The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye (v. 1) by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye (v. 1)
Book Review: Not the best intro, but it's VERY worth it to keep going
Summary: 3 Stars
Some of the more negative reviews of this first Walking Dead book are quite merited. In many ways it feels derivative, even a bit lazy. I'd only like to add that the series does get better, a whole heck of a lot better. Read this first one just so you can get to know the characters, but if you're feeling put off, do yourself a favor and keep going. By the time I was halfway through the second book I was hooked hooked hooked, and I devoured the rest of them as fast as I could. These have some of the best character development I've ever seen in any media, let alone in comic books, which are NOT known for their depth.
Kirkman has made a decent name for himself in this business, and The Walking Dead series is a fantastic testament to his deserving respect.
Book Review: The End Has Come
Summary: 5 Stars
Volume 1 (of 8 so far) collects 1-6 of Robert Kirkman's ongoing series for Image Comics. I had been recommended this book by many people so I snagged the first 4 trades cheap and ate them up like a plate of warm brains. Zombie humor. Of course, there is really no humor to be found in this series. It's gritty, rough and deeply interesting. This book is not so much about the zombies as it is the human condition - and how quickly it corrodes under apocalyptic circumstances. As is typical of Kirkman, the writing is excellent, building suspense and establishing characters while moving the story along at a satisfying pace. If you read the first trade, you'll want at to have the next few handy.Book Review: A Character-Driven, Sprawling Epic
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm not really "into" zombie-flicks. I would watch one and likely enjoy it, but I never had the need to go out and watch a zombie movie. What attracted me to this book was the author's note in the beginning pages. He referred to this comic series as a "character driven" tale that will span years and "sprawling epic." To a fan of Joss Whedon, J. K. Rowling, Brian K. Vaughan, and Stephen King, those are the key phrases. I bought it.
The first quarter of the book was entertaining, but I wasn't sold. There were some great moments (Rick going back to put a zombie out of its misery, for instance), but I was very put off by the unique paneling of the book. The panels have very dark edges and are often very spaced out. It, at first, killed the flow of the story and made me feel like I was just looking at some pictures taped onto a page.
However, when Rick made it to the campsite and met all the other survivors, the strange paneling was the last thing on my mind. The story almost instantly became captivating once our protagonist started to interact with others, all of whom are reacting very differently to the world overrun by zombies. This is a very serious story and is indeed "character driven" and will surely end up being a "sprawling epic" as many of the catastrophic events in this book will have reprocussions down the line.
8/10
Book Review: Zombies don't have to equal misogyny . . .
Summary: 1 Stars
But in this comic, they do. I read the first couple issues, because I was intrigued by the concept -- I like post-apocalyptic fiction of all kinds. But the portrayal of women started out iffy and only got worse as the series went on. I'll spend my money elsewhere next time.Book Review: Derivative in the worst way ...
Summary: 2 Stars
I was intrigued when I caught sight of the Walking Dead series, being a casual fan of graphic novels and a big fan of classic zombie fare like Romero's Dawn of the Dead (Divimax Edition). It seemed like a fun diversion, and author Robert Kirkman seemed to be headed in the right direction in his introduction, where he espouses the virtues of 'meaningful' zombie stories and establishes his intention to pay homage to greats of the genre like the aforementioned "Dawn of the Dead" and the more recent 28 Days Later (Widescreen Edition). But he goes horribly wrong when he steals from them to construct his plot, making volume I of "The Walking Dead" feel like a pointless retread of already done ideas -- not to mention lazy. From Romero's early zombie flicks we get old-school, slow-moving zombies (unlike the superfast variety featured in current media offerings), characters who reflect on the current state of the world while holing up in temporary safety, and the overarching themes of the series (lifted directly from "Dawn of the Dead," Kirkman's argument seems to be that modern people have forgotten how to really live in an amoral, commerce-crazed society). The titular walking dead could easily refer to the survivors of the first zombie attacks just as much as the literally mobile deceased who have developed a taste for flesh. We've also got the requisite transformation sub-plot, in which a character gets bitten and slowly succumbs to zombie-dom despite all efforts to prevent infection (although I'll grant that the outcome of that storyline does defy convention, so put down at least one originality point for Kirkman). And from Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later?" Well, the main character starts the series out waking up from a coma in an abandoned hospital to find the dead walking the earth ... which is EXACTLY what happens to Jim in "Days". There's also the concept that attempting to mass a large number of humans together only serves to spread the 'disease' faster (one character's survival story of watching his whole family get mercilessly slaughtered while waiting in a crowd for military assistance in Atlanta is eerily reminiscent of "Days'" Mark, whose backstory includes watching his family succumb to the 'rage' during a botched military evacuation). Homage, you might wonder? Reads more like plagiarism.
Kirkman aims high enough, but in the end he fails to bring anything fresh to the genre. The artwork is stellar, but Kirkman's lazy reliance on established concepts is stultifying. Skim through the pages to check out Tony Moore's detailed drawings, then skip ahead to The Walking Dead Volume 2: Miles Behind Us (Walking Dead) instead of wasting your time here. In Volume 2 Kirkman actually breaks new ground and really gets his story moving in a way that can truly be called his. Volume 1 is all bluster and paltry execution.
Grade: D