The Walking DeadVol 1: Days Gone Bye
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Tony Moore
2004
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The Walking DeadVol 2: Miles Behind Us
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2004
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The Walking DeadVol 3: Safety Behind Bars
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2005
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The Walking DeadVol 4: The Heart's Desire
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2005
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The Walking DeadVol 5: The Best Defense
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2006
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The Walking DeadVol 6: This Sorrowful Life
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2007
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The Walking DeadVol 7: The Calm Before
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2007
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The Walking DeadVol 8: Made To Suffer
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2008
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The Walking DeadVol 9: Here We Remain
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2009
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The Walking DeadVol 10: What We Become
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2009
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The Walking DeadVol 11: Fear The Hunters
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2010
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The Walking DeadVol 12: Life Among Them
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2010
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The Walking DeadVol 13: Too Far Gone
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2010
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The Walking DeadVol 14: No Way Out
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2011
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Vol 15: We Find Ourselves
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2012
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Vol 16: A Larger World
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2012
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Vol 17: Something To Fear
Written By Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
2012
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So what's it about?
Well - the obvious answer to that is: "zombies [1]" but let's try and write down an answer that's just a little bit more verbose:
(Rolls up sleeves)
This might be a strange thing to say (and maybe it's wrong) - but people never really talk about the actual process of reading [2]. By which I mean: If someone's talking about a book that they've read they always tend to speak about it as if all the reading happened in one big gulp. Like the book was a drink that they drank down in one go and now they're all ready to tell you what it was like. When the truth is - at least for me - and especially with comics - thing's are a lot more bit-y and piece-meal than that. In fact - to continue the culinary metaphor: it's less like a beverage and more like a giant piece of steak that you can only eat a bit at a time: nibble nibble nibble (stop - go and do something else) nibble nibble nibble (leave it and go outside) nibble nibble nibble (go to work come home eat) nibble nibble nibble (fall asleep): and repeat [3]. And that goes - double (hell: triple) for the biggies like - well - The Walking Dead. With around (according to amazon at least) 136 pages to each volume and going well into double figures (with no sign of slowing down): The Walking Dead is not a commitment that you can just make lightly: it's a - let's cut keys, buy a second toothbrush, I'll introduce you to all my friends and then maybe think about moving in together serious relationship type thing: in other words - it ain't messing around and if you're planning on reading the whole thing you might wanna set aside your weekend and take your phone off the hook [4].
So of course with such an epic epicness: the question that still stumps me a little (and not just for the Walking Dead but for every comic book series that still has new parts coming out) is: when a new volume comes out: how much (or how little) do you read?
To explain: imagine you've got a brand new Walking Dead volume in your hand [5] - do you:
a) Just read that volume and hope that you can remember everything else that happened up until that point (when tho it's been months since you last read any of them: so who knows what bits are still stuck inside your head (Walking Dead? Wait - that's the one about the zombies - right? ).
b) Read just the past few volumes leading up into it (so if you're up to volume 11 - then you just read like maybe volume 9 and 10)?
c) Or: do you get medieval [6] and go all the way back to the start and read them in sequence until you reach the right point? (That way you'll understand everything that's going on and you won't have to be worried that there wouldn't be anything happening that you don't get).
For me this has been an unanswerable worry / dilemma / riddle ever since I used to buy 2000ADs and had to deal with new installments to long-running series on a weekly basis. Stuck between the two poles of: not wanting to have to reread everything every time a new part comes out and being anxious about stuff happening that passes me by or fails to make a suitable impact because I've forgotten who exactly Carl was... [7] Of course - usually the best thing would be to opt for number b) and just hope that's enough to see you through but then sometimes: well - sometimes you just need to grab your sandals and your sack (or whatever the hell it was they used to wear in medieval times - I really don't know...) and go all the back - back to when things first began: volume 1: Days Gone Bye [8].
