#siiiigh...

That’s an extremely oversimplified version of the plot, if you want an in-depth review of Book One you can read my review here, but you just need to know that Clementine, Ricca, and Olivia escaped together, Amos and Georgia are dead, and they found a random kitten before taking off. 

We have Clementine, Ricca, and Olivia walking together while playing a game of multiplication. No snow, the sun is high in the sky, and it doesn’t appear cold based on how they’re dressed. 

Something about this page bothered the hell out of me and I finally figured it out last night- 

You thought I wouldn’t notice the dialogue change? Hmm? Well, joke’s on you! I did! This dialogue changed and I think that’s kinda funny. 

The second image there is from a little teaser Tillie posted on instagram a few months back and when she did, there were people who believed this was her throwing shade at the games which.... I still think that’s dumb. TWDG fans who hate Tillie will stretch literally anything if that means they can complain about her. I don’t know why this is different and really, it doesn’t matter. It’s one piece of dialogue I happened to notice had changed and it happened to be one that some fans got butthurt about so... do with that what you will. 

This first page looks pretty good as far as the art goes. Though I think it’s an interesting choice in how the bottom dialogue is laid out? Makes it look like the body and cooler are talking. 

They spot a rabbit and we can see Clementine has the cat they found in a pack on her back. Ricca goes after the rabbit with her knife. 

I don’t know how Ricca thinks she can actually catch the rabbit with a knife and failing vision. You’d think Clementine would be like, “Hey, you know what we need? A bow. We should make a bow and some arrows. Surely we’re resourceful enough to make one.”

Y’know, because Clementine lived at Ericson where they had bows and that’s how they did a lot hunting. Remember Ericson, Clementine? The bows, the traps, the stews, the protective walls, sleeping in a comfortable bed, that one kid you raised, gee what was his name-?

Granted, they might not have the materials to build a functional bow, I’m just saying they should consider it. 

....Ol? Anyone out there named Olivia, do people ever call you “Ol”? I feel like “Ollie” would flow off the tongue better? 

Anyway, Clementine has a lot of faith that Ricca’s going to catch that rabbit and they’re going to have a good meal, but Olivia? She’s big sad. Understandably so, her boyfriend was pushed off a mountain by her twin sister who she then left to die, and also her mom is dead so... I’d be pretty bummed, too. 

Pfft, Olivia’s actually giving us some depth to her character, she’s in an emotionally exhausted and depressive state after what happened to Amos and Georgia.... meanwhile Ricca runs into a pole with a CLANG and all she can say is, “Crap,” as her glasses fall off. 

On one hand, I get it. On the other, I can’t help but be a little annoyed. I don’t like when a character who desperately needs development is having an emotional moment, they’re opening up to someone else, we’re getting a better look into who they are, we’re understanding how they’re feeling.... only to have it interrupted because... I dunno, Ricca ran into a pole, isn’t that funny? 

This happened with Clementine and Ricca in Book One. Ricca starts opening up to Clementine about her vision getting worse, and then Georgia rudely interrupted by pushing Amos to his death. 

Again, I get it, interruptions happen and we don’t want to dump every thing all at one, we gotta keep that pace flowing.  Fine, the pay off better be worth it, that’s all I’m saying. 

I agree with Olivia- there’s no place in the world that will make me feel okay about Amos dying in Book One. He’s the best character in that book so of course he died.

Though we didn’t see a body and I’m holding out for a twist ending where Amos didn’t die and he comes back like, “You left me >:’[ and you rode in a plane without me!” c’mon, that’s villain backstory material.

...Watch Tillie bring Georgia back instead. I'll take that personally and it’ll be the crux of MY villain backstory. 

Anyway, Ricca’s run into a herd of walkers. 

I quite like this page. I’d say visually it’s my favorite of the bunch. I like how the sky and buildings are drawn, our characters look good, and even though walkers look pretty good compared to how a lot of them were drawn in Book One. 

Obligatory “gotta cover ourselves in walker guts,” scene. 

They drag a fallen walker into a cramped... uh some sort of building? And apparently Ricca can do math better when slathering herself in guts, so good for her. 

Again, the walkers look pretty good, I’m impressed by the improvement. I also really like the visual of the flowers in the rain. Over all, I’d say the art has improved from Book One. I don’t know if Tillie’s just more comfortable and more in flow with the style that she’s worked out the issues from Book One or what, but it’s not as messy and I feel like I can actually tell what’s happening. 

I guess they’re eating acorns and dandelions, and we see an appearance from Dr. Barnwell, the cat in Clementine’s bag. 

By the way, I’m calling it now- that cat’s going to die. It’s an animal, the characters are attached, and what’s a cheap way to make someone feel something? Kill the cute animal. Need I remind you of Helen, Amos’ horse? 

Either the cat’s dying, or the cat’s getting a character killed. In fact, I’ll throw this prediction out here- of the three, Olivia’s the most likely to die in Book Two, I think she’s going to die because of the cat. 

The cat aside, Clementine’s leg isn’t doing too good. She’s in a lot of pain. 

