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The Walking Dead (comics)

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BattleMonkey said:
Hmm no that is over simplification. The stories and characters feature many of the same themes and dialogue of Kirkman's is very reminiscent of the overly preachy nature of Romero's zombie films. They weren't simple horror/action flicks like majority of zombie films, but heavy on social commentary, which Romero has been criticized for especially in his later movies where many viewers were like "WE GET IT ALREADY".

I feel Kirkman is very similar in his take on the zombie genre and has in the past referenced Romero influences. Kirkman is well known and often complained about for his overly preachy dialogue and characters who just talk way too much. As others have said, his characters talk waaaay too much as if they always are taking what they are thinking and just blurting it out. To me Romero and Kirkman have alot of similarities between their stuff.
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Yes it's a simplification -- just like saying that The Walking Dead is just a long Romero-movie. The length of the comic alone allows for much more work with both the characters and their surroundings. Of course Kirkman's gonna be influenced by Romero and that's pretty much a given I'd say, given the main plot line (world infested with zombies, that is).

Still, the fact remains that Kirkman's got a lot more room to move about in terms of character development and such, since his comic is of indefinite lenght while a Romero movie usually is a lot less than two hours in lenght. He can invest more time in the characters, to put it shorly, and that's what I'm trying to saying. Of course you can argue about whether there's good character development and if certain plot lines are a bit off, but that's another issue.
 
#71 was fucking awesome. OMG @ the last page.

Looks like shit is going down soon, according to Image's solicitation for issue #75

walkingdead75_cov.jpg


Lines are crossed, rules are broken and the peace and tranquility of the community is shattered. After months of safety and security, are Rick and the crew even prepared for what they now face? As an added bonus: a very special back-up story drawn by RYAN OTTLEY in FULL COLOR--a first for The Walking Dead! This issue is not to be missed!
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That was posted in the TV show thread, but good stuff.

BTW, the super sized issue 75 comes out this Wednesday, with a full color (!) non-continuity back up by Invincible's Ryan Ottley (!).
 
Does it annoy anyone else that they don't know the date? Digital watch batteries should last a few years at least.

Just seems a bit sloppier than usual.
 
Kuraudo said:
Does it annoy anyone else that they don't know the date? Digital watch batteries should last a few years at least.

Just seems a bit sloppier than usual.
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IIRC, I think that was mentioned in a recent letters section.

And Kirkman said that's totally true! I can't recall his specific response though, but I remember him acknowledging how weird it was that the date is unknown.
 
75 is out this week?!

Excellent. I really think this is my favorite arc so far. :D

That picture looks great as well. Cannot wait for this.
 
Volume 12 ("Life Among Them") of The Walking Dead is finally out. Since the last trade paperback came out four months ago it's been a while since I last read any Walking Dead, but with the TV-series and all the hype it's getting I gotta admit I've been looking forward to the new trade.
 
So, I just read the 3rd TPB.

Holy fuck this is good. Really really good.

It is pretty much Dawn of the Dead with more fleshed out characters that just keeps going.

It took until halfway through book 1 for the characters to really click for me, but I've blown through 3 books in 3 days.

Also, fuck everyone who helped me into that "get me into comics" thread. This shit isn't cheap >:(
 
&#8704 said:
So, I haven't been keeping up with the TV show's development, but do they plan on going as far as the comic goes?
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I'm not very far into the comics.. but.

I can't imagine we are going to be seeing little girls severed heads on TV. They will probably elude to it, but not show it
 
I don't know if anyone is familiar with iFanboy it's one of Revision3 IPTV shows they did a interview with Kirkman at SDCC. At the end of the interview he talks about people's initial reactions to the pages after the letter's column good stuff.
 
Got the latest TPB sometime last week, soooo good.

Is there anywhere else to buy the comics aside from a comic book store? I can't wait 6 months for the next issues D:
 
vitaminwateryum said:
Got the latest TPB sometime last week, soooo good.

Is there anywhere else to buy the comics aside from a comic book store? I can't wait 6 months for the next issues D:
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There are a couple of sites that you can order from, but aside from that, it's comic shop only.
 
Amazon. There's no other choice, really.

Edit: Err, did not read that correctly at all lol.

Yeah, for single issues, just find the right comic book store. I really dig mine, and it's not too embarrassing!
 
I'm not a comic book fan at all, but I've been meaning to take a look at this series ever since Shawn Elliot pimped it on GFW Radio a few years ago. Having it become a series on AMC basically legitimized the comic for me, since I figure it can't be too terrible if it's being made into a TV series. In any case, since I've never read a comic book besides Watchmen, I have no idea where to begin. I figure the compendium would be the best place to start, but I'm a bit worried about the time investment. Does this series have an end date? The one thing I really enjoyed about Watchmen was how it told a story and ended. It didn't go on for hundreds of issues, and it was fairly straightforward when telling its story. I just don't want to get trapped reading something which never ends.

GhaleonEB's impressions don't exactly fill me with excitement, either. Maybe I'm just better off watching the TV series? I was looking forward to checking this thing out until I saw the telephone-book sized compendium and realized that it didn't even contain the entire story. Intimidating, to say the least.
 
This doesn't have an end date at all, Kirkman has said he'll keep it going forever, if he can. That used to bug me, but at this point I don't care.

The Compendium contains most of the story (48 out of 78 issues).