Previously my summation of The Walking Dead went something a little like this (in fact - if you'll excuse me - I'm just gonna do a cut and paste thing): "Told in stark black and white - The Walking Dead is the comic book that never ends. It's one long continuous ongoing story of people stuck in a nightmare world of zombies who ever so slowly start to lose all grips of their humanity. There aren't that many jokes. Just woe, misery and death. Lots and lots of death." and then "But then if up until now films have given us the most memorable portrayal of the (inevitable) zombie apocalypse the problem is that (unfortunately) films only last a few hours before they have to end so eventually you can get out and at least imagine (that is - if they're not all dead) that the characters had some sort of happy ending. And that's where Robert Kirkman and The Walking Dead saw a gap in the market and decided to tell the zombie epic that never ends."
Of course now I actually sit down and bother to read these books from the start I realise that Robert Kirkman [9] himself actually says all this in the introduction to the first book (oh boy is my face red): "I hope you guys are looking forward to a sprawling epic, because that's the idea with this one... For me the worst part of every zombie movie is the end. I always want to know what happens next. Even when all the characters die at the end… I just want it to keep going." Which all leads up to the promise that "The Walking Dead will be the zombie movie that never ends." [10] When I first realised that I had been inadvertently plagiarising my first reaction was embarrassment [11] but then the more I thought about it the more I started to think that maybe it means there's just not that much to say about The Walking Dead? Like - everyone who went to see Avatar basically came away saying yeah: it's really pretty and it's like Dances with Wolves in space (or Pocahontas in space or FernGully in space or whatever) and unless you wanna get into all the "brutal racist overtones" or what have you [12] that's pretty much all there is. And with The Walking Dead - well - yeah: it's like a zombie movie that never ends (or to put it another way - like I said below: it's a zombie soap opera): that's what it set out to do and - in some respects - that's pretty much all it is and how much you enjoy it will depend mostly on you respond to that idea.
For me? Well: if you're playing that game where you have to choose between zombies, vampires, werewolves, frankenstein [13] and whatever then I will always always opt for zombies. Because - speaking totally frankly: I frigging love zombies (like: a lot). There's just something about them triggers some sort of primal pressure point inside my brain and makes this big smile just burst across my face at the merest small mention of them. I guess if you wanted me to and rationalise it and I could say something like: What other monster ticks the boxes of so many fears? Fear of Death; Fear of Disease; Fear of Madness; Fear of Betrayal; Fear of Isolation; Fear of Crowds and (oh yeah) Fear of Zombies and all that: but - hell - the same way that some men just love cars or love football or whatever: I just love zombies.
Of course up until recently loving zombies just meant loving zombie films and in that it feels like I've managed to do better than most: I've seen the first four George Romero Living Dead films, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, Cemetery Man, Braindead, Planet Terror, Rabid, Slither, Zombi 2, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake, Pontypool, Rec 1 and 2, La Horde, Dead Set, and even - for my sins (and this is how much I love zombies) - a few Resident Evil films here and there [14].
Although - having said I that I guess I should shamefully admit now that it took me a long time to actually bothering to getting around to reading them. In fact - all the way back before I started up at Islington one of my friends had the first three or four books and recommended them to me (knowing my weakness for both zombies and comic books) I remember picking them up and flicking through them and being put off by the plain-looking artwork and the fact that it seemed to be more about lots of people standing around talking rather than any hot zombie action so I was all: erm - yeah - thanks but no thanks.
Looking back I can definitely see when that past self of me was coming from. I mean - if the Walking Dead was nothing but the first three books then I don't think that it have anything like the sort of widespread popularity it has now [15]: Vol 1 - Vol 3 is all just a little bit zombies-by-numbers and there's hardly anything there that an avid zombie-head (is that the right terminology?) hasn't seen before many times elsewhere (and yeah I think my thought was that The Walking Dead was just something for people that hadn't seen enough zombie films and so didn't realise that it was stuff that had been done better elsewhere - like 28 Days Later only in comic form - you know?): in fact - the best way I can think to describe it - is that it's almost like a made-for-tv zombie movie - there's not much of a budget and everything that happens is pretty damn predictable (oh no! zombies!).
