Yes, the title is clever and ironic. The Walking Dead is not your typical Zombie book. It's a sprawling epic and this will be a "running" review of the books. Upfront I will admit that I don't make it to my local Comic shop on a weekly basis anymore, so I won't be reviewing this issue by issue, but rather by volume. The nice thing about that is I'll be ale to write longer and more in depth reviews. Also, I'm going to SPOIL the hell out of this story, I've read up to a certain point so I may bring up future events to show how they reflect on characters actions and motives.
I think what I'll try to do is first do a brief spoiler free review and then a spoiler filled analysis. So with that out of the way lets get on with it!
The Walking Dead is Robert Kirkman's zombie vehicle. He begins with a brief description of the state of zombie books, why thinks they're good, where they fall short, and how his book is different. I'm not going to sum up the whole preface, but its worth a read if you pick up Volume 1. Essentially what he is saying, though, is that Zombie stories tend to stop just when the story is getting interesting. There's been an apocalypse, we follow several main characters through it, many die, then the story ends. But what happens to the survivors after the outbreak; days, weeks, months, even years. This is the story of Rick Grimes surviving in a harsh world, and it's a long story.
Tony Moore did the art for the first 6 issues (first volume) but was later replaced by Charlie Adlard at issue 7. Apparently this was due to schedule conflicts. Before I get into the story I will get this out of the way because when I started reading this was my biggest gripe, and the biggest among many fans I believe.
Moore was a huge talent and the first volume of TWD really shines. Characters and environments are detailed, the zombies look fantastic, the action moves fluidly. The art was the reason I was drawn to TWD, luckily the story is why I stayed. I can't express through words the disappointment I felt when I finally picked up volume 2. I was so excited to see what happened after the cliff hanger ending of V1.
Adlard's art compared to Moore's is terrible. Adlard uses heavy black, minimal detail, and uses odd and awkward positioning. While Moore had lovely greyscale, Adlard uses stark contrast. Where more had detailed and diverse characters, Adlard had eerily similar slates. To the day (Volume 10) I honestly still have trouble telling female characters apart.
Moore Vs. Adlard
I almost dropped TWD after the artist swap, but honestly by that point the story had me hooked. I knew this was going to be a long story and I wanted to get every detail of it, so I kept reading. At this point I can say Adlard's work is passable, I'm more interested in the story anyway. Also one good thing about the lesser detail is that the gore is majorly toned down. I know a lot of people will be bothered by this, but me, I'm not a fan of gore. This is extremely unfortunate because I love zombie stories.
Our story begins with officer Rick Grimes and his partner Shane in a shoot out with a crazy person. Rick makes a quip about not caring they opened a prison nearby, though he didn't expect their refuse. This is a delightful bit of foreshadowing I had completely forgotten about. Somewhere around Volume 5 or 6 our motley crew will hold up in a prison, but more on that later.
Unofrtunately for Rick he is better at talking during a shoot out then dodging bullets, and he takes one to the chest. This happens in one page, and when you turn it BAM Rick is in the hospital waking with a shock. He stumble around for a bit then comes across a zombie, runs away, comes across more zombies, runs. This continues until he runs into Morgan, a kindly man who has remained in the town along with his son.
Morgan proceeds to fill Rick in on how the world has gone to hell. I want to take a break and explain exactly how great this opening sequence is. Kirkman has TWD planned as a long, long story. So he easily could have spent an entire issue building up to Rick getting shot and the whole zombie apocalypse. Nope, we get literally just one page before we're in zombie town. Simply put, this is perfect. We don't need back story and exposition, we don't need to establish Rick's relationship with his wife and son. You can see it instantly because the first thing he does is go for them.
Back to the story, Rick heads from his humble little town to Atlanta where he is sure his wife Lori would have taken his son. He gets about 50 feet into the city (on horse no less) when he suddenly realizes going into this incredibly deserted, quite and destroyed "Government Safe Zone" was perhaps a bit rash. Of course he realizes this to late, his horse gets eaten and he gets rescued by Glenn.
Glenn proceeds to tell Rick about how the governments safe zone ended up being an all you can eat buffet for the recently deceased. Rick loses it at this point, thinking Lori and his son Carl are dead, but Glenn tries cheering him up by telling him about a group of survivors. In a bit of a cliche on the next page we find that, surprise! Lori and Carl are among the handful of survivors, along with Shane, Ricks partner who was with him the day he got shot.
The rag tag group of survivors are living off of supplies that Glenn snatches from the city. They only have two guns, and no perimeter fences. Rick, being the not "pants on head stupid" guy that he is suggests they find a better location for camp. Shane doesn't approve because he believes that, wait for it, rescue is coming and the best place to be is by a city.
Rick doesn't quite agree but he's not dense and notices that Shane may be starting to lose it. Plus he was previously warned by another survivor the Shane has the hots for Lori. One gripe I did have was after a busy day of getting guns and teaching people to shoot the group is all sitting around a campfire sharing stories and staying warm. One of the girls, Amy I think (doesn't matter, zombie fodder anyway) gets up to go to the bathroom and BAM, bitten by zombie.
I know, I know, successful zombie attacks are usually a stretch but this was ridiculous. She was at the trailer door in the first panel with a zombie at the other end, then in the next panel the zombie is playing her neck like a harmonica. It was just a bit much to swallow (I bet that's what the Zombie said! Hey-oh!). The obligatory night attack scene follows and when the dust settles one more member is left wounded. I can't recall his name, but he seriously tries to play the bite off as a scratch. His bone is showing, and I mean flesh and all completely stripped away. But no no, its just a flesh wound. He starts to turn and asks to be abandoned, so they leave him near the city.
After this Shane is even more edgy because if they had listened to Rick, the smart non-insane one, Amy and guy 1 would have been just fine. Rick decides the best thing to do is go hunting alone with his mentally unstable former friend (oh Rick… You had been doing so well). Of course as soon as they're out of earshot of the camp Shane points the gun at Rick and threatens to kill him. Luckily for Rick he had insisted his son carl learn how to use a gun and carry with him. From out of left field Carl shoots shane in the throat. Father and son hug, and Shane is left to bleed out.
That's the end of volume 1. It has its moments, but it really serves to set up the world they are in. It begins this slow evolution over time that the zombies are not the real threat, its other people, in later volumes its even Ricks own mind (but more on that later). There's no underlying message about consumerism, though most zombie stories, this included, have that aspect. This is honestly just a narrative. It's a great start and got me hooked on the series.
There are a few facepalm moments, but those are to be expected in any zombie books. Thats really one of the key ways to make tension. Between the awesome art and engaging story Volume 1 gets a must read from me. Do yourself a favor and pick it up… If you like Zombies, can handle gore, and don't mind an early artist swap. At least you're getting warned about it! Next time, the jarring change. Will Volume 2 be able to hold up with the dramatic change in art? Tune in to find out.
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