Mini Review: The Walking Dead Compendium 1 by Robert Kirkman
The Walking Dead, Compendium 1
Author: Robert Kirkman
Series: The Walking Dead Compendium Editions #1
Publisher: Image Comics
Published: May 19th 2009
Genres: Adult, Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Zombies
Pages: 1088
Format: Graphic Novel, Paperback
Source: Purchased
Buy on Amazon | Buy from Publisher
Goodreads
Introducing the first eight volumes of the fan-favorite, New York Times Best Seller series collected into one massive paperback collection.
In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living. With The Walking Dead #1-48, this compendium features more than one thousand pages chronicling the start of Robert Kirkman's Eisner Award-winning story of zombie horror, from Rick Grimes waking up alone in a hospital, his band of survivors seeking refuge on an isolated farm and the controversial introduction of Woodbury despot, The Governor. (Cover and synopsis from Goodreads.)
Spoiler Warning: This review covers issues 1-48 of The Walking Dead comics. I don’t like spoilers, but with the nature of this kind of review, some spoilers may be unavoidable. Read on at your own risk.
Note: So far, there are 156 issues of The Walking Dead comics published. They come in single issues, or in collected editions, such as volumes (6 issues each), books (12 issues each), and compendiums (48 issues each). This review is for Compendium 1, which contains issues 1-48.
Since there is so much to cover in this review, and also because I don’t like spoilers, I’m going to make this a mini review where I simply share some of my notes.
- So far I like the show better. (I watched the show first.)
- I feel like the comics go SUPER fast, whereas in the show, a lot of detail and nuance and backstory was added.
- Rick kind of has a Wolverine thing going on.
- WTF is up with all the random bold words? (I looked this up. Apparently back in the day, certain letters wouldn’t show up as well when comics were printed, so they would make them bold. And today, there’s not that issue, but some artists and writers think that the words should still be in bold. I DO NOT agree. Bold, italics, caps, etc. are used for emphasis, among other things. Making words bold which don’t make sense to be emphasized just takes me out of the book and makes me read things like this.)
- Gross. I’m really glad that couple isn’t together on the show!
- Could have gotten a bit more creative with the names. Two Billys, Carl and Carol are too similar and sometimes I read it and think they’re talking about the other one, etc.
- So many of the characters in this comic are just not great people. Jerks, sexist jerks, abusive jerks. Lots of jerks.
- However, Andrea is a much better character in the comic than she was on the show. They made her really whiny on the show, and she acted like she knew how to do things when she didn’t. In the comic, she can hold her own, and she actually does know how to do things. She’s a pretty strong character. I mean, she has her annoying moments, but she’s a more complex character in the comics.
- Does Axel really need to say “You follow me?” in every bit of his dialogue? Like that’s the only way we’ll realize it’s him speaking? (The answer here is no.)
I find that there are things that I like better in the show, and other things that I like better in the comics. And I think that’s how it should be. And because of that, I can still enjoy both the show and the comics, and treat them as separate yet similar entities. 4 stars.
Andrea
Related Posts
Leave a Reply