But then (but then!) - I dunno around the end of of Vol 3 and the start of Vol 4 everything just sorta starts to pick up and things start to come together and it's stops feeling like a cosy catastrophe [16] where everything is basically hunky dory until the zombies turn up (and the zombies don't really show up that often - they're more like something that you actively have to go towards) and more like edge-of-the-seat-drama where (yeah I'm gonna say it) turns out - the most dangerous animal is man [17]. By which I mean: all the relationships that up until that point where all pretty dull start to develop interesting and tempestuous cracks and then well - further along the road - it builds up into something a little more serious than just people sitting around campfires and swapping stories and going on little shopping trips and then - wham! - around Vol 5 / Vol 6 it's gets way hardcore and basically evolves into this whole new beast that's nimble and cruel and way smarter than what it started out as (in fact - I managed to get two of my friends to read The Walking Dead but did so with the proviso that they had to stick with until Vol 6: which yeah - does seem like a long time - but hey: instant gratification is overrated anyway and it's the main reason why so much stuff will be really good at the start and then fall away halfway through rather than starting off slow and then slowly building as it goes along (like say: all modern action films everywhere [18]) and hey - trust me on this: it's worth it).
But: oops - circling back onto the "zombie soap opera" idea: I mean in some senses - yeah - that's a good thing - but there's also quite a few sense in which it's kinda problem (at least for me) because - argh - every character kinda speaks in ridiculous soap opera style dialogue so that you always know exactly what everyone is thinking and feeling [19] (Kirkman needs to learn when to let the artwork speak for itself) and mostly they tend to deliver useful expositiony type stuff (there's lots of: "and the reason we're doing this is because blah") and say the sort of things that characters need to say in order to make an emotional connection with the audience rather than - you know - acting like real human beings (erm yeah see: [19] again). Plus every every issue always ends with a big epic cliffhanger (even if you're reading them in volume form like me - you can still spot the cliffhangers by the way that they're almost always a full panel page with someone making a duh-duh-duh style pronouncement like: "We're gonna have to: kill the dog.") which I guess isn't the worst thing in the world (and it does mean that it's pretty addictive once you get started) but it does make things feel a little - I dunno - it's not classic literature: it's more cheap TV (although speaking as a confirmed Lost fan - it's not really like there's anything wrong with that).
If I had to guess why it's just so popular - well: I guess the non-stop cliffhangers certainly help (I mean - once you start reading them and you get to Vol 6 I mean - seriously - I just don't think it would be possible to put them to one side and go - "yeah. I'm bored now." - it's addictive like very few other comic book series out there (the only other series that really springs to mind is Locke and Key (have you read Locke and Key yet? Oh my god - you should go read Locke and Key like - now). But if you wanna do deeper than just "yeah cliffhangers" then I guess - well - the thing that struck me on my latest read through was just how systematic it all is. I mean - maybe there's people out there who could nitpick the hell out of it (mostly I'm not really a nitpicking kinda guy - you know: in terms of plot-holes or stuff like that) but it seemed like every small step of the way there's always someone piping up to explain exactly how stuff works or someone interjecting to clear up some small point or the other ("What about this thing?" "Oh - that works like this.") and it's all methodical and carefully planned out - at times - it's less like a story and more like a set of instructions (actual quote: "Okay. Dale, you take the girls and walk around the perimeter of this place. Make sure the are in-between these fences is clear... Allen - you get up on the RV and keep on the eye on the area outside the fence... Chris and Julie - you two are our babysitters. Take Carl, Sophia and the twins into the RV... Allen will be up top if you need anything."). Speaking as someone who can be pretty obsessive compulsive at points and who likes nothing better than lining up the labels on this blog and making sure all the books in the library are neatly shelved (so you know that I don't mean this in a back way): The Walking Dead is a series that appeals to the autism inside us all: no matter that the dead are walking the earth - everything else in very neat and tidy and in it's right place - and of all the comics I've read - this is one of the most clear. No problems here trying to work out what's going on or who's talking to who [20].
