Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1

The highly-popular AMC program is neutered and tame in comparison to the comics, which don't pull their punches the way the TV show does. The comics are the way TWD was meant to be enjoyed, and this is coming from someone who started with the show. Most characters and settings are similar only in name and appearance. The story also plays out very differently; many characters live longer (or shorter!) than they did on the show, so you never know who's safe and who's zombie chow. At used prices, this is a no-brainer.

Robert Kirkman hasn't exactly broken new ground in the zombie legends mythos with The Walking Dead, but then again, why would anyone need to? As any fan of zombie lore can tell you, you can't get too hung up on the hows and whys of them. What brought them about is rarely all that interesting. What you care about and want to see are still-living humans doing whatever they need to do to stay away from the undead...and then being horrified when the zombies still manage to attack. And on that score, Kirkman has succeeded brilliantly. The Walking Dead is all about the living, the people who struggle to retain their humanity in the face of the unspeakable. So what does that mean? What good is being human when you're no longer the dominant species on the planet? And what's really left to hold on to? The Walking Dead is an examination of all those questions and more. It's also a long, slowly unfolding story. There's no race to the finish here, no secret cure that promises an end to all the troubles quickly. That's well-evidenced by the sheer heft of this volume. At more than 1,000 pages, it collects the first 48 issues of the ongoing comic series. It gives the book a nice way to be read: over a long period of time, letting the horror of the entire situation truly sink in. This is humanity's last gasp, after all. Kirkman has ever been a sporadic pacer in his writing, sometimes racing through certain scenes and sometimes allowing subplots and side stories to linger long periods of time. (To wit: One fairly important human character in The Walking Dead is killed off relatively quickly in the series; one can imagine other writers would have kept this character around for a good long time, if only for the different storylines he could generate. That Kirkman doesn't yield to such temptations is encouraging and speaks to his overall sense of the larger story; it's promising that he doesn't need this character to stick around long after he's served his purpose.) Then again, because of that same pacing, the opportunity to read the series in long form, over 48 issues, is more appealing. Subtle nuances in characters and story that may have been missed in the serial format are more easily caught here. Kirkman builds on previously established zombie tales (most notably George Romero's movies, of course), but neither an appreciation nor an understanding of those is truly needed here. The zombie genre is merely a means to an ends here, and as such, it's perfectly suited, because it gives Kirkman's true talents a venue in which to shine. And shine they do, even in the blood and sleaze. -- John Hogan

This review is for the entire comic series up to issue 61. The Omnibus on this page collects the first 48 harrowing issues in one very affordable collection. It's very much worth it. I don't know about you, but after I watch a Romero zombie flick, I always want to know what happened next. Where did they go after escaping the mall? Was the island really uninhabited? To find out what happens next as the ultimate ongoing cinematic zombie apocalypse shuffled on, we've always had to wait for the next film and a whole new set of characters. "The Walking Dead" takes everything that the master horror director did right with his unparalleled vision of a zombie invasion that reflects the true nature of mankind and have stretched it out into an ongoing comic book series that is showing no signs of slowing down after over 60 issues. And let me tell, you guys: this series is DARK. In fact, I don't believe I've ever read a darker story of this type, nor have I seen one on film. Trust me on this: this book is absolutely horrifying at times, and that fact has very little to do with the zombies who lurk in every corner of the landscape and march on an endless quest to devour the flesh of the increasingly few humans left alive. The zombies themselves are window dressing, a force of nature, a natural disaster, just part of the landscape of this brave new world. The real horror comes by our own hands as a reaction to the utter destruction of civilization as we know it. The premise is ridiculously simple. Zombie apocalypse. That's all you need to know. The story simply meanders from there. Now, normally when I say that it's a bad thing, but in this case it is not because everywhere the characters meander, death, destruction, heartbreak, horror, action, sex, and brilliant character moments follow. Is there a point to it all? Depends on how you look at it. The series has no outstanding metaphors or political commentary of its own, it simply restates a lot of Romero's own observations in print. But if the point is just an engrossing, addicting, and intelligently-told survival horror tale that pulls absolutely no punches and always has something that will shock and disturb you coming up around the bend then that this is as good as it gets. The pages are in black-and-white which may turn a few people off, but those people would be robbing themselves of something amazing by passing this by based on that. Truth be told, the gore and violence of this comic might be to much for most readers to handle if it were in full glossy color. "Walking Dead" is perfect exactly as it is. At this point, I wouldn't even want color. Okay, characters. Well, let's just say I wouldn't get attached to anybody if I were you. Nobody is safe in this comic and nobody is innocent, children included. Characters come, characters get brutally scarred, characters do terrible things to one another, characters die spectacularly disturbing deaths, more characters come, repeat

Most of the folks here already know that The Walking Dead saga is a compilation of stories by Robert Kirkman that expand on the story that is well know to any zombie movie fan. The main story. The one started in earnest by George Romero in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead [and was later remade in 1990 (the version that I prefer) by Tom Savini (with Romero oversight)]. This Walking Dead "Compendium" is a compilation of Volumes 1 through 8 (or call it Books 1 through 4, or call it issues 1 through 48), and it continues the story of (former) Police Officer Rick Grimes and his band of normal-world-refugees across a world suddenly infected by a Walking Dead sickness.. The group finds a new home after a perilous Georgia countryside journey at the start of the story only to find out that zombies may be the least of their problem, and what is deemed a safe haven is only as safe the protection it offers against zombies. Yes...venturing out into The New World is dangerous. Outside the gates of the new home awaits unfathomable chaos and horror; hordes of the undead, along with other survivors in desperate situations that do the unthinkable to stay alive (or entertained). As the story matures, it is much less about zombies and more about what happens to society, its morals, laws and standards when government is lost and the planet becomes mostly uninhabitable. There's real, heartfelt emotion in The Walking Dead series combined with believable scenarios. I'm not a regular comic book reader, but I was drawn to The Walking Dead by the Book releases that bring the convenience of being able to get many chapters of the story without the month to month or volume to volume waiting. And I am now hooked. Now I subscribe to the issue releases. Each chapter of The Walking Dead is like reading a screenplay with storyboards of a version of Night of the Living Dead that began simultaneously, but in a different part of the country. Sure...The Walking Dead is kind of a rip-off of a story (stories) already told, but the key is that it's done very very well. The zombies are true to the original Romero creation: slow and stupid as opposed to the Rage-infected people in 28 Weeks Later / 28 Days Later) or the fast zombies in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. So anyone in need of a very well done zombie fix that you don't put into your DVD player should absolutely get down with The Walking Dead sickness. Add this one to your cart if you're new to The Walking Dead...you won't be disappointed at its length because the story never gets tired.