The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye

Sometimes, I want a story to stay true to the original material. Reading Kick-Ass, and then seeing the movie, I was disappointed by every change the filmmaker made. He took a deep, dark, and unique comic, and turned it into a semi-generic superhero story. However, as someone who first watched seasons 1 & 2 of the AMC TV series, and then read the first 3 volumes of The Walking Dead, I can say, I love both series equally. The comic is different form the show. Very different. Different characters, timelines, and scenarios happen. There are characters and incidents that happen in both, but often in a different context, or with different characters altogether. For me, this has made reading the comics a true joy, as the show doesn't spoil the book, and vice-versa. Art in this book is great, it's obvious they have fun drawing out the zombie battles, but it's the writing that stands out. Making these survivor characters into fleshed out personalities, and showing how people break down at the end of the world, is heart-wrenching, inspiring, and terrifying, all at once. A great read.

I was a fan of the TV Show, and I watched up until the last few season. It became ridiculous after a while. This comic has given me a fresh perspective on the story, and I love the pacing. It really is cutthroat.

Honestly I love twd, and these comics are really well made and shipped!

What happens when the world we know is gone, possibly forever, and every day is a constant struggle for survival? Would we still fall in love, write poetry, decorate things, take time to read a book, or make plans for the future? How would a world gone mad affect the contemporary family unit or a religious organization? These are the types of things looked at in detail in "Days Gone Bye", the first volume in the Walking Dead series of graphic novels. Most contemporary media dealing with the subject of the apocalypse focuses on what occurs immediately before or after the great event that ends civilization (in this case, an infestation of zombies taking over the planet). The Walking Dead, however, is more of a long term project, focusing mostly on characterization. While there is certainly both action and horror present, these things are a vehicle to display the characters and how they react to the situations they find themselves in. The artwork is very good, and a welcome change in a genre that is mostly saturated with Japanese Anime style art. The main artist, Toni Moore, has gotten facial expression down to a science. It is readily apparent when any given character is sad, or joyful, or full of fear. An absolutely priceless facial expression is on the first page, in which an enraged (and probably drunk) escaped convict is screaming about never going back to prison. He has a very "I'm a crazy country bumpkin, don't mess with me or I'll chainsaw you" look about him. My one gripe is really about all graphic novels in general, although it definitely applies here. The use of emphasis on words is always completely off in comics. Either too many words, or the completely wrong words, are bolded (indicating emphasis on that word), which throws off the flow of the dialog. The story revolves around Rick, a police officer who awakens in a hospital after being shot on duty. The world has somehow become zombie infested, and he's all alone. This chapter of the saga is about Rick's search for his family, and his decisions on what to do next once he does actually find other living people. Several subplots pop up, mostly having to do with the backgrounds of the various minor characters, and hopefully they are explored further later on in the series, as these are all characters you can imagine actually being people you know and care about. If the first installment is any indication, this series is just going to keep getting better. Highly recommended to fans of zombie mayhem and standard drama fare.

... in the best sense. Volume 1 of the Walking Dead would make for a perfect zombie film in and of itself. The fact that there are already another 7 anthologies awaiting the readers seemed frankly too good to be true (I've rarely been happier to be wrong). When I read Robert Kirkman's forward to this first volume, I remembered the feeling of seeing the credits roll after my favorite movie ended, that agony of having to leave characters and places without knowing if I would ever get to see them again (this is admittedly not so much a problem for the youth of today in this age of infinite Disney sequels). The Walking Dead is an answer to that pain... Kirkman's goal is to spin a story that tells you What Happens Next. And unlike the eternal sequels we have come to expect from Hollywood, these stories aren't endless iterations on the same theme... they instead show the evolutions of each of the characters in this world after civilization's fall. Kirkman's writing is sharp and believable (at least it covered how I think people would talk if being chased by zombies). The relationships are vital and poignant, thus capturing another crucial element of the zombie genre. Tony Moore's art in this first volume is extraordinary. The story is told as much from the images and expressions of the characters as it is in the writing - Kirkman and Moore created an amazing tapestry in these first 6 issues. I was genuinely moved. Now to grouse a bit. Moore only drew the first 6 issues, contained in this volume. Other than the covers of the ensuing anthologies, that's all you get of Moore, which was a bit of a rude shock when I opened Volume Two - Charlie Adlard took the reins in Issue #7. Adlard has made the series his own, and done a great job of it, but I still miss the look and feel of those first 6 issues. That said, I think that the comic has transformed from a great idea into a worthy epic part of the Modern Zombie Canon (Simpon Pegg even pens the after-word of one of the later volumes). Now you'd better stop reading and click the "Buy" button. It's time that you met Rick.

