The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye

Written by: Robert Kirkman
Art by: Tony Moore

Grr. Let's talk about zombies.

Ok, I know. They're everywhere. Zombies are unquestionably in right now. When did that happen? More importantly, how did that happen? Questions for the ages my friends.

The important bit is that this new obsession with the walking dead has made its way into the comic world, and perhaps more appropriately, The Walking Dead . Heads up, it's worth your time. If you like zombies. And zombie related drama.

Because drama is what it all comes down to, yeah? We're not reading for the zombie, because goddammit the zombie is really pretty dull. It rots, and it growls sometimes. Some of them run and some of them shuffle. Either way, they aren't the most exciting nightmare-stuff. What we, we intelligent, 21st century graphic novel consumers desire is complete and complex drama... in the trappings of the fantastic.

Whether you agree with that statement or not, The Walking Dead should do right by you. There are your standard zombie flic clichés, such as the awfully familiar scene where our hero wakes up from a coma to find the hospital and surrounding areas deserted (of the living). But really, the story diverges from the stereotype right there. What it really comes down to is the fact that most of the drama comes from the strained inter-personal relations of our hero and his crew. They're hungry. They want showers and they grow scruffy beards. Underneath the looming threat of the dead come to life, The Walking Dead increasingly becomes less about zombies and more about the human response to the removal of familiarities of life. About change, in a most extreme form. About human adaptability folks.

Winter in The Walking Dead.

And that’s what makes The Walking Dead so encouraging: writer and creator Robert Kirkman seems to hold these things as concerns central to the narrative, not the gratuitous gore so common to the zombie-horror genre. Don’t get me wrong, you don’t go to a zoo to mail your letters, and you don’t dig zombies because of the drama. But these things go miles to making the narrative more complete.

The art may take some getting used to. Tony Moore’s style here, though quite well done, is just a touch cartoony lending a strange kind of contrast to the grotesque subject matter. It's crisp and clear though, which gets the job done.

Eric

Like what you see? Drop us an email at: [Nick] bungalowjones@hotmail.com, [Drew] gronix@excite.com, [Eric] eskalac@gmail.com or [Kate] katedickson@occultmail.com