(Oh yeah - and before I forget: anyone else spot the Groundhog Day reference? Channel 9? Annoying weatherman? No? Just me then?)
But yeah: Charlie Adland has a real nice eye for composition and draws a mean zombie and it's really good at establishing that mood of all pervasive hopelessness...
One of the thing that I kept thinking around about the point of Vol 13 - 15: is that one of the things that The Walking Dead most reassembles is post-rock - thinking particularly I guess of Godspeed You Black Emperor [21] in terms of the way that the story kind of rises and falls: there will be quiet bits of characters just talking to each other and bumbling around - with a few minor keys here and there (people acting suspiciously or someone saying something that seems a little bit suspect): the sense of dread will build - slowly, slowly, slowly and then - blam! - the guitars get loud, the drums start pounding and: ZOMBIE ATTACK!
Of course some of you out might think of that as a bad thing - and you could (if you wanted to) level some of the typical post-rock moans against the Walking Dead: it all sounds the same, it's just repetitive (quietquietquietLOUDquiet) and everything: because (yeah) one of the things that I heard sometimes from the (very few) people who don't like the series is: it's all the same - and what can you really do with a long-running story about zombies anyway? I mean - all they do is bite you and then you turn into a zombie and then that's pretty much it - right? The scope for anything else seems a little - well - limited at best.
Well. Yeah. But also no. The very last thing I'd want to do is ruin if for anyone - but because it's always growing and shedding new skin (read that as: killing off loads and loads of it's characters) there's a point just after the volumes start getting into double-figures that it starts to use it's baggage - it's history - to shift the ground a little underneath you (yeah - so it's hard to explain it without going into specifics - but what the hell): because there is a certain point where it looks like it's just spinning wheels and that all it has to offer is a never ending sequence of rises and falls (find a place - now we're safe - oh no! zombies! - rinse - repeat - etc etc etc) and then - well: just when you think it's boxed itself in - it starts to grow in a whole new direction [22]
....................................................................................................................................
[1] In fact - even better than that would be: "zombie soap opera." (Eastzombies! Zombie Street! Home and a Zombie! (Ok - I'll stop now)).
[2] My literary flatmate responded to this suggestion by saying it was rubbish and that I should read some Milan Kundera. (Taken from this Paris Review interview: "In order to make the novel into a polyhistorical illumination of existence, you need to master the technique of ellipsis, the art of condensation. Otherwise, you fall into the trap of endless length. Musil’s The Man Without Qualities is one of the two or three novels that I love most. But don’t ask me to admire its gigantic unfinished expanse! Imagine a castle so huge that the eye cannot take it all in at a glance. Imagine a string quartet that lasts nine hours. There are anthropological limits—human proportions—that should not be breached, such as the limits of memory. When you have finished reading, you should still be able to remember the beginning. If not, the novel loses its shape, its “architectonic clarity” becomes murky.")
[3] In fact - that's also pretty much how this post was written. I mean I know that you for reading this right now this all seems seamless like it's all one big thing that spilled from my mind all in one big go - but in actuality - it's all just little bits of thoughts and random splurges all stitched together bit-by-but-by-but over a really long period of time. So yeah: what you read is not what you get (or something).
[4] Do people still hang their phone on hooks? Whatever then: take the battery out of your mobile and unplug your wifi.
[5] "You're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down... "
"What one?"
"What?"
"What desert?"
"It doesn't make any difference what desert, it's completely hypothetical."
"But, how come I'd be there?"
"Maybe you're fed up. Maybe you want to be by yourself. Who knows? You look down and see a brand new volume of the Walking Dead, Leon. It's crawling toward you... "
"Volume? What's that?"
