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The Walking Dead (comics)

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I

itsinmyveins

Gets to pilot the crappy patrol labors
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I'm updating this post for anyone who've just stumbled into this thread not knowing what it's about. I'm adding some info and what the comic is about. I'm gonna be real lazy here and just quote the wikipedia synopsis on the story (by the way, don't go there if you haven't read anything -- there are tons of spoilers on that page).

wiki said:
The Walking Dead is centered on Rick Grimes, a small-town police officer from Cynthiana, Kentucky, his family, and a number of other survivors who have banded together in order to survive after the world is overrun with zombies. As the series progresses, the characters become more developed, and their personalities shift under the stress of a zombie apocalypse.
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I'd also like to mention actor Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), who wrote the forewords (or was it after?) in one of the trade paperback issues of The Walking Dead. I think he does a good job of summarizing the general idea behind the comic by writing about movies with the same subject, essentially saying that they tend to follow a certain route and end with some sort of climax without any real resolution to the overarching question "what now -- what happens next?".

That's what The Walking Dead is about. What happens next, when the end credits start to roll in the film? How do you live -- survive -- in a world like that? What do you become in order to live among the dead? What can you build without fear of it getting torn down again? The zombies are always there, looming in the background and sometimes stepping forward to take a swipe at the main characters. But just as often it's the dynamic between the protagonists and the people the encounter that carries the comic, all very much affected by their dire situation in the zombie-infected world.

So yeah, let's discuss the comic already.

GAF-thread on the TV-show based on The Walking Dead:
Currently Frank Darabont (The Green Mile) is working on a TV-show based on the comic, with the help of Robert Kirkman, author of The Walking Dead. Look forward to this show premiering in October on AMC.​

The official homepage for The Walking Dead:

Trade paperbacks currently out:

(The next trade paperback, volume 12, is said to arrive somewhere around june/july).​

  • The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye May 12, 2004 The Walking Dead #1-6
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us November 24, 2004 The Walking Dead #7-12
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars May 18, 2005 The Walking Dead #13-18
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 4: The Heart's Desire November 30, 2005 The Walking Dead#19-24
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 5: The Best Defense September 27, 2006 The Walking Dead #25-30
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 6: This Sorrowful Life April 11, 2007 The Walking Dead #31-36
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 7: The Calm Before September 26, 2007 The Walking Dead #37-42
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 8: Made To Suffer June 25, 2008 The Walking Dead #43-48
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 9: Here We Remain January 21, 2009 The Walking Dead #49-54
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 10: What We Become August 12, 2009 The Walking Dead #55-60
  • The Walking Dead Vol. 11: Fear the Hunters January 6th, 2010 The Walking Dead #61-66
 
I've only read the first 6 TPs but I loved every one. I kind of got sidetracked while waiting for the 7th volume. I'd go as far as saying it's my favorite zombie IP ever.
 
BarrelMakingPenguin said:
I'd go as far as saying it's my favorite zombie IP ever.
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Yeah, it might be. I mean, just like Simon Pegg mentions in some text he wrote for one of the volumes--it continues after the point where most movies end. There's a lot of drama with the characters constantely being thrown into new situations--and even the ordinary situations becomes extraordinary when faced with a shitload of zombies. After having read nine volumes I still rarely know what's gonna happen next.
 
I absolutely love the books. I think I have a lot to catch up, though, I left the series right after
that cannibalistic fuckhead showed up in a tank at the prison's doors
.
 
Funky Papa said:
I absolutely love the books. I think I have a lot to catch up, though, I left the series right after
that cannibalistic fuckhead showed up in a tank at the prison's doors
.
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Dude, the volume after that one is fucking crazy.
 
It's not something I buy monthly, but when a new volume comes out I'll sit down at the bookstore and thumb through it. This comic's gotten pretty damn bleak of late, though. Between this and Invincible, it's hard to argue against the notion some folks have that Kirkman enjoys torturing and tormenting his own creations.
 
