The Walking Dead

Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Charlie Adlard
Inks: Cliff Rathburn
Published by Image Comics
Suggested for Mature Readers

“short controlled bursts, and always save the last round for yourself…”

“An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months, society has crumbled: There is no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally begin living.”

If you haven’t been reading or even know about The Walking Dead, then you might as well load that last bullet in the chamber, bite down on the gun barrel, and pull the trigger!
In my opinion, The Walking Dead is the best, if not one of the best comic books out there, definitely in the top 10 of what I’m currently reading and what you should be reading!
Robert Kirkman has weaved an awesome tale of survival in a post-apocalyptic world where mindless hordes of undead roam every city, every road, hell, everywhere!
The Zombie Holocaust has arrived and there’s no escape, you can’t do anything except try to survive, but it isn’t just the zombies you have to look out for, you should fear the living just as much.
The Walking Dead examines what happens when the world as we know it, the comfort ability of civilization is suddenly torn away from humanity. We can no longer go to Wal-mart at 3 am, buy McDonalds and rummage through unopened boxes of the newest Marvel Legends, because there are frickin zombies everywhere trying to eat our livers!
Social commentary aside the book is friggin tremendous in its zombie-rific horror!
The story’s main character is Rick Grimes, an ex-police officer who at the beginning of the tale is in a firefight with his partner Shane, against some backwoods yokel. During the firefight, Rick is shot and the next scene we see is of him waking up in a hospital somewhere and he seems to be alone until he starts investigating his surroundings. After wandering the halls a bit and finding a dead body in the elevator, Rick discovers that the hospital is abandoned except for the zombies in the cafeteria! The barred door should have given it away not to go in there. If you look closely at the cafeteria scene, you can see a half eaten baby, which is very disturbing. Rick is attacked and after a fall down the stairs and a death roll with a zombie, Rick makes his way out of the hospital. And thus our story begins.
The beginning gave me images of great zombie movies, such as the original Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later, so I was immediately hooked but the comic continues where other zombie movies have left off. And this is exactly what Kirkman has stated, “it’s the zombie movie that never ends…”
Another thing that you’re missing about this book is the amazing art! Tony Moore’s (Fear Agent, The Exterminators) art at the beginning of the series made me excited to be collecting the book and I looked forward to it every month, his portrayals of zombies and humans alike were striking and amazing. Moore had a perfect blend of Kieron Dwyer and Jacen Burrows (another up and coming comic book horror artist) and his details were incredible. You can see every sinewy piece of flesh coming off the decaying reanimated corpses and the sweeping wide screen shots of Rick traveling to find his family along the countryside and towns were startling. Sadly Moore left the series after issue 6, but continues to supply covers for the book. Charlie Adlard came onboard as of issue 7 and has been handling the art chores nicely. I have noticed however that ever since Moore left the series the story has been more character driven, that is the living ones, rather than the dead ones. Though Adlard draws in a similar style of Moore, his art compliments the direction the story has taken as of that issue, once Rick has been reunited with his family and assumes the role of leader among the rag tag group of survivors that have gathered. But let me give you some of the key scenes that really made the book for me:

Issue 4, Rick has been reunited with his wife Lori and his son Carl along with a motley group of survivors and everyone agrees they need guns, problem is the guns are in the city, city full of zombies! One character from the group, Glenn, a personal fave of mine, decides to make a run into the city to get weapons and Rick goes with him, the action and pacing is awesome in this one!
Issue 7, the truth about Shane, Rick’s ex-partner, is revealed and it’s shocking!!!
Issue 9, the cover man! The Tony Moore cover, my favorite from the series so far!!!
Issue 13, after wandering around looking for a place to stay and losing a few characters, the group finds an abandoned prison, lets stay here! Let’s just hope their aren’t any zombies inside, or worse yet, any inmates, especially any who are serial killers!!!
Issue 16, Tyreese goes out in a blaze of glory!!!
Issue 19, the enigmatic Michonne makes her debut, I thought this character was going to cause major havoc in upcoming issues and she has, some crazy chick with a katana and 2 limbless zombies chained by the neck when she shows up. What’s not to love?
Issue 22, the ending to this one is shocking, you’re like, what the hell, you can’t end it this way, but Kirkman does, and we like it!!!
Issue 24, even though we already had figured it out since about issue 6, this issue, everything changes! The book isn’t called The Walking Dead for nothing!

I could go on and on about the book and there’s so many scenes and dialogue that is memorable, but it would take too long to convey that here we’d need a whole other section. So instead go pick up the book! The trades are out there collecting issues 1-18 and the fourth trade should be released soon so be on the look out for it. The single issues sell out quick at the comic shop, so ask your retailer to add it to your pull list before you miss out. The current storyline has shaped out to be awesome so if you can’t wait for the trade go out and find the recent books beginning with issue 19, it’s a great jumping on point.
I give this book 5 hits and you should give it a try if horror and a well told story is up your alley, hell even if you don’t like horror, the interaction between the characters is totally worth you picking up the book.
This comic inspired me to write my own take on the zombie genre, which should be seeing the light of day soon. And in closing I have gathered what I think are My top ten zombie movies of all time. Check them out if you have a few nights to spare, I definitely recommend them if you like the genre and if you want to get into the mood that The Walking Dead delivers!

Ray’s Top Ten Zombie Flicks

1.The Romero Trilogy
Night of the Living Dead (original 1968 and 1990 remake)
Dawn of the Dead (original 1978 and 2004 remake)
Day of the Dead
2. Zombie (Lucio Fulci man! Awesome Italian horror director, kind of like a prequel to Dawn of the Dead)
3. Shaun of the Dead (The zombie movie with an ending, yay!)
4. 28 Days Later (not exactly a zombie movie, more like virus movie, but it’s in the genre!)
5. Serpent and the Rainbow (few think this is a zombie movie, but it is and it’s cool)
6. Cemetery Man (it’s a little known of gem, and it is well worth it if you can find it!)
7. Dead Alive (Peter Jackson + rat monkeys + zombies = you gotta watch it! Originally titled Brain Dead)
8. Undead (think of ID4 and Evil Dead put together…hell yeah! Few people saw this; luckily I stole a copy from the net. Piracy! Piracy!)
9. Night of the Creeps (I saw this as a kid in the 80’s, I need a copy on DVD!!!)
10. City of the Walking Dead (it’s Italian, it’s cheesy, it’s good!)

Some that didn’t make the list but are worth it too…

Return of the Living Dead (fast zombies! I think Kirkman likes this one too but won’t admit it…)
Re-animator (did H.P. Lovecraft invent the zombie genre?)
Lifeforce (not really a zombie movie but kinda like a vampire/zombie hybrid, with hot nude chicks!)
They Came Back (it’s French and weird)
Versus, Wild Zero, & Junk (Japanese zombie action movies huzzah! I’ve seen trailers, they’re really bizarre but Japanese horror rocks! Great if you can find them! Piracy?)
Bad Taste (Peter Jackson again! He actually stars in this one. Kinda like alien zombies?)
Revolt of the Zombies (old 1930’s black & white and cheesy good)

And that wraps it up…if I think of anymore; I’ll post them too…but check out The Walking Dead…and join the legions of undead!

Originally posted on www.hiredgunthecomic.com November 2005