Review: The Walking Dead (Compendiums 1 & 2)

Title: The Walking Dead Compedium 1 & 2

Author: Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn, Tony Moore

Series: Ongoing

Published: Compendium 1 2009, Compendium 2 2012 (First issue published in 2003)

Edition Read: Traditional Paperback

Level Recommended: Adult

Overall: I started watching AMC's The Walking Dead, and like most people who love zombie stories I found myself needing to read the original series. I was not, at all, disappointed.


Summary: (Compendium 1) Introducing the first eight volumes of the fan-favorite, New York Times Best Seller series collected into one massive paperback collection! Collects The Walking Dead #1-48. This is the perfect collection for any fan of the Emmy Award-winning television series on AMC: over one thousand pages chronicling the beginning of Robert Kirkman''s Eisner Award-winning continuing story of survival horror- from Rick Grimes'' waking up alone in a hospital, to him and his family seeking solace on Hershel''s farm, and the controversial introduction of Woodbury despot: The Governor. In a world ruled by the dead, we are finally forced to finally start living.


Review: It's fair to say that I love zombie movies, books, and now the tv series, The Walking Dead. (I've reviewed at least three zombie novels and a triology just on this blog. I should probably have a tag especially for it.) Around Valentine's Day I ended up buying both Walking Dead compendiums off of Amazon for half off the original price. I really, really wanted to know what happened in the original story after watching two seasons of Walking Dead on AMC. I pretty much couldn't stop reading from the moment I'd started. The Walking Dead the comic starts very much like the series. Rick gets shot just before the zombie apocalypse breaks. He wakes up in a hospital, and begins his journey into finding his family whom he hopes is still alive. The act of trying to survive leads Rick into making decisions he never thought he'd have to make with the final goal being the safety of his wife and son. Every decision Rick makes is to ensure his family's survival. 

Any Walking Dead fan has to read the original comics. The comics delve into a dark side of humanity and survival that truly had me asking if Rick's decisions were right or wrong. I asked myself how far I would go if my own husband or children were faced daily with the possibility of death not just from zombies but from other survivors.  The comics are not for children, but as an addition to zombie literature it is definitely a keeper. Zombies eventually become the background for the even scarier evil of humans fighting for what's left of the food, shelter, and ammunition. Even the "good" people eventually come to the conclusion that they have to do horrible things to survive. Some of those people become the villains of Rick's story, like the Governor. 

If you have been putting off reading the comics like I did then what are you waiting for? Go to your library, bookstore, or Amazon and pick them up! Admittedly the compendiums are pricy--Right now they are $32 on Amazon, and that is just not cheap.--but considering how many volumes you get in one book. Well, for me it was worth it.