I would recommend this book to anyone very thought-provoking I love the philosophy behind and and that what we should be situations I can't wait to see where it goes

The story is horrid but at the same time fascinating. As the foreword states, this is not about zombies but is a survival story of a man named Rick, a cop from Kentucky. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

I love it. Different from the show, but it's awesome. I reading in my second language. My fisrt is Portuguese. It's very easy to understand and I love to think how we can change in a world without rules

Having let the TV series pass me by for some time, I began watching it and was hooked. After a series of Walking Dead Marathons I had caught up with TV series and decided to fill the time until the next series with the books which started it all. I was familiar with some aspects of The Walking Dead as I had read interviews with Robert Kirkman in CLiNT Magazine (sadly no longer running) which didn’t give much away in terms of plot, but gave an idea of the overall scope and angle of the series. The fore-word in the book emphasises the fact that this isn’t just a horror comic about flesh-eating zombies, that’s merely the backdrop to the story about Rick. This is a character driven story which happens to be set in a zombie apocalypse, if society were to find itself ‘fixed’, if in time some semblance of normality would return – Rick’s story would still continue. I won’t use this review to compare the graphic novel with the TV Series as they are both excellent ways to enjoy the Walking Dead. The Walking Dead comics no doubt fed (and continues to feed) ideas into the TV series and it benefitted from being created after the Walking Dead world had been fleshed out (no pun intended). It’s clear early on though that if you came to the comics after watching the TV series, you are going to experience something which is very familiar, but also quite different – even if you remember the episodes well (and I do!), this offers a whole new level of shocks and surprise – no tension is lost and the books are edgier, able to show us the zombie filled landscape in a much darker way. It’s gloriously twisted and always grounded in reality. Reality here is captured by the realistic interactions between characters, the way they speak and react to each other. Very early on the characters feel multi-faceted and substantial, without this plausability the books would never have been as successful, it invests in great characters and it’s their journey you experience. Having such a feel for the folk on the pages heightens the sense of danger and makes every situation more intense. The story opens with an fairly prescriptive opening, a man wakes up in hospital – his comatose state perversely protecting him from the horrors happening on the streets, this John Wyndham-esque introduction has been copied many times – and post-apocalyptic, zombie filled streets are hardly original. There’s never been a Rick Grimes before though and despite a dangerously formulaic start, The Walking Dead establishes itself as one of the most original and standout pieces of literature for a long time. Kirkman largely ignores the zombies, the fantastic artwork by Tony Moore tells us their story (their clothes and condition hinting at the human life before the ‘turn’) instead we see the quarrels, laughs and concerns of a band of survivors whose future is far from certain. In a nutshell: Exploring the human condition by placing them in the midst of a nightmare. The genius of the Walking Dead is focussing on the those experiencing the nightmare, those who must deal with the monsters – rather than the monsters themselves. Constant gore and bloody dismembering can be visually stunning, but it can all get a bit ‘meh’ after a while – but seeing how people deal with that level of real fear, seeing how it shapes them is compelling. By the end of this volume the world and the lives of those in Rick’s group will never be the same, and there’s a long way to go yet!

Tout d'abord il faut avoir vu la Série TV "saison 1 de The Walking Dead" pour se mettre dans l'ambiance et mieux visualiser les décors et personnages de cette chouette petite BD. La BD ne rendra jamais les couleurs et la richesse des personages de la série TV. L'histoire est presque identique à celle de la série. Comme il n'y a que les fans de Zombies qui aiment ce style d'histoires, il n'est pas nécessaire d'épiloguer. L'auteur à mis en scène une apocalypse due à un virus qui contamine la population en quelques semaines et décrit la vie de quelques groupes isolés qui tentent de survivre. C'est traité sur le mode réel, sans vouloir être extrèmement gore, mais c'est ce côté réel qui effraie. La série TV est meilleure que la BD mais l'une complète l'autre. J'ai vu les 2 premières saisons et j'attends la N°3, en attendant je lis les BD qui ont été éditées . Pour fans ultimes seulement.

Ich gebe zu, ich bin erst durch die TV-Serie auf den Comic gekommen. Die Serie ist ja schon spitze, aber der Comic ist wirklich eine Klasse für sich. Toll gezeichnet, wahnsinns Szenerie und keine stumpfen Dialoge - man hat also richtig was davon. Für die Fans der TV-Serie: Es kommen hier zwar z.T. nicht die Charaktere aus der AMC-Serie vor, aber das gilt auch andersherum. Trotzdem absolut lesenswert und ergänzt nur den Spaß an der Serie! ;)