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Apr 29, 2011

BarkLessWagMore rated it:

I cannot believe the dark places this graphic novel delves. No one, and I mean no one, is safe in this ongoing saga. It takes place after the dead have risen and destroyed everything and follows a handful of often rotating survivors as they try to get by in a frightening new world. It starts out a little slow as everything is set up but once it gets going I didn't want to put it down.

It is less focused on the zombies than its core of characters and their interaction and relationships More...

5 comments like (11 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2010

Laura rated it:

I was going to write reviews of the first three volumes of this series, but I decided to save my creative juices (and they are so little) for the compendium. So here we go...

First off, a general overview: The story concerns a local cop, Rick, who wakes in the hospital to discover the world has gone to hell. All the people have been turned into the walking dead. (I know, overtones of 28 Days Later, but go with it.) We then follow him as he struggles to find out what has happened, More...

19 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2011

Richard rated it:

I read through this, and wanted to read all through this (granted, with some skimming towards the end), but I have to admit that this reminds me why I'm not a fan of graphic novels. A LOT of exposition in the form of dialogue (though no thought balloons, should be thankful for that), and a rather episodic approach that makes me feel like the storyline is more about "Okay, who can we kill next?" than necessarily digging into something uncomfortably human, but a lot of classic elements More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

Joshua rated it:

I took the all to trite path of tv then book. The series was amazing and I couldn't put the story on hold while they filmed the next season so I picked up my first comic book since pubescence.
First off the two are not the same. They are similar in a few keeps points and milestones but the events and characters diverge greatly from the separate story lines.

Thankfully the one thing the televised version got right was that the Zombies are only a minor part of the story. The writi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 13, 2011

Amanda rated it:

I was a late to the Walking Dead party. I admit it, I read the book after I fell in love with the AMC series. Blasphemy, yes, I know. However, it's a credit to the writers on the show and the writers of the comics that you don't lose any pleasure whichever way you come to the story. The series is brilliant and so different from the comic.

But I digress. The first compendium is really great. It melds horror with philosophy quite nicely. The zombies are relentless and the shifting moralit More...

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Nov 04, 2011

Chris rated it:

This is a amazingly dark and captivating read. It gets to the core of what makes zombie fiction and movies really good - the drama between the survivors trying to make it while grappling with truly difficult situations. The Walking Dead almost perfectly balances the intense moments fending off hordes of roamers with the times where it looks like everyone has a chance of getting by. There are, however, some points where things were just too over the top for me <spoiler>(did you really have More...

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Aug 21, 2011

Thurston rated it:

I know Todd was enjoying the TV show, so thought I would check out this collection of the first eight chapters that spawned the series. While it is a false dichotymy to split the world into those who like zombie fiction/fim and those who don't; I would remain in the second camp.

I don't find zombies all that fascinating in the pantheon of monsters, and the gratuitous gore that fills the films is what I used to think was the big draw for zombie fans. Taking desensitization to delight f More...

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May 12, 2011

Meghan rated it:

* How I found it: a friend recommendation
* Type: Paperback
* My initial thoughts: A comic book? Am I a prepubescent 13 year old boy? This book is THICK.
* Why I said "yes": Show is great (which was also recommended from above mentioned friend) and pure realization that I need to step out of my comfort zone when it comes to entertainment. ((You mean I can't read dirty romance novels and period pieces for life?))

This was the only comic book I have ever read be More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2011

Anastasia rated it:

I love Zombie movies. I'm also a pretty big fan of Zombie books. I am now in love with Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead graphic novel. I love his concept. He loved zombie movies, but they always ended. He wanted a never ending zombie movie, which is obviously impossible. So he decided to make it in the form of a comic. I'm not going to go all hipstery on you and act like I've been reading it forever and knew about it before the AMC tv show. I found out about it because of the previews of the s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 22, 2011

Meredith rated it:

It's not a spoiler to say that the zombies in this graphic novel are only a small part of the horror faced by the main character(s), a former cop named Rick, and the survivors he groups with. No, most of the horror - as well as a few moments of delight and humor - come from the people (and the cast is quite large) Rick encounters and his own battles with morality in the "new world" of the zombie apocalypse. That's what makes this series so effective. The zombies are the backdrop of More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2011

Ceridwen rated it:

Read this in a sitting, which is so the wrong way to read comics, I know. In a gulp, it's uneven, sometimes gripping, sometimes so boring I skimmed. (Seriously, I know, skimming comics is really silly.) This is wordier that I would prefer at points, which also seems a silly thing to say, so maybe I just mean that the words are ill-chosen, occasionally trite and obvious, characters laying out their motivations in ways that seems hammy.

