For starters, I was not an original reader of the series. I’m not huge on comics typically, and because I like to read a lot, and in chunks, I normally just don’t connect with the shorter form. However, as a huge fan of the show, I decided to give them a go, and I went with the somewhat more palatable (for me) volumes as they were chunkier sets of multiple issues. I believe that when I started collecting the volumes, the compendiums may not have been a thing yet, which is why I stuck it out for all 32 volumes (plus the SE hardcover Here’s Negan!). If that’s not the case, then maybe it was just the collector in me wanted all the extra covers…
I finished the series in 2019, when the final volume released, so this might actually be my first time talking about these! I don’t think I ever talked about them on bookstagram or twitter even, as I started there in Oct. 2020. As I’ve done with my last few spotlights, I’ll include a synopsis below in case you are unfamiliar with the series (as unlikely as that sounds).
Synopsis
The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled: no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living.
–
The above is taken from Vol. 1, and is oddly not very revealing. I find it interesting, because it kind of highlights what Kirkman might have originally thought for the series. Yes the undead are rising and eating the living, but what would seriously happen to the humans? No grocery stores, no mail, and no cable TV, sound rather meaningless, but the human race is typically, categorically, abysmal at handling hard times and times of change. So, what exactly would happen if the world we’ve all grown accustomed to didn’t simply vanish, but went absolutely up in the most volatile of flames? Because truly, this series is first and foremost about humans and human nature. It’s the main plot point that has always intrigued me the most. I’m personally going through a rather surprising and large life change myself. Moving out of the house I’ve called home for over two years, looking for new work, not seeing my animals. It’s been hard, and sadly I’m still receiving the mail. No one has tried to eat me yet though. It’s a crazy what-if even if zombies aren’t real.
If you don’t know by now, Rick Grimes wakes up in the hospital, post outbreak. He was left for dead, but when he survives, he has to learn the new status quo all on his own. Eventually he reunites with his family, and his new normal becomes protecting them full-time. Keeping them safe, feeding them, having clean water and somewhere to sleep, that’s the kinds of things this comic series is actually about. I’d go even further and say that the comic itself is actually about Carl entirely. A lot of things happen, crazy things, but everything circles back to Carl. And you know what, I’ll say it here for everyone, Carl is pretty damn cool.
I’m not sure if Kirkman always knew what his series would be about, but it was really cool to get to read through it and see the ways in which it progressed. Humanity crumbles, but humans cling to life, remain resilient. So once the zombies become the new normal, what then? Community fights, resource guarding, and sometimes all-out war. This is all just a further dissection of humanity in my opinion. When resources are scarce and your family needs that gallon of water, are you going to share it? Give it up? Or kill to ensure you keep it? And of course let’s not pretend that over time some people wouldn’t just have gone absolutely bonkers.That’s like eat, sleep, repeat-ing PTSD for years, everyone would probably be a little trigger happy.
I believe at the time of finishing the series I was just a bit disappointed. I’m not entirely sure if it was because of the ending, or the fact that I recall Robert Kirkman on The Talking Dead saying he had years and years of plot line, that the comic would always outlive the show and have it’s own ending. So, in that sense, it felt a bit cheapened. I think after some time, I do like the ending it was given, I just wasn’t of the group that thought it had gotten stale. I would have read more.
It of course also features some great character work, action sequences, emotional beats, and fantastic art throughout. I remember one of my all-time favorite panels was one of Yumiko shooting, where the arrow was in action. I don’t have the volumes on me at the moment, otherwise I’d grab it to share. I really do feel like everyone introduced has a purpose to fulfill and adds something to the story. And you know what, the zombie action and horror is pretty great too. Guns, knives, spears, swords…anything you can imagine.
My average rating for the series overall is a 9.45/10. The only other read that has come close for me in terms of atmosphere and the dissection of human nature is Worse Than Dying by Brett Van Valkenburg…you can check out my review of his novella here.