"You know what a book is?"
"Of course!"
"Same thing."
"I've never seen a book... But I understand what you mean."
"You reach down and you flip the brand new Walking Dead over on its back, Leon."
"Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden? Or do they write 'em down for you?"
"The brand new Walking Dead lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping."
"What do you mean, I'm not helping?"
"I mean: you're not helping! Why is that, Leon?"
[6] Or - if you're living in Futurama - the 24th Century.
[7] I sure it will surprise none of you to learn that in the month before the final series of Lost came out - me and my literary flatmate went back and watched all five of the previous seasons basically I guess for these very reasons. (And - ok - yeah - you might think that we sound like über-nerds - but whatever: that was a good month).
[8] I don't wanna cause no trouble - but is it just me - but are some of the titles for the Walking Dead books just - well - super silly? Yeah - I get that they're all three words long and I really do admire that sort of dogged consistency (and top marks for the black and white zombies at the bottom of each cover that all join up from volume to volume (just put two of the books next to each other and you'll see what I mean): that's exactly the sort of small touch that always gladdens my heart (plus: you know - it makes them look really good when I put them all on the same display shelf in the library). But yeah; just going by the titles: Days Gone Bye? Minus points for inappropriate pun-age. This Sorrowful Life? Minus points for over-wrought melodrama. The Calm Before? Well: that gets minus points for sounding like the title to an episode of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (Hell Hath Fury anyone? I mean I'm sure it's only a matter of time before that shows up as a Walking Dead title...).
[9] And - is this another one of those things were it's just me - but doesn't Robert Kirkman remind you of the zombie twins from Shaun of the Dead? (No? Just me? Ok then...)
[10] He also says some other stuff too: "Good zombie movies show us how messed up we are, they make us question our station in society… and our society’s station in the world. They show us gore and violence and all that cool stuff too… but there’s always an undercurrent of social commentary and thoughtfulness." ("Thoughtfulness"? Wow: thanks for that Robert. I mean - I realise that you're writing the introduction to a zombie comic book and not a Phd or something like that - but still - you're not really impressing me with any kind of depth here...)
[11] Although maybe this takes me one step closer to writing for The New Yorker?
[12] Slavoj Žižek (who makes a living doing exactly this kind of analysis): "Avatar's fidelity to the old formula of creating a couple, its full trust in fantasy, and its story of a white man marrying the aboriginal princess and becoming king, make it ideologically a rather conservative, old-fashioned film. Its technical brilliance serves to cover up this basic conservatism. It is easy to discover, beneath the politically correct themes (an honest white guy siding with ecologically sound aborigines against the "military-industrial complex" of the imperialist invaders), an array of brutal racist motifs: a paraplegic outcast from earth is good enough to get the hand of abeautiful local princess, and to help the natives win the decisive battle. The film teaches us that the only choice the aborigines have is to be saved by the human beings or to be destroyed by them. In other words, they can choose either to be the victim of imperialist reality, or to play their allotted role in the white man's fantasy." (And - obviously - there are hundreds of other essays just like this floating around the internet (and because I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff I must have read about 99% of them): but to me they're all interpretations based on features that I feel like James Cameron probably didn't pay that much attention to (I mean - no offense to Avatar but it's a film where it feels like the script took about - what? - 10 minutes to write) when it seems like he was more into - well: "calibrating the movie heroine's hotness." (Also: seeing how we're (for some reason) talking about Avatar I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't put in a cheeky link to the Laser Cats 5 Movie).
[13] Sorry: Frankenstein's monster.
