Review: The Walking Dead Compendium Vol. 1

The Walking Dead Compendium Vol. 1 by Robert Kirkman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Review also posted at The Owl Review

This book contains issues 1-48. As of this review (4/2012), issue #96 was just released.

Oh wow, was this fun and fast reading! I've never been much of a fan of graphic novels per se (with a brief obsession with reading Spawn years ago), but this one hooked me in.

My husband and I are fans of the AMC show, The Walking Dead. Little did I know that there was a graphic novel, until my husband picked it up. This tome must have weighed at least 15 lbs, and was not the most comfortable book to read in bed, mind you... but nonetheless, I persevered and instead tried to spend most of my time sitting comfortably on the couch to read through this.

This was pure reading candy for me. It's not the happiest of tales. Not by any means. However, zombie tales which emerged out of Haitian culture, our slave culture, and our early Voodoo days down south, are always so easy to immerse ourselves in aren't they? Well, I can at least speak for myself and say they are.

This one doesn't disappoint. It's a well-woven, and so easy to believe story of our anti-hero Rick, who wakes up out of a coma, in his hospital bed. After visions of his best friend and fellow police officer, Shane, visiting him, he realizes that time has elapsed. He's weak with a not-quite-healed gunshot wound, and the hospital is disturbingly deserted, trashed, and soon he finds rows and rows of the dead, after escaping a room full of decaying people...which he learns are zombies. Roamers they are later coined in the book by Ricks group.

Rick meets up with his wife Lori, son Carl, friend Shane, and some other members that decided to stick together as they camp out nearby Atlanta. Each one is forced to come head-to-head with their current reality, and wonder if there will be any rescue attempts, and who else is still alive in the world. Roamers are everywhere, and no one feels safe. Gunshots to the head kill them, but noise draws their attention to your location.

You never know which character, no matter how important they seem, will be killed off, tragically, or just randomly. No one is safe in The Walking Dead, and characters are constantly battling for their lives, some semblance of civility, and often times their sanity.



View all my reviews