This is the first comic/graphic novel I've read in a long time, and it's really good. Added bonus: I got it from the library. It was the expensiveness of comics that kept me away from them post-high school ($15-20 for something I'm going to read in an afternoon?). Yay libraries!

The other thing that kept me from comics was a seeming lack of grown up subject matter. DMZ is definitely for grown ups. It looks at serious, relevant themes, and it tells the truth.

Very quickly, the idea is this: state militias have effectively seceded from the US, leaving the federal government sequestered on Long Island (of all places). Manhattan is the DMZ (demilitarized zone). If it sounds far-fetched, think of it as a thought experiment: New York City experiencing war the way Baghdad experienced the Iraq War. These books are about the New Yorkers and what they endure, caught between two 'nations' at war. ( )

Really good introduction to an entirely new world: New York as a battleground.

Think Escape From New York coupled with the feel of The Walking Dead (without the zombies, of course).

The art's fantastic, the writing's great. What more do you want? ( )

Somehow I neglected to give this a review. Wood's "origin story" for the series is great, ripe with potential, some great characters, and a great big question mark of an ending. I'm looking forward to consuming more of DMZ. ( )

A good premise for a story, in a potentially interesting world. Unfortunately this volume doesn't go into much details about how the world got to be how it is, or even what the situation is outside the surrounds of Manhattan. Also, the final arc about the stolen jacket was completely uncompelling, especially given it's end. Maybe the next volume goes somewhere interesting with it, but it doesn't leave me wanting to out.

Maybe it's the start of something interesting, but that depends a lot on what the next volume is like. ( )

I've had this on my shelf for ages, and finally got around to reading it. It was written 10 years ago, and in some ways it's obviously a product of its time -- the US is bogged down in overseas wars, and questions about the neutrality of journalists embedded with military forces are prominent -- but in other ways it's aged well. People living in "violent" neighborhoods (whether actual war zones or just poor) are still treated as disposable by occupying forces. Anti-government militias are even more of a thing than they were 10 years ago.

I like that the story re-humanizes the people who get caught in the middle when wars are fought over their neighborhood. And that the way things are in "dangerous" neighborhoods is the result of rational choices people made to protect themselves, not just faceless "crime" and "violence". There are no easy answers in here, just more questions of what should be sacrificed, what should be protected. ( )