[14] You wanna know what I thought of them? Really? Well Ok then (if you really insist) - going through them all one by one (you know just to establish that my zombie credentials are bona fide):
Night of the Living Dead: First time I watched it I got scared that it was going to be rubbish - one of those films that's only famous due to being at the right place at the right time or something: but hell - even if it wasn't the origin of the modern zombie: it's still a great film that can still unnerve the bejebus out of anyone who dares to watch it
Dawn of the Dead: I first saw this on VHS: I think someone taped it off the television and it felt like it was five hours long so it must have been one of the special cuts of something (or maybe time just seems different when you're a kid). Reckon all the "deep messages" have been blown a little bit out of proportion (oh look! Shopping malls make people into zombies): but it's still a great movie with a unique creepy atmosphere all of it's very own: even Damon Albarn sampling it on that Gorillaz song can't ruin it.
Day of the Dead: worth it just for the opening scene alone.
Land of the Dead: Yeah: I pretty much gave up after Land of the Dead: saw it with a special double-screening thing with Shaun of the Dead at Somerset house and was so disappointed that I haven't even been able to make myself wanna watch it again - I mean - yeah - I did try and watch the first 15 or 20 minutes of Diary of the Dead but I just ended up skipping to the end it was so bad.
28 Days Later: Well - I loved the first 15 minutes - I remember sitting in the cinema and going: oh my holy god: is that Godspeed You Black Emperor? (but everything after the church is a little bit of a disappointment if you ask me: and the end is a predictable boring mess): but then I kinda wrote about this all in much more mind-numbing length here.
28 Weeks Later: Well I'd say deserves a lot more love: me: for all it's faults I love much more than the first film. That whole fire-bombing Canary Wharf bit? Hell yeah.
Zombieland: (spoiler alert - if you haven't seen it you may wish to turn away now): Hell. It has Bill Murray, Woody Harrelson and that Mark Zuckerberg kid in it. What's not to love?
Shaun of the Dead: Of which I'd say - if you just ignore the fact it's a comedy - might just be the best zombie film ever made.
Cemetery Man: Also known as: Dellamorte Dellamore and - oh yeah: it's amazing and you have to see it if you ever get the chance. It's got Rupert Everett and a really despicable sense of humour - plus - yeah - zombies.
Braindead: Kinda cool. But none of the details have really stuck in my mind apart from that bit with the lawn-mower (which was shamelessly one-uped by the helicopter attacks in Planet Terror and 28 Weeks Later).
Planet Terror: Loved it. "I'm gonna eat your brains and gain your knowledge."
Rabid: Yeah. Pretty cool even if it is a little low budget at times (but that just kind of adds to the charm).
Slither: Great fun for a confirmed horror film geek like myself (so many references!): and lots of images that burned themselves into my brain in a really unpleasant way (the first time I saw it I thought it was so amazing that I made my friends all rewatch it with me a week later: but it's fair to say no one else remotely loved it as much as I did)
Zombi 2: zombie versus shark!: (although entertaining youtube clips do not a good film make).
Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake: First 15 minutes and last 10 minutes = pure awesomeness. The rest: meh. Not so much.
Pontypool: An obscure little low-budget movie based around a really good idea that sadly fluffs it's execution towards the end and kinda ends up feeling like a play: which is never good ("I've seen plays better than this. Honest to God: plays!")
Rec 1 and Rec 2: (technically they should have some [square brackets] around them - but whatever). My advice: see Rec 1: it's fantastic - expertly structured (most zombie films tend to be front-loaded - but Rec is smart enough to hold itself back and not go for all the cheap thrills straight away) and : man - those last 15 minutes. The first time I saw it I think I forgot to breathe. So definitely the scariest zombie film out there. But - well yeah: don't bother with Rec 2 - no matter how tempting it may seem. I actually went to the cinema when it came out and it was like being kicked in the balls (not good).
La Horde: A French zombie film? Oh my god: yes please. Except: it's nowhere near as good as it sounds and - towards the end just kinda boring.
Dead Set: not actually a film but a television series (but what the hell): nowhere as near as good as a zombie attack on the Big Brother household as written by Charlie Brooker should have been (altho he did make Black Mirror afterwards which pretty much made up for it).