As with all of my series spotlights (when applicable) I’m not moving on without talking extended universes/adaptations! The covers above are for The Walking Dead novels from Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga. The only one missing is Typhoon by Wesley Chu (which I have a nice numbered/signed edition from Skybound) which functions as number nine in the novels (Just Another Day at the Office is a digital novelette). I own all nine but have yet to get into them, I just wanted to include them because it feels like most fans of the series don’t seem to know about them. These are real, authorized novels! I feel like they should be bigger.
For me, TWD started with the show, as I’m sure it did for many others. I’ve always been a fan of zombie movies, so of course a pretty well managed and higher budget show would draw my attention. I do think that growing up to 16 episode seasons does set the show up for a lot of filler for no reason, which is why we started seeing characters that never existed in the show getting intros and then deaths–but, as a whole, I do think this show is pretty well done. Even though I started with the show before reading, I’ve always felt like the casting was spot on. Not to mention the acting is well done. Andrew Lincoln was a great pick for Rick, and Steven Yeun should be an absolute superstar.
Mild show spoilers in this paragraph! I originally watched all the way to season 10 ep. 1. Then I moved and no longer had cable. I am now watching through it again and almost done with season 10. I have to wonder if they knew about Lincoln’s departure when they did what they did to Chandler Riggs, or if it would have changed things. My stance is that they did my dude wrong (whatever the background stuff looked like). I also have to wonder if Lincoln would have taken his leave if he had known it would only run for another 2 years? We may never have the answers to that, but it seems like the spin-offs are working hard at bringing everyone back together in some way, although I don’t think we’ll get a continuation, just maybe a more satisfying ending? I am kind of sad to hear that the Rick and Michonne spinoff was changed from a trilogy of movies (apparently which were set to have theatrical releases) to just a three episode mini-series. But I’ve also heard talks about a season 12, too? AMC clearly isn’t ready to let it go…
I don’t know about anyone else, but the only thing that would have made it better for me would have been comic accuracy. As much as I do like Daryl, because I’m a Norman Reedus fan (Boondock Saint F-yeah), it would have been cool to see the adaptation track. I have heard whispers of a reboot that would be accurate, but who knows if that’s true, when, or even why.
UPDATE: I have officially finished the show, and although AMC is clearly afraid of having more than one episode be climactic, they certainly do know how to build and build. They did as well as could be expected without Rick Grimes, in my opinion, and the twists and turns of the Common Wealth was a good ‘close’. I have the show sitting at around an 8/10 still.
Fear was another one I was watching, probably up until season 4 or 5? Whichever one was current when season 10 aired I think, because again, I moved and lost access to cable. I think I’ll restart this one again soon and work by way through all of it.
Mild show spoilers in this paragraph! I thought the outbreak happening in a city and getting to see it happen firsthand was a fantastic idea. I loved the characters and the family dynamic they created, and watching society crumble was a good way to give the fans something that the original show never did. I also felt like it went into current affairs a bit with police brutality and shootings, and it was handled pretty well by tying it into the show, IE the dead were rising and no one knew what was going on. I loved them getting onto the boat, which is always a big idea when it comes to zombies I feel like, so it was cool they gave us it. I also feel like they did a good job with guest stars/villains giving us different takes and great performances…I mean really, Jesse McCartney was transformative.
For what I have seen of the show, I had it sitting at around a 7/10. That may change with a rewatch, but I recall feeling as if Morgan transferring over was to its detriment.
I haven’t moved on to the others yet, because I obviously need to finish the original still before I do, but I’m honestly still excited for these. I’m really not over it, I enjoy everything I’m seeing. Not pictured here is World Beyond, but I think I’ll be checking that one out too. It also seems like it offers a completely different feel than the OG show. With an apparent season 2 of Daryl Dixon and Dead City on the way, we very well could be seeing new TWD for years to come.
I have moved on now!
