These Days is the first volume with the complete first series of Garth Ennis “Crossed” at Panini published. The band is uncensored and probably one of the toughest and most shocking series on the German market in recent years. At first glance, “Crossed” seems to be another excess of violence by Garth Ennis. A bit of “The Road” and a bit of “The Crazies” (the film by George A. Romero) spiked with exaggerated portrayals of murder, mutilation and rape ... it might seem like that at first glance, but Garth Ennis is still more concerned with it . The cruelty of the "Crossed" creates this oppressive world in which the main actors try to survive. However, the “normal” people also change and so it becomes apparent in the course of the story that not only the “crossed” are capable of the unspeakable. Garth Ennis is very keen to show the characters in retrospect as normal, panicked people in order to better illustrate the changes. Stan and Cindy, the two main characters, lose their emotional, “human” side more and more and become functioning “survival machines” that culminate in the senseless murder of a companion. But Ennis lets his characters find what they have lost and almost by chance he gives us something like a hopeful ending after the cruel rollercoaster ride!
Civilization ends overnight. Ordinary people become murderous, raping, bloodthirsty madmen, marked by a cross on their face. How can the few men, women, and children who are not infected survive? And how far do they get before this barbaric world forces them to become monsters themselves?