The Walking Dead - Volume 1: Days Gone Bye
At first glance, “The Walking Dead - Volume 1: Days Gone Bye
So with that in mind, what in the world makes The Walking Dead one of the best-reviewed fan-favorite top-selling series of graphic novels “alive”? The answer is that it has a big heart and it has lots of brains, something that both the living and the flesh-eating undead can enjoy (albeit in fairly different ways). The Walking Dead is more interested in its characters and their trials and tribulations than it is in simply being “gorier than thou”. (Although there is quite a bit of gore, the black and white artwork takes a bit of the edge off compared to full color). Like 28 Days Later, and unlike many other zombie stories out there, The Walking Dead understands that it is not the WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, or WHY that makes a good story… it is the WHO.
“Volume 1: Days Gone Bye” collects issues 1 through 6 in the ongoing saga of The Walking Dead. It introduces us to Rick Grimes, a small-town police officer who is wounded in a shoot-out with an escaped convict and lapses into a coma. Rick awakens in the aforementioned hospital, unsure how long he was in a coma and confused by the apparent total lack of signs of life. He wanders the empty halls until he finds the cafeteria, which has been locked from the outside by a board shoved between the door handles. Unwittingly, Rick removes the board and throws the doors open to be greeted by a hoard of stinking rotten starving flesh-hungry zombies! He is instantly and viciously attacked, and thus begins his long grueling struggle for survival.
But Rick does not go it alone. Before long, he meets with fellow survivors, some of whom prove to be vital allies, some of whom prove to be as dangerous as the zombies themselves. Yet all are interesting and multi-faceted characters, far from the two-dimensional stereotypical characters that merely serve as zombie fodder in so many zombie comics and movies. And Rick is not your stereotypical hero either. When confronted by his first scenes of human devastation, his reaction is tearful sadness rather than cold anger or steely resolve. He has moments of triumph, but also moments of utter failure in his search to find any family or friends that survived the zombie outbreak. Rick is an every man, alone and confused in a dangerous world, doing his best just to get by and stay alive. You identify with him, you sympathize with him, and you care about him. You become emotionally invested and wrapped up in his story, which is so much more than just a story about zombies. Great stuff.
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