While I realize that this review comes almost a decade too late (around 7 years to be exact), I think that the book still deserves the justice of being critiqued. It’s been damn-near impossible to find quality reviews on this book anywhere on the internet, despite it being heralded as an independent success story, and one of the best graphic novels of all time. The spot reviews on Amazon and IGN just simply won’t suffice for me. Did this book change me? No. It made me think . . . which is all you can ever ask any book to do. This review stands as a “thank you” to Robert Kirkman for using the graphic novel as a serious medium for storytelling.

TrendRobot Rating:  10/10

Zombies, vampires, and other horror movies staples have all been cash cows for Hollywood and cable television as of late. This fascination with the otherworldly and the undead has been making a resurgence in pop-culture, seemingly, since George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was remade in 2004. Beginning one year prior, however, a young comic writer by the name of Robert Kirkman set out on an ambitious, independent comic/zombie-project, that told the story of something even more frightening than the flesh-craving undead. Kirkman immediately threw the readers into a gray abyss that told, through the eyes of his flawed protagonist, Rick Grimes, a story of human nature at its most primitive.

In the opening pages of The Walking Dead: Book One, the prologue from author Robert Kirkman reads, “I was always fascinated with zombie movies . . . the only problem was that they ended.” What Kirkman wanted was a book that told the story of the humans that lived in the afterworld, the story of the human psyche following the epidemic.  Kirkman goes on to say that what he aimed at creating was a book of survival; a book that showed the viewers what happened after the credits rolled. In essence, The Walking Dead, as long as it would be published, would be a never-ending tale of adaptation after the apparent fall of mankind. Within the first two story arcs, the comic achieves just this, and stands as a testament to graphic novel storytelling in that it does so with minimal frills, black-and-white images, and superb characters.

Immediately we are thrown into a black-and-white universe of gloom and doom. Similar to recent Hollywood productions, the story begins predictably as Rick Grimes, a small town police officer, is shot in the line of duty and falls into an uncertain coma. Upon awakening, he finds his town abandoned except for the endless hunger of the moaning undead. Trying to make heads-and-tails of what has become of his world, Grimes, an officer of the law, tries to stay within the law of the land while searching for his wife and 7 year old son. It is these opening moments that Kirkman crafts so beautifully and sets the tone for Grimes’ adaptation in this new, lawless world. The reader is never told what set these events into motion, never told whether it was the classic zombie-epidemic or an act of some ruthless god. All the reader knows is that it happened, and Rick Grimes may very well be the last man alive.

Later, after miles upon miles of empty roadways and numerous encounters with the living dead, Grimes is reunited with his wife and son who have taken refuge in the Eastern countryside with a ragtag group of survivors.  The group is a desperate gang of nobodies, of all ages and backgrounds, trying desperately to figure out how to survive. It is here that we are introduced to an amazing array of characters that we are immediately connected to. Kirkman gives each character their own, unique voice and personality flaws that make the new living arrangements an honest, realistic clash of values and ideals.

Within this camp of refugees lies racial tensions, political clashes, gender differences and various belief systems. After establishing a solid cast, the storyline takes various twists and turns that are so unpredictable, some so brutal, that even the savviest of zombie aficionados could not see them coming. The really amazing part is that most of them have nothing to do with the newly afflicted, remains-devouring zombies. What unfolds is a beautiful commentary on the human condition as the group evolves from a disorganized gang, to a functioning commune, making democratic decisions on their next move.
Various members of the cast exit and return, and characters join the band of survivors as they journey, aimlessly, through the bitter, Eastern winter. The beauty in this book is the richness of characters and the realistic, sometimes visceral, survival instincts in everyone’s actions. Everyone, even our beloved Rick Grimes, is deeply flawed and shows panic and evolution in their new, uncertain world of death and destruction.

Just as with every zombie movie or book, there are various political and pop-culture parallels that can be drawn from each situation in the story, but the plot ultimately rests on the very basic concepts of love, death, and survival. In a world where the dead begin to walk the streets, it is the surviving humans that turn out to be the most threatening, and Kirkman paints a post-apocalyptic world that is both disturbing and beautiful.

In the end, it is the flawed channels of communication that will decide the fate of mankind, not the threat of zombie infection, and Kirkman leaves us wanting the tale to the very last, bitter, endgame.

Editor’s Note: The Walking Dead is still “alive” and thriving in comic shops.  It is undoubtedly an independent success story for Image Comics.  As I have undoubtedly entered the series far too late, I am avidly catching up, hardcover by hardcover.  I’ll continue to post reviews on these editions as I finish them.  I still can’t believe the lack of reviews for this story on the internet and I am anxious to share “the ongoing story of survival horror.”

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