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. Rick Grimes finds himself one of the few survivors in this terrifying future. A couple months ago he was a small town cop who had never fired a shot and only ever saw one dead body. Separated from his family, he must now sort through all the death and confusion to try and find his wife and son. In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally begin living. Reprint Edition
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Taking a well-worn genre—flesh-eating zombies overrun the world and the unlucky surviving humans must deal with the gruesome aftermath—and approaching it from a purely character-driven point of view propels this series into the spotlight from out of nowhere. This collection of the first six issues of the ongoing series opens with police officer Rick Grimes awakening from a gunshot-induced coma. From here, he's immediately dragged into a world where dangerous revenants are shambling amok without any sort of an explanation. From the moment Grimes comes to, it's a harrowing battle to avoid hordes of decomposing zombies and a hope-against-all-odds search for his missing family. Grimes makes his way to Atlanta, the nearest large city where there may be other living people, and events take several unexpected turns upon his arrival, as he meets up with a rural encampment of survivors. Of course, as in recent hit movies 28 Days Later... and Dawn of the Dead, the last humans may turn out to be as much a danger as the zombies. Forceful scripting that gives the book a strong grounding in reality, crisp b&w artwork, a shocking final sequence and brisk, gory proceedings elevate this book from the trash heap of pedestrian horror comics.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
51 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was out of the comic book reading hobby for several years, but I have to say that I was glad that i came back to reading comic books again. One of the first titles that hooked me this second time around was Kirkman's The Walking Dead for Image Comics. I have to say that its taken the current renaissance of zombie films and books and ran away with it.
Using the same slow, shambling zombies that Romero first made popular with Night of the Living Dead and its subsequent sequels, Kirkman continues the story where Romero usually ended his films. All those times people have wondered what happened to those who survived in zombie films need not imagine anymore. Kirkman has created a believable world where the dead have risen to feast on the living, but has concentrated more on the human dynamic of survival in the face of approaching extinction.
I won't say that the story arc collected in this first volume has little or no zombies seen, but they've taken on more as an apocalyptic prop. One can almost substitute some other type of doom in place of zombies and still get a similar effect (as was done in Brian K Vaughn's equally great series, Y: The Last Man). What Kirkman's done is show how humanity's last survivors are now constantly, desperately adapting to a familiar world through unfamiliar circumstances. Characters from the start make the sort of mistakes regular people would make when they don't know exactly everything that is happening around them. Instead of chiding these people as one reads their story, we sympathize and hope for their continued survival.
I am hopeful that the rest of the collected trades will be equal to and maybe surpass this first story-arc. Already kirkman's done more to realizing the universe Romero created than alot of the hack filmmakers who have taken Romero's idea and cannibalized it for their own profit. I consider The Walking Dead as a must-read for anyone looking to find something different from all the costumed superhero titles.
Using the same slow, shambling zombies that Romero first made popular with Night of the Living Dead and its subsequent sequels, Kirkman continues the story where Romero usually ended his films. All those times people have wondered what happened to those who survived in zombie films need not imagine anymore. Kirkman has created a believable world where the dead have risen to feast on the living, but has concentrated more on the human dynamic of survival in the face of approaching extinction.
I won't say that the story arc collected in this first volume has little or no zombies seen, but they've taken on more as an apocalyptic prop. One can almost substitute some other type of doom in place of zombies and still get a similar effect (as was done in Brian K Vaughn's equally great series, Y: The Last Man). What Kirkman's done is show how humanity's last survivors are now constantly, desperately adapting to a familiar world through unfamiliar circumstances. Characters from the start make the sort of mistakes regular people would make when they don't know exactly everything that is happening around them. Instead of chiding these people as one reads their story, we sympathize and hope for their continued survival.
I am hopeful that the rest of the collected trades will be equal to and maybe surpass this first story-arc. Already kirkman's done more to realizing the universe Romero created than alot of the hack filmmakers who have taken Romero's idea and cannibalized it for their own profit. I consider The Walking Dead as a must-read for anyone looking to find something different from all the costumed superhero titles.
138 of 176 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Let's talk, for a second or two, about the coming Zombie Apocalypse, the subject of Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore's ambitious and brutally beautiful graphic novel series "The Walking Dead".
Let me break the bad news to ya, big guy. You're not going to survive it.
Everyone watches zombie flicks with the notion that they'll survive. They're going to be one of the shotgun-toting mall-rustling heroes when it dawns on everybody that the Army ain't showing up.