Damn, I'm complaining too much here. I'll start aga More...

18 comments like (21 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2011

Kelly rated it:

I have distinctly mixed feelings about this series. I actually read the first four volumes (half this compendium) back when they first came out, starting in 2007, I guess. I thought it was good enough and frequently interesting, but there were some things about it that really annoyed me. I heard about something that would be happening in volume 5 that really ticked me off, so I stopped reading them. But since the TV show has come out and I keep hearing about it, I finally decided to give it ano More...

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Dec 18, 2010

Chris rated it:

Zombies are boring.

There. I said it. And I'm not ashamed.

They are, though. Zombies have no real motivation, they have no goals other than to kill all humans. They are mindless, a kind of twisted force of nature whose great terror lies in their sheer numbers and their unstoppability. As a concept, zombies are interesting, and as a symbol or a metaphor there's a lot you can do with them, but the zombies themselves are kind of dull. They lurch about, slowly decaying, looking for More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2010

Erik rated it:

Yes, I have already read and reviewed all of the individual volumes of The Walking Dead that are collected together in this single, two-inch-thick compendium. But with the recent rating-smash hit TV adaptation of Kirkman’s brilliant comic book series this past fall on AMC, I decided to go back and reread the first forty-eight issues. (I got the previous volumes from the library when I read them the first time around. And for those of you who are keen to try this brilliantly written series, might More...

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Nov 05, 2010

Christina rated it:

Ok, I won't lie. I love zombies. They are super creepy, disturbing, and really fun to mow down with three friends when I play Left 4 Dead.

But, this was not always my opinion. I used to hate zombies. I used to hate horror in general. It squicked me, weirded me out, and made me cringe and take cover under a cozy blanket. This is the book that changed all that.

Beautifully written, The Walking Dead was a book I just could not put down. I love character development more than any More...

0 comments like

May 09, 2011

Bryce rated it:

Oh, man. I love me some zombies. Zombie movies, zombie novels, zombie TV shows, zombie comics... hell, if someone wrote a zombie comedic opera, I'd buy a ticket to see it. And the best part of the zombie genre isn't necessarily the walking dead themselves, it's what characters faced with the walking dead do.

In The Walking Dead, they do some pretty terrible things. I'm a little surprised at how dark this series gets, especially since it starts with such a optimistic tone. A statement More...

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Jul 18, 2010

Nathaniel rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Feb 01, 2011

Mike rated it:

This comic series is the source material for AMC's brilliant series of the same name. The stories here feature many of the same characters, but the storyline is quite different- suspenseful, shocking, and surprisingly sophisticated. The appeal of zombie tales, for me, is not the zombies but the people: not just how they physically survive the onslaught, but how they persevere psychologically and socially in the face of an existential threat. The Walking Dead deals primarily with human relat More...

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Jan 12, 2011

Peacegal rated it:

The Walking Dead comic series borrows plot elements from many sources including “28 Days Later,” “Mad Max,” and “Hostel.”

I don’t like the fact that the series switches artists after the first book. I do like that there emerge some stronger female characters as the story goes on, which was a real issue in the beginning. (Sharp-shooting Andrea was my favorite character.) Nevertheless, there were still stereotypical gender roles a-plenty, which was annoying.

I like the zombie More...

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Jan 08, 2011

H. Anne rated it:

Over the years, as zombies have evolved from shamblers to sprinters, I've had mixed feelings about it. I always loved Romero's films (and really, who can't like zombies on ice?) and for the longest time I thought of them as kind of hokey creatures. Something that people can get away from easily and whatever else. Not that I'd want to run from one or see a loved one turn into one, but they certainly didn't freak out in the same way as vampires did when I was kid. Or clowns, which I still don' More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Angie rated it:

I have to admit that I read this because I have been watching the AMC series. I wanted to see how the comic differed from the series. It is basically the same storyline about a ragtag group trying to survive the Zombie Apocalypse, but there are differences that made this book a fascinating read. The story is brutal and honest and definitely not a pretty one. People die horribly and it becomes a part of life. It makes you question how you would act at the end of the world. Would you retain your h More...