The Resident Evil films: I honestly don't know if I could say which ones... And coming from me: that's pretty damning. I think maybe it was the first one. And one in the desert. But yeah - forgettable.
[15] Judging from the almost non-stop reservations and the things people have said to me - The Walking Dead is - by far the most popular comic series in Islington. And that's even before the TV show appeared (but let's not talk about that). And - surprisingly to me (I hope this doesn't make me come across as sexist) - it's also the comic book with the biggest female fan-base too (if anyone wants to explain the reasons for that then I'd love to know... I would have though all the gore and horrible deaths would have made it more like a guy thing: but whatever I know I shouldn't gender stereotype - mainly because if my girlfriend catches me doing it - she'll kick my ass).
[16] That's a proper genre description by the way (from the Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction wikipedia page): "The "cosy catastrophe" is a name given to a style of post-apocalyptic science fiction that was particularly prevalent after World War II among British science fiction writers. A "cosy catastrophe" is typically one in which civilization (as we know it) comes to an end and everyone is killed except for the main characters, who survive relatively unscathed and are then freed from the prior constraints of civilization. The term was coined by Brian Aldiss in Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1973). Aldiss was directing his remarks at English author John Wyndham, especially his novel The Day of the Triffids, whose protagonists were able to enjoy a relatively comfortable existence with little associated hardship or danger despite the fall of society."
[17] From The Onion: Maverick Hunter's 'Human Beings As Prey' Plan Not As Challenging As Expected - "Bored with netting such elusive and dangerous prey as Bengal tigers, white rhinos, and Cape buffalo, the 51-year-old adventurer said he had thought it would be "capital sport" to hunt humans on his uncharted, densely forested private island. "My huntsman's heart thrilled at the prospect of bringing down a live human, who alone in the animal kingdom has the capacity to outwit and even best his enemies through sheer intellect," von Urwitz said. "What I neglected to consider is that man is also alone in the capacity to tumble straight into quicksand while fleeing from a swarm of yellow jackets after trying to steal honey from their nest."
[18] I think by now I have lost count of the number of times I've been sat in a cinema watching something and at some point around the midway point thinking to myself "this is the best I've ever seen ever" and then becoming more and more dejected as it slouches towards to the end (examples off the top of my head include: The War of the Worlds remake, Inception, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Dark Knight).
[19] A notable example that occurs pretty early on is when Rick decides to share the happiest day of his life with his horse - I mean - really: who does that? (Although that's sadly just the start of a long Walking Dead tradition of people having ill-avised monologues and speaking to people without turning around - until they turn around - and (oops!) - it turns out that the last person that you wanted to hear you was the person standing behind you (don't you just hate it when that happens?).
[20] Ok - maybe that one's not totally true. There are lots and lots of different characters floating around at points - and (especially if you've left big gaps in-between reading the volumes) sometimes you might forget who exactly everyone else - but then that ends up feeling more like a problem with you rather than a problem with the comic.
[21] Yep - sorry: them again (those damn Canadian post-rock bands get everywhere).
[22] I mean: don't get your hopes up too much - it's no Kate We Have To Go Back (those who know what I'm talking about will know what I'm talking about): but then - what is? What could ever possibly be that good ever again?
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Links: IGN Interview with Robert Kirkman, Den of Geek Charlie Adlard Interview, The M0vie Blog Review of Vol 1 / Vol 2, Read/RANT Review of Vol 1 / Vol 2 / Vol 3 / Vol 4 / Vol 5 / Vol 6, AV Club Back Issues Article: Read The Walking Dead along with The A.V. Club: Issues #1-6 / #7-12 / #13-18 / #19-24.
Further reading: Crossed, Y: The Last Man, Marvel Zombies, Sweet Tooth, Blackgas, Chew, FreakAngels, Zomnibus, Wasteland, Locke and Key, DMZ, Scalped, Ex Machina.
All comments welcome.
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