Well let's put it to you this way: the Zombie Apocalypse is coming, and you're not going to make it. You're going to go get your mail, or be carrying your groceries out of the supermarket, and that's when you're going to meet your first Zombie. You've got a billion things flying through your noggin, Champ: pick up the kids, college tuition, your crazy stock portfolio, war and rumors of war, bio-terrorism, the big presentation at the Office tomorrow.
The Zombie is very Zen. It clears its mind. It has one single, driving purpose: it wants to sink its yellow tusks into your flesh and sample a little human pad thai.
Isn't that the way it always is---these things, like summer guests, always occur when you're just not prepared?
That's the guts of "The Walking Dead". Writer Kirkman states out front that he's less interested in a straight-out horror story---zombies springing out of the darkened woods and chowing down on some filet-au-Bob---than he is in exploring the dark thickets of the human brain exposed to what Kirkman calls "Extreme Situations".
Exactly.
The story follows Kentucky police officer Rick Grimes, thrown into a coma after a routine traffic stop goes bad. Just like "28 Days Later" he wakes up in an empty hospital. He buzzes on the nurse call-button; nobody shows up to help him. Which is, as we will shortly find out, probably a good thing.
Why? Because the hospital---most of it, anyway---is a tomb. Dead. Silent. There's a corpse, supine, fallen between elevator doors, his guts exposed, partially devoured. But for that single dead man, Grimes finds, to his horror, the hospital is deserted.
Of course, there's the matter of the lunchroom, stuffed to the grills with the Living Dead.
You could call it "While you were Sleeping", but it's not romantic, and it certainly isn't a comedy. While Grimes was out cold, the World Ended. The Dead Walked, and ate, and infected. Civilization ground to a halt. His town is dead; his house, run down; his wife and son, missing. The neighbor's house claimed by squatters. Word is everyone has gone to Atlanta, where the military has cordoned off the city and is protecting civilians. Grimes, in search of his family, in search of answers, takes a police cruiser and heads South.
To be sure, in zombie flicks I always root for the flesh-eaters, and here, whatever Kirkman says, you're reading "The Walking Dead" to see zombies, not follow a soap opera. But happily, Rackerton invests enough details in these characters to make them compelling: each has an agenda, obsessions, private vices, prejudices.
In other words, real people.
It certainly doesn't hurt Kirkman's story to have an artist as fine as Tony Moore bringing his vision to life. The black & white panels, the shadings, the crispness of the art---all of it is gorgeous, helping to accentuate the horror, but also to highlight the brutal beauty of a world gone feral.
Life, say the Buddhists and Christians, is Suffering. Suffering shapes us, molds us, ennobles us or breaks us apart. This is what is at work in "The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye": you see the characters change, shift, mutate, evolve---into stronger creatures, true, and into weaker, viler, sneakier creatures as well.
But if this is a hard world, Tony Moore's artwork makes it a bleakly gorgeous one. Take a hard look at the scene around a campfire in a wintery wood, seconds before horror intrudes: the downy snow, the shaded woods of the thicket, the faces sunk in shadow, backlit by the fire.
Some scholar once said that the Living can never stand up to the Dead: they are too many, and their hungry, avid minds are not freighted with the conscience of the Living.
Kirkman and Moore have put that contention into question in their first auspicious volume of the "Walking Dead". Doubtless the Dead will Walk, and the Walking will die---but who will survive, and what will become of them?
I'm hungry for more.
JSG
Let me break the bad news to ya, big guy. You're not going to survive it.
Everyone watches zombie flicks with the notion that they'll survive. They're going to be one of the shotgun-toting mall-rustling heroes when it dawns on everybody that the Army ain't showing up.
Well let's put it to you this way: the Zombie Apocalypse is coming, and you're not going to make it. You're going to go get your mail, or be carrying your groceries out of the supermarket, and that's when you're going to meet your first Zombie. You've got a billion things flying through your noggin, Champ: pick up the kids, college tuition, your crazy stock portfolio, war and rumors of war, bio-terrorism, the big presentation at the Office tomorrow.
The Zombie is very Zen. It clears its mind. It has one single, driving purpose: it wants to sink its yellow tusks into your flesh and sample a little human pad thai.
Isn't that the way it always is---these things, like summer guests, always occur when you're just not prepared?
That's the guts of "The Walking Dead". Writer Kirkman states out front that he's less interested in a straight-out horror story---zombies springing out of the darkened woods and chowing down on some filet-au-Bob---than he is in exploring the dark thickets of the human brain exposed to what Kirkman calls "Extreme Situations".
Exactly.