Spike Spiegel said:
It's not something I buy monthly, but when a new volume comes out I'll sit down at the bookstore and thumb through it. This comic's gotten pretty damn bleak of late, though. Between this and Invincible, it's hard to argue against the notion some folks have that Kirkman enjoys torturing and tormenting his own creations.
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Bleak like how? You mean what happens in the story in the comic or the comic being crappier than before in general? :)
 
somebody who is up to date, what has happened since
that other town raided the prison and everything went to shit? i stopped reading when the son was in the town with his dying dad by himself, it seemed like an appropriately bleak place to end it
 
ItsInMyVeins said:
Bleak like how? You mean what happens in the story in the comic or the comic being crappier than before in general? :)
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I mean bleak in the sense that just when you think things can't get any worse, that maybe there's a glimmer of hope out there, Kirkman just says, "bleak? You ain't seen nothin' yet," and makes the cast bend over for another round of plot sodomy.
 
I REALLY need to get on these again. I bought the first hardcover volume about a year ago and never kept going! I read the damn thing in a day too... I really wish they kept the first artist though. Shawn Elliot complained that his style didn't fit as much as the current guy but I dunno, I think the first style was more detailed.
 
Spike Spiegel said:
I mean bleak in the sense that just when you think things can't get any worse, that maybe there's a glimmer of hope out there, Kirkman just says, "bleak? You ain't seen nothin' yet," and makes the cast bend over for another round of plot sodomy.
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Ding!

I bought the Omnibus and even though things get so fucking relentlessly awful and then even worse, I kept with it, even couldn't wait for the next installment (I get it monthly now). I credit Adlard's fantastic art for about 90% of it. Kirkman is adept at building plot, but his dialogue, especially in this book, is really difficult to take seriously. Luckily there's just as much near silent moments (except for the occasional "Jesus!" or "SHIT!" or "FUCK!") where the art can just shine as there are long and ponderous and incredibly obvious walls of dialogue.
 
Its the only comic book I've ever got a subscription to. The only comic I ever read besides Y: The Last Man.

It's totally awesome. Its one of the few modern zombie pieces that actually gets Zombies right for once. Its like ever since Day of the Dead people have forgotten what makes a good zombie story GOOD: Its not the zombies that should ever be the biggest threat or even the centerpiece: its the failing of the human condition. In that in a time of crisis, people can't ever work things out.

I really hope it goes on forever. There's so much more they can do and every issue is a nail biter.

Edit: Well of course there's Deapool as my avatar shows ;p But I don't consider Deadpool a comic book, he's a way of life ;P
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Ding!

I bought the Omnibus and even though things get so fucking relentlessly awful and then even worse, I kept with it, even couldn't wait for the next installment (I get it monthly now). I credit Adlard's fantastic art for about 90% of it. Kirkman is adept at building plot, but his dialogue, especially in this book, is really difficult to take seriously. Luckily there's just as much near silent moments (except for the occasional "Jesus!" or "SHIT!" or "FUCK!") where the art can just shine as there are long and ponderous and incredibly obvious walls of dialogue.
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Hm, I think the dialouge in The Walking Dead is pretty good, actually. I can't stand the words they choose to bold, though. Never seems like the right word :lol
 
I need to read this, but for some reason every time it gets mentioned, I get it mixed up with the shit webcomic by Bobby Crosby. And then I forget.

I may pick up the first one right now so this doesn't happen again. Thanks, GAF!
 
bggrthnjsus said:
somebody who is up to date, what has happened since
that other town raided the prison and everything went to shit? i stopped reading when the son was in the town with his dying dad by himself, it seemed like an appropriately bleak place to end it
Click to expand...

They wander around by themselves for a bit, avoiding zombies. Rick finds a telephone and Lorie calls him on it. He realizes he's going crazy, but her voice is completely real to him and he finds comfort in talking to her. They eventually regroup with some of the survivors from the prison, but not the old man who was with the two sisters (and hooked up with the surviving sister). They had gone off on their own in the trailer after the prison battle.

