RIP XVI- I’m tiring of the zombies!

The Walking Dead – Vols 2, 3, 4

While I am still loving the TV series of TWD (I’m watching the final series 11 on Disney Star), I’ve now tired of reading the original comics. I bought myself the volumes 1-4, first published in 2004-5 and enjoyed the first one (see here). The TV series does follow the broad arc of the comics, but characters’ timelines changed and additional character were added for the TV, notably my favourite Darryl.

Vols 2-4 of the comics, see the group of survivors find a temporary haven on Herschel’s farm, where Glenn meets Maggie, but they are forced to move by the zombie horde and eventually find a nearly abandoned prison – which still has a few of the prisoners alive – which is bound to cause some problems. Lori is pregnant too, and Michonne, my other favourite character joins the group.

Those are the major plot points in Robert Kirkman’s story arc of these volumes. In between these events, is the ever present problem of dealing with zombies, and the gradual attrition of survivors, all drawn with appropriate sound effects and gore by Charlie Adlard who took over from Tony Moore as the inker (although Moore still did the covers). I much preferred Moore’s inking style in the first volume. In subsequent volumes, I found it harder and harder to distinguish between characters – given that all of them are usually pictured with looks of terror/anger/surprise. All the faces are harder. The shading isn’t as subtle either.

I’ve decided I’m not going to continue with the comics, even though I’d meet the first real baddie of the series in the Governor in volume 5.

I will leave you though with the three covers for vols 2, 3 and 4 lined up side by side which shows the zombie overlaps – which is neat.

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