman from a small town that wakes from hospital - Day of the Triffids style - and finds his family gone, his town deserted (except for a neighbour he spends the night with), and a few of the walking dead. His adventures see him re-united with his son and wife, he meets many people, sees many of them die, fights off zombies and other humans alike. Like any good zombie writer/film maker will tell you, the real strength in any disaster movie is how the people deal with it, which is what makes The Walking Dead so fascinating and successful, is its focus on the human emotion behind the tragedy.