They meet up with other survivors, one of whom claims to have insider knowledge of how it all started. He insists that Washington DC has a bunker where government scientists are working on a cure, and the other survivors are set on going there. Rick is suspicious of course. There's a lot of tension and distrust between him and the others. Drama, etc. They end up at either another farm or the same farm, I'm kinda confused on that point, but I think the old man with the young lady is there.

Rick and one of his major rivals in the new group (big guy who also lost his family) go back to Rick's hometown to raid the police station that Rick still has keys to. Rick's ulterior motive is to check on his old neighbors, the father and son. The father is still alive, but the little boy is a zombie. The father has been luring other survivors into the house to feed the son. Rick convinces him to leave the zombie son and go with them.

They meet a herd of zombies, zombies as far as they can see, and have no way to not end up leading them back to the other survivors, since the herd is so massive. They have trouble convincing everyone to leave, but then the zombies come. Probably some people get killed, I forget.

They are on the run and meet a man claiming to be a preacher, who is unarmed and wandering the roads. They are being watched from the woods by other survivors.

That's a summary off the top of my head of what's happened, but there's a lot more, and I'm probably mixing some stuff up.
 
DanDeschain said:
I just bought Vol 1 on a whim. looking forward to reading it.
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Just to prepare you for it; a few issues in they change artist and it looks very different after that. Someone mentioned that in this thread earlier, but I'm thinking that the later style, with more shadows and maybe slightly less details, works well for this kind of story. To me, it sorta feels like an homage to the old black & white Night of the Living Dead movie.
 
I need to get back into this. I stopped reading somewhere in the mid 30's.

The main character had just escaped from the arena zombie fighting assholes and they were following him back to the prison.
Or something kind of like that.
 
Kirkman can go fuck himself after what he did to the main characters. The only reason he did it was because he wrote himself into a hole with that prison plot.
 
Napoleonthechimp said:
Kirkman can go fuck himself after what he did to the main characters. The only reason he did it was because he wrote himself into a hole with that prison plot.
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Uh, you know, he could have just let all of them escape, really. So I don't know if I think it's a case of painting himself into a corner.
 
ItsInMyVeins said:
Uh, you know, he could have just let all of them escape, really. So I don't know if I think it's a case of painting himself into a corner.
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I assumed most of the characters are going to get slaughtered soon from where I left off?
 
Brian Fellows said:
I assumed most of the characters are going to get slaughtered soon from where I left off?
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Spoiler about what happens in the end of volume 8:
Yes. With the exception of Dale, Andrea, Glenn, Maggie and Sophia--who all leave the prison before they get attacked a second time--nobody of the characters left survive the attack apart from Rick and his son.
 
ive read this off and on up until
the wife and newborn get murdered in the attack
. im not really sure how i feel about it. The comic seems without direction almost all the time.. there is also this odd mesh of wanting to be realistic (people crying all the time, etc) and cartoony circumstances (samurai sword wielding lawyers with heads flying every which way). Even with character development if feels as if the writer is just making stuff up on the fly. And the frequent and long soul searching dialogues i at one point just started to skim over to get on with the plot (they are almost like a really poor attempt at the after sex talks between Jesse and Tulip in Preacher).

All that said however, i still enjoyed what i read of it. Someone said the comic had really funny dark humor.. but the only thing i really laughed at (and i mean laughed hard for like 20 minutes straight) was
when the Governor sent in that sword lawyer to fight that guy with like five teeth in his head.. the panel before his head got cut off, where it shows his gaping toothless maw cracks me up every time lol

Given my thoughts on the series so far, is it worth continuing?
 
I don't really read comics often (used to read manga and pick up the occasional graphic novel, but not anymore) but I LOVE The Walking Dead.

The wait between volumes really kills me though. Still another 2 months for volume 10? Faaaack.

I really wish they would pick it up and make a HBO series or something out of it. The plot's pacing is perfect for that, and the 12 episode runs those shows have would work fine with the huge delays between the comic's collections.
 
I just finished the eight TPB. Just when I thought things couldn't get any shittier for the gang everything goes to the dogs.

Jesus fucking Christ.

And the worst part is that Michonne
didn't extract her revenge. That fuckhead had a katana rape sooo coming after him.
 