Hardcovers 5 and 6 will net you the rest.

It is straightforward though, you won't be stuck in some sort of mega universe debacle.

But yeah, this isn't ending anytime soon.
 
So I recently read most of this series. Read the trade paperbacks, so I'm up through issue 72, and I'm going to wait for volume 13. How many issues behind will I likely be then? Or should I try to find all the issues I haven't read at the comic book store?
 
big ander said:
So I recently read most of this series. Read the trade paperbacks, so I'm up through issue 72, and I'm going to wait for volume 13. How many issues behind will I likely be then? Or should I try to find all the issues I haven't read at the comic book store?
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As of right now you're about 6 issues behind. The paperbacks are always about 6-7 issues behind.

It's up to you, really.
 
Jack Scofield said:
I'm not a comic book fan at all, but I've been meaning to take a look at this series ever since Shawn Elliot pimped it on GFW Radio a few years ago. Having it become a series on AMC basically legitimized the comic for me, since I figure it can't be too terrible if it's being made into a TV series. In any case, since I've never read a comic book besides Watchmen, I have no idea where to begin. I figure the compendium would be the best place to start, but I'm a bit worried about the time investment. Does this series have an end date? The one thing I really enjoyed about Watchmen was how it told a story and ended. It didn't go on for hundreds of issues, and it was fairly straightforward when telling its story. I just don't want to get trapped reading something which never ends.

GhaleonEB's impressions don't exactly fill me with excitement, either. Maybe I'm just better off watching the TV series? I was looking forward to checking this thing out until I saw the telephone-book sized compendium and realized that it didn't even contain the entire story. Intimidating, to say the least.
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The TV show and comic are, in my opinion, two different beasts (and by that I mean they seem to be telling two different (while similar) stories), so I wouldn't really go into it thinking that they'll be interchangeable.

As far as worries about time investment go, the whole point of it is, kinda, that it doesn't have an ending, that doesn't mean you can't stop anywhere though. You'd probably be fine if all your read were the compendium. The story has jumping off points / cliffhangers.

Also, it's a real fast read. You could probably bust through the compendium in 3 or 4 sittings no problem (if I recall my watchmen reading I want to say I would, with that book, read maybe 2 chapters at a time).
 
Kodiak said:
Have you guys noticed that in all of kirkman's comics (TWD, Invincible, Wolfman) that all the characters are all really polite and always carefully explain their feelings and points of view to each other?

Almost every conversation is pretty much this:

Character A: Unintentionally says something that sets off character B.
Character B: EXTREME OUTBURST followed by "I'm sorry, I just... : ("
Character B: Proceeds with lengthy explanation of why that upset him/her.
Character A + B: Some form of bro-five, sex scene, or crying ensues



Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of Kirkman's books, but almost all the characters seem to be overly polite and patient. :lol
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:lol

Yes, I've noticed. That along with the consistently dumb character shit (like samurai black girl who randomly gives blowjobs, retarded suicidal teenagers etc.) and one dimensional villains made me quit.

But yeah, that dialogue style is both hilariously bad and infuriating. And there's so much of it. Pages and pages and pages and pages.
 
So I went through HC 1-6 (upto issue 72) in about a month to prepare for the show. As I'm sure most readers here will agree, I kinda felt like it may have jumped the shark after issue 48. Having said that, I do like where it's going now. I just purchased issue 73 and 74 on the Comixology app for the iPhone. I can't imagine how epic and depressing that end to the prison arc must have been for monthly readers.
 
Clevinger said:
:lol

Yes, I've noticed. That along with the consistently dumb character shit (like samurai black girl who randomly gives blowjobs, retarded suicidal teenagers etc.) and one dimensional villains made me quit.

But yeah, that dialogue style is both hilariously bad and infuriating. And there's so much of it. Pages and pages and pages and pages.
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:lol

Nailed it. He's great at putting together circumstance and giving amazing artists cool shit to draw but WHOA MY GOD PLEASE STOP.
 
Clevinger said:
:lol

Yes, I've noticed. That along with the consistently dumb character shit (like samurai black girl who randomly gives blowjobs, retarded suicidal teenagers etc.) and one dimensional villains made me quit.

But yeah, that dialogue style is both hilariously bad and infuriating. And there's so much of it. Pages and pages and pages and pages.
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Yeah, I can't stand this style. I stuck with the books up to the Governor raiding the prison, and then stopped reading because Kirkman's dialog is so unnatural. Well, that and my roommate didn't have any more of the books, but the terribad character dialog kept me from picking it back up.

No surprise at all that the worst episode of the TV series was written by Kirkman himself.
 
Can't really read anything in the thread because this is a series that really shouldn't be spoiled. So much happens chapter to chapter.

Just wanted to say I bought the Compendium (1-48) and finished it in a weekend. Great series that avoids most complaints horror tends to attract (weak characters making stupid decisions, everybody survives syndrome) and I LOVE IT. :D :lol

I guess people hate on his writing, but I don't know. It serves its purpose for me. So now I have to wait for the next collection of 50 or so comics because at the price the compendiums are, it's sooooo worth it.
 
Being caught up sucks. Issues come out once a month and to be honest, they're pretty short. Look at it this way, if you hold off for an ENTIRE YEAR, you still only have 12 new issues which can be finished easy in a single sitting. I guess this goes for every comic book, though
 
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