Review of the Walking Dead Comic Book Series

The Walking Dead is an on going comic book series written by Robert Kirkman with art by Tony Moore published by Image Comics. Here is a review of issues 1-6 from 2004. Since this is an on going series well past the 50 mark this review should let you know if you'll be interested in picking up the trade Paper Backs. If you love zombies as much as you fear them this series is for you.

I love zombies, I love them as much as I fear them and that is saying something. The problem with loving zombies in fictional form is that so many people can ruin a good thing. You got your radioactive zombies, magical zombies, Italian zombies, B-Grade zombies, etc. So much bad can outweigh the good, yet so often a gem appears that makes all the crap just go away. One Such gem is The Walking Dead. This fantastic, ongoing, black and white series is something everyone should be reading.

Rick is a cop, a good cop, a cop that just got shot. When he wakes up the hospital is empty save for a corpse...and the Walking Dead (I really love saying that). Escaping he returns home and gets the shit knocked out of him by a ten year old. When he comes to again the father of the boy, Morgan Jones, fills in the large blank he has. Zombies rock the hardest and your family might have gone to Atlanta. Rick goes into the police station and hooks them up with weapons and a car. Then he heads off to see his family in the big city.

I'm going to stop right there to talk about the way the people speak to one another. Morgan is worried about the cop Rick being upset that they are living in someone else's home. Morgan did so because the house was safer than his. Rick is of course not worried about this at all and says whatever he can do to keep his son safe is fine by him. This is how real people would act and think. You don't get that to much any more because there is such a push for unnecessary action which pulls away from the characters and the story.

Rick then gives them a squad car and asks that they not put to many miles on it and when this is all over to give it back. Rick thinks this is going to end that something is going to fix this at some point. You see this attitude is slowly torn away throughout the story.

His travels to the city are not without problems, getting gas is hard then he finally runs out. He finds a family dead in a farm house and a horse in the barn. Using the horse he finally makes it to the city where he is jumped by hundreds of zombies that tear his horse apart. A young man yells for him to follow him and they make it up a fire escape to the roof. They jump across a building so the zombies will still think they are on top the other one.

The young man is a member of a group of people living out of cars and campers outside of town. There is his partner, wife, and son things aren't looking that bad...

The art is top grade and easy on the eyes. I like it better black and white anyways color would make it look less real. The story is solid with great characters. I can't seem to put it down.