I just finished up through issue 44. I bought the first four hardcover books, then couldn't wait for the next so I got the softcover issue 9(which ends with 44 I believe). Have never read a comic in my life, but loved every minute of it. The whole time reading I kept thinking how great of HBO series this could be, I mean, most zombie movies always do good right?

Does anyone have any other comic suggestions that I may find appealing since I enjoyed this so much?
 
I always had a small deep-seated desire to be caught up in a zombie apocalypse with nothing but a double-barrel shotgun and a cricket bat. That was until I read The Walking Dead. What a bleak story :-(
 
Benzley said:
I just finished up through issue 44. I bought the first four hardcover books, then couldn't wait for the next so I got the softcover issue 9(which ends with 44 I believe). Have never read a comic in my life, but loved every minute of it. The whole time reading I kept thinking how great of HBO series this could be, I mean, most zombie movies always do good right?

Does anyone have any other comic suggestions that I may find appealing since I enjoyed this so much?
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Try Y: The Last Man or Preacher.

Y is already finished with ten trade paperbacks, so you won't have to agonize over the wait for the conclusion of that one. It was excellent. It almost had me in tears a couple times near the end.
That scene in the snow with Ampersand. God, I'm a bitch.

Preacher is one I've recently gotten into at the recommendation of Anthony Gallegos on one of the old GFW podcasts. My first time through the first trade paperback, I thought, "It was okay." When I reread it, it blew my mind and the only thing stopping me from speeding through the rest of the series is that my money needs to be spent elsewhere. I think I'm on book six.
 
I read it and finding it funny because I live in Atlanta and their is no such thing as a big grassy field right next to the downtown. Other than that, love the books. Would make a good HBO show to go on before True Blood.
 
I'm up to issue 62, been reading a freinds. Been thinking of getting that huge 48 comice collection, but figure if I'm buying issues I've already read for 'collection' purposes I may as well grab the hardcovers. They're $20 canadian each on amazon, and I hear the come with some sort of story extras.
 
Ive got an issue 1 sitting in my comic box. I cherish that one like no other. I just randomly bought it at the comic store when it came out. Cover just looked cool to me. Unfortunetly I didnt catch on to the series till issue 15. So I have issue 1, then from 15 to the most recent.
 
Love it but every friend I've recommended it too hates it because it got too "violent" :lol. I think they just don't like the fact that terrible things can and will happen to all the characters.
 
I love this book so much, although it makes me so depressed whenever a new volume comes out. At the end of Vol 8 I was crying like I've never done at any movie, comic or TV show (bar We3 perhaps), it was such a horrible, gutwrenching experience that if I ever meet Kirkman I'll have to punch him in the face for making me go through it (and then hug him like the big ol teddy bear he is). Vol 9 was a great epilogue to the trauma and gutted me in an entirely different way. I keep lending this out to friends and just waiting for them to shout at me for traumatising them so badly. :lol

Bring on Vol 10! I hope this series never ends. Even when Rick dies (it's gotta happen one day), i hope it carries along being about his son. That stuff with the two of them in Vol 9 was just so sad and real, I was so impressed at the characterization of the kid.
 
Jedeye Sniv said:
I love this book so much, although it makes me so depressed whenever a new volume comes out. At the end of Vol 8 I was crying like I've never done at any movie, comic or TV show (bar We3 perhaps), it was such a horrible, gutwrenching experience that if I ever meet Kirkman I'll have to punch him in the face for making me go through it (and then hug him like the big ol teddy bear he is). Vol 9 was a great epilogue to the trauma and gutted me in an entirely different way. I keep lending this out to friends and just waiting for them to shout at me for traumatising them so badly. :lol

Bring on Vol 10! I hope this series never ends. Even when Rick dies (it's gotta happen one day), i hope it carries along being about his son. That stuff with the two of them in Vol 9 was just so sad and real, I was so impressed at the characterization of the kid.
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Yep, it's great to finally have a comic that still surprises me. You expect it to be bleak but never like this ='(
 
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