The visceral reaction I had to being reminded that Clementine named her leg Kenny put me in caveman mode, I almost started beating my fist against the wall while grunting disdainly. 

Why, oh why, did she name her leg Kenny? I must ask this once again. I know the answer is fanservice and Tillie likes Kenny as a character, but the in-world reason doesn’t work, I’m sorry, I don’t like it. 

What I do like is some character development, especially between love interests, which Clementine and Ricca supposedly are. 

Ricca’s concerned that Clementine’s pushing herself too hard and it’s making her leg worse. Clementine’s worried about Olivia, and she knows Ricca’s struggling with her vision.

Here’s the issue, and I think this page is the perfect example of this... I’ve played the games enough that if you showed me a screenshot from the game with dialogue subtitles, I could read them and hear Clementine’s voice. When I read Clementine’s dialogue here, I can’t for the life of me hear her voice. The way this is written isn’t accurate to how she talks. 

I know this medium is different, the way dialogue’s written in comics isn’t the same as game dialogue, but you can tell this is someone who hasn’t gotten her voice down. That’s frustrating because it’s Clementine. If you’re trying to market this to fans, which there is an argument to be made that this ISN’T targeted to fans of the games, then you’d think getting her voice down would be crucial but I don’t think we’re there yet. 

You have four games of source material and I think that’s a waste not to use.

Any fanfic writer can google the transcript to any of the games. You don’t even have to boot up the game, you can just find the transcripts-

-and it’s all there. Any season, any episode. You can click through all the dialogue choices to see everything Clementine’s ever said. It’s a handy tool if you’re writing fanfiction for any character you may struggle to capture the voice of. Same thing with Youtube, there are plenty of videos showcasing every choice. 

These books are pretty much fanfiction. They just happen to by published by Skybound. I have to pay to read it, so I expect it to be a higher quality and that means an accurate voice for Clementine.... and yes, I know, I can be a little stinker and find means of reading it without paying but that’s beside the point. 

The point is I can easily go on ao3 and read fanfiction for free. I can look up fan comics for free. These books have yet to get Clementine’s character/voice down and they’re being sold in stores and that makes me a little salty. 

And I can’t even be that mad at Tillie knowing that this is her job and they have her on a short time schedule, she has other books she’s writing, she teaches, she does tours, and I dunno... I think she’s doing her best with a project she’s not familiar with. That’s the nicest way I can put it. She’s not a bad writer by any means, her other books are proof of that, which is why these Clementine books make no goddamn sense.

ANYWAY... what were we talking about? 

Oh muh gawd, they held hands, that means they’re in love-

Okay, awkward flirting. How sweet. I guess. 

Too bad it’s interrupted YET AGAIN by something else... this time it’s Olivia getting caught by a couple of dudes. 

Before that, though, I do want to touch more on the romance here. 

I’m at the point where I can entertain the idea of Ricca as Clementine’s love interest/girlfriend. I can set Louis and Violet aside as if Clementine didn’t romance either of them, Ricca existing doesn’t take anything away from them, it’s okay. 

I’m hoping that there’s more of a focus on Ricca and her relationship to Clementine. It felt rushed in Book One, maybe we can slow down here and better set up the romance. 

I’m not still not on board, I can’t really say I’m rooting for them to finally kiss or be official. And I’ll be honest, it’ll take a lot to convince me. Unfortunately for Ricca, she has Louis and Violet to live up to, and I don’t she’s going to hit the mark. 

Also, can we stop comparing Ricca and Violet, especially now that Book One’s out and Book Two’s on the way? She’s not just Violet but with glasses, and Ricca’s vision isn’t the same thing as Violet losing hers. 

First of all, Violet only loses her sight if you don’t save her. Most who romance her also save her, so she doesn’t lose her vision in her full romance. Ricca wears glasses and her whole backstory is that her brother broke her glasses so that she had to rely on him for survival, then she found a bunch of glasses and ditched him, but now her vision is worsening to where the glasses no longer work like they should..... they’re not the same?? 

Also saying they’re the same is pretty insulting to Vi, sooo maybe stop that? Cool? Cool.

Hand holding aside, Olivia really did that self-fulfilling prophecy of “I’m gonna mess up your plan, Clem,” huh? She’s grabbed by these dudes outta nowhere-

-and they want them to drop their weapons. Olivia doesn’t want Clem to hand over the hatchet since that’s all they have left of Tim... uh, Tim’s that guy who got bit saving Clementine in Book One. He knew the twins, it’s a whole thing. 

Also, is that Amos’ hat on Olivia’s head? That looks like his hat. Hmm.

I guess the question is who are these dudes? Are they just random guys? Are they from the community Clementine and friends are going to join? Are they from an enemy community of that community? I dunno. This is the last page we got. 

“You kids shouldn’t be walking here, it’s not safe.”

“Who said we were kids?”

I know we’re trying to make Clementine look badass but meh. 

Overall thoughts... maybe I’m just feeling extra nice today, but it doesn’t look that bad. 

It’s still not good, but I feel an improvement over Book One as far as the art goes. The dialogue isn’t great, and I’ve already stated my issues with Clementine’s in particular.