Originally written May 8, 2017

Most people today know of The Walking Dead from its hit TV show on AMC, but some may not realize that the show is actually based on a comic series. While the show started in 2010, the comic first began in 2003. This seven year difference gave the show a lot of material to start adapting, and so the show has just started catching up to where the comic was at when the show started in recent years. This review will be for compendium one of The Walking Dead, which covers the first 48 issues of the comic. For people that are just familiar with the show, issues 1-48 basically covered the first three and a half seasons of the show.

Zombie fiction is literally everywhere nowadays (some would say that it’s been done to death at this point), but I feel that at the time The Walking Dead comic debuted it wasn’t too ingrained in our culture yet. Therefore, while it might not seem so special now, I find the story of The Walking Dead to be pretty interesting. The series follows Rick Grimes, a cop in a small town. Rick gets put into a coma during a shootout, and when he wakes up he finds that the world has completely changed. Indeed, Rick wakes up from the coma to find that there has been a zombie outbreak. He has no idea where his wife, Lori, or son, Carl, are at, and so he begins to try to search for his family.

Not to spoil too much plot, but from the first issues, Rick meets up with various people, both good and bad. He also must figure out the best place to go to survive from the zombies, and so he finds himself in places like a community of houses, a farm, and a prison. One thing I think this series excels at so well is that it shows the struggles that would come with a zombie outbreak very well. You’re in constant danger, you must try to protect the people you love, you have to deal with death all around you, and sometimes you’re going to have to make some difficult decisions. These kinds of feelings and emotions are presented very well, especially in these first 48 issues.

In a medium where we see so many different unconnected stories being told and are constantly trying to keep up with what continuity or universe something takes place in, it’s honestly kind of refreshing to see a comic like The Walking Dead, which has been going on for years and is still following the same protagonist on his continuing story of survival. While the cast of characters is practically always in rotation due to writer Robert Kirkman’s tendency to kill off characters, I generally like a lot of the characters in this comic.

While I did want to give my feelings on this comic in general, I just want to say that this collection of issues in particular is really good. I tend to forget just how good this comic was in its early stages when I’m caught up in what’s been going on in it currently, but it really is quality material. I don’t want to come off like the comic got terrible over the years or anything, because it still is really good, but there is definitely something special about reading all of the early adventures of these characters. While some of the material may be familiar to fans of the show, the comic will always be better, and so I recommend this to both fans of the show and people who are just looking into getting into The Walking Dead. It’s still one of my favorite comics around.

4.5/5