The story follows Kentucky police officer Rick Grimes, thrown into a coma after a routine traffic stop goes bad. Just like "28 Days Later" he wakes up in an empty hospital. He buzzes on the nurse call-button; nobody shows up to help him. Which is, as we will shortly find out, probably a good thing.
Why? Because the hospital---most of it, anyway---is a tomb. Dead. Silent. There's a corpse, supine, fallen between elevator doors, his guts exposed, partially devoured. But for that single dead man, Grimes finds, to his horror, the hospital is deserted.
Of course, there's the matter of the lunchroom, stuffed to the grills with the Living Dead.
You could call it "While you were Sleeping", but it's not romantic, and it certainly isn't a comedy. While Grimes was out cold, the World Ended. The Dead Walked, and ate, and infected. Civilization ground to a halt. His town is dead; his house, run down; his wife and son, missing. The neighbor's house claimed by squatters. Word is everyone has gone to Atlanta, where the military has cordoned off the city and is protecting civilians. Grimes, in search of his family, in search of answers, takes a police cruiser and heads South.
To be sure, in zombie flicks I always root for the flesh-eaters, and here, whatever Kirkman says, you're reading "The Walking Dead" to see zombies, not follow a soap opera. But happily, Rackerton invests enough details in these characters to make them compelling: each has an agenda, obsessions, private vices, prejudices.
In other words, real people.
It certainly doesn't hurt Kirkman's story to have an artist as fine as Tony Moore bringing his vision to life. The black & white panels, the shadings, the crispness of the art---all of it is gorgeous, helping to accentuate the horror, but also to highlight the brutal beauty of a world gone feral.
Life, say the Buddhists and Christians, is Suffering. Suffering shapes us, molds us, ennobles us or breaks us apart. This is what is at work in "The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye": you see the characters change, shift, mutate, evolve---into stronger creatures, true, and into weaker, viler, sneakier creatures as well.
But if this is a hard world, Tony Moore's artwork makes it a bleakly gorgeous one. Take a hard look at the scene around a campfire in a wintery wood, seconds before horror intrudes: the downy snow, the shaded woods of the thicket, the faces sunk in shadow, backlit by the fire.
Some scholar once said that the Living can never stand up to the Dead: they are too many, and their hungry, avid minds are not freighted with the conscience of the Living.
Kirkman and Moore have put that contention into question in their first auspicious volume of the "Walking Dead". Doubtless the Dead will Walk, and the Walking will die---but who will survive, and what will become of them?
I'm hungry for more.
JSG
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Brilliant artist Tony Moore takes a superb script by Robert Kirkman to give us a fresh retelling of the "zombie world order" horror story. Inkwash over pen and ink works perfectly to convey a human tale of survival at the end of civilization. This book is a character study with examples of courage, cooperation and compassion balanced by equally well rendered paintings of human fear and envy. I usually walk by black and white comic books, but this one wouldn't have been as good in color. 2004 is not quite halfway over, but I doubt I'll read a work of fiction this year I'll enjoy more.
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Published 2 days ago by Sarah Stewart
5.0 out of 5 stars
The WALKING dead
Outstanding writing and art style something about the walking dead and I'm not sure what just won't let me leave it.
Published 2 days ago by Anderson
3.0 out of 5 stars
The drawings are not that good
They changed the artist. I don't know why.
The drawings in vol. 1 were much, much better and expresive.
But the atmosphere is OK.
The drawings in vol. 1 were much, much better and expresive.
But the atmosphere is OK.
Published 4 days ago by Pablo Moseinco
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing
This was soo good loved it I read it all in.one day that.is how good.it.was my favorite book/comic ever anazing
Published 5 days ago by Brianna Juanita King
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Living dead
Love the series on TV. After watching the show and talking to others, I decided to order the comic book. Both the series and the comics are well done.
Published 6 days ago by jerry jeropke
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
A staple in modern zombie lore. As important to fans of the new undead as George A. Rom and his movies themselves.
Published 8 days ago by Connor
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Graphic Novel
The graphic novel itself is wonderful. Its a gripping story and the art is great. The quality of the bound comic book is very good quality. Until my cat dumped water on it..
Published 9 days ago by Dibbs
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful
Loved this comic collection would highly recommend it to any one interested in this series and or comics in general
Published 10 days ago by MikeH
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
A must read for the Walking Dead Fan. I would buy the Compendiums instead of each smaller book individually though.
Published 10 days ago by Jennifer R.
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W
Great book better then the show I can't wait to read the next one amazing book devoutly read it.
Yae
Yae
Published 11 days ago by Christine Grech