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Nov 05, 2011

Andrew rated it:

After checking out the first few trades of The Walking Dead, and having tuned into the TV Show religiously, I knew I had to keep reading the comic. Thanks to a deal on Amazon, I ate the cost of owning the first three trades, and bought this collection of the first 48 issues.

Speaking about the volume itself, it's quite a deal. It has a list price of 60 dollars, and collects the first 8 trades of the series, 48 issues total. Amazon cuts the price down even further, but even at list pri More...

1 comment like

Oct 27, 2011

Osvaldo rated it:

Grim. Certainly compelling and I could not stop reading it despite the repeated horrible situations and events that hit you relentlessly. One thing about the zombie genre when done right is that no one is safe, and The Walking Dead gets that right. If you like reading about people needing to make terrible decisions in terrible situations that slowly undermine the very humanity that makes them compelling to begin with, then this comic is for you. The occasionally primitive black and white art More...

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Jan 08, 2011

Tung rated it:

I'm a fan of both graphic novels and the zombie genre (books and movies), so it pains me to admit that while I have been aware of the existence of the Walking Dead series, I have never gotten around to reading them. Part of the reason for that is I don’t like serialized works as I prefer reading them altogether in one work. Thankfully, this compendium gathers together the first 48 episodes of the highly acclaimed series. The story follows Rick Grimes, a small-town cop who is shot on the job, and More...

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Aug 01, 2011

Rik rated it:

For full disclosure, I started reading this after having watched the first season of the television show, so I had an idea of what I thought the graphic novel would or should be. I was pleasantly surprised with the differences, not that I preferred one version of events over the other. I think the novel does a good job of showing the slow, systematic downward spiral of a small group of zombie-apocalypse survivors in a way that is realistic and believable (as if I have a good grip on what 'beli More...

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Dec 15, 2011

Molly rated it:

This may well be the heaviest book I have ever read that wasn't a textbook. I had to read it at a table, or my arm would fall asleep trying to hold it up. Also, I realized that it is not advisable to read right before bed. Other than that, I found it really interesting, dark, and very disturbing. I love zombie apocalypse novels and this is a good one, and one that takes on a more complex view of the surviving humans than many others I've read. They aren't all pulling together for the surviv More...

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Dec 14, 2010

Jack added it

Aaah! This book freaked me out. I'm not much of a horror fan, but this stuff is so compelling I had a hard time putting it down.

The zombies are only minorly scary -- what's really horrible is how the "living" react and bend their morals and get paranoid and do disgusting things to one another. It's like Lord of the Flies on a larger scale. With guns. And katanas. And blow torches. Yuck.

Kirkman does a great job of keeping us rooting for Rick, the small town sheriff, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 04, 2010

Ben rated it:

Amazing!

I picked this up after I saw the first episode of the new TV adaptation and couldn't wait for more. I have to say, if the T.V. series is even half as good as the comic, it'll be the best thing I've seen for years. And based on the TV premier compared to the corresponding part of the comic series, it may well be better!

I do hope the TV series continues although, based on previous experience, I don't have high hopes for it getting even as far as the point in the story I More...

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Mar 22, 2011

Chris rated it:

Okay, I'm going to say this right up front, and everyone can get as huffy as they'd like: it's all true.

The Walking Dead is highly overrated.

The writing is melodramatic as all get-out. I didn't get the impression that the writers had any idea what characters they had intended to survive - it's an amateurish device to kill off your characters, particularly given how dependent the story becomes upon characters constantly dying. Sure,it's meant to convey the new reality - bu More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

David rated it:

This is a really entertaining graphic novel. I have read very few graphic novels / comic books as an adult, and I haven't seen the television show that is adapted from this work. So, I was not familiar with the plot, characters, or even the genre, before I read this book. I am a big fan of zombies, and this book does not disappoint. The gray-tone illustrations are well drawn and appropriate for the medium and story. There are some very memorable characters, although you shouldn't get too at More...

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