Mild show spoilers in this paragraph! I obviously knew the setting for this, having watched it after the entire thing aired, but this just seems like the kind of thing that only happened purely because Norman Reedus wanted the change of scenery. Now with that being said, after 11 seasons of mostly the same thing in the OG show (east coast with multiple seasons in the same areas), the change in setting was actually kind of a winning point for the series overall. However the show does suffer from the semi-flimsy reasoning behind how the hell this dude ended up in Paris (but there is a one off line in The Ones Who Live that kind of salvages this in terms of the wider universe). Just getting to see what’s going on in the greater world is super cool.
The season suffers from being too short, in a way that makes you care less for the characters, and also the plot has some of its own issues. The fact that the entire season is about leaving, just for there to be a set up for another season, is kind of a huge let down too, and if season 2 somehow sees Carol also make her way to Paris, I will absolutely lose my mind.
But its furthering of the evolution of zombies (natural or otherwise), as well as some well done acting on Reedus’ part, kept this as just another very watchable piece to the larger universe.
Is Laurent some kind of zombie-Jesus child hybrid?
Finished this one!
Mild show spoilers in this paragraph! Dead City struggles with the same exact thing the later seasons of TWD did. The showrunners/writers simply cannot make up their minds on how they want to handle Maggie and Negan’s storyline. And unfortunately, there are only so many times they can have Maggie forgive him and then try to kill him again. It’s awfully dry, and the show suffers for it. And I know it’s a pilot season, but they should have known with it being TWD that it would have at least done decently, so in my opinion, a cliffhanger ending was absolutely the wrong way to go.
The city was a really cool change of scenery, however it almost felt under utilized somehow. I know the Croat was supposedly doing experiments and clearing, but there still felt like too little zombies…on a zombie show. I mean the city’s population? It should have been wild. Definitely my least favorite spin-off, at a 6/10.
Finished this one too now!
Mild show spoilers in this paragraph! It is rather disappointing that this went from the announced trilogy of Rick Grimes theatrical release movies, then to a series, and then to a limited series with only 6 episodes. It’s of course pretty obvious that they aren’t done yet, and that the spin-off shows are building up to some kind of reunion (the show runners have even talked about it at length), but six episodes was heinously rushed in my opinion. The entire thing builds to the big reveal, and then we get the plan to stop it, the execution, the climax, and the resolution all in one episode. And it’s not even a long running episode! We used to get an hour and a half for practically nothing and this one just got bunched together and it pays for it. I get that it doesn’t need the 16 episodes of the OG show’s season length, but it does feel like they rushed it just to have things tie back together.
Still a 7.5 honestly, seeing Rick go all out again is very worth it. And the episodes that hit, hit in a really big way. The budget was used well.
Finished this!
Mild show spoilers in this paragraph! This one’s just what it says…6 different stories, 1 dead world. While I really enjoyed the story that featured more information on Alpha (leader of the Whisperers), a lot of the other episodes featured stories that started out really good but then ended rather weakly. Particularly the story featuring the scientist that is researching the dead and their migration habits. The concept is awesome, and then throughout the episode I felt it just kept going downhill.
There is, however, this kind of semi-odd mix to some of these episodes where they almost feature the supernatural. Especially the episode La Doña, where it’s like a haunted house story in the midst of zombies, as well as an almost Ground Hog Day storyline in Blair/Gina.
All in all, I’m not really mad at more TWD, but this is by no means a necessity…a 6/10.
Literally just finished this one!
Mild show spoilers in this paragraph! This aired and disappeared. It was as if even AMC didn’t like it or want it to be known. And before I started it, the IMDb rating of 4.5/10 kind of seemed to make sense, just by the lack of noise. Personally, I’ve never been more surprised by the turn out of something.
I think the main issue with the show’s reception is that AMC didn’t advertise it correctly. There is a much more teen-centric cast, no doubt boasting a coming-of-age story, but this is a very serious addition to TWD universe. It features a group of teens leaving the safety of a secure college campus that is connected to Omaha. They were just children when the world fell, and therefore they haven’t had to go through the same hardships, they’ve never had to struggle in the thick of it. But these teens don’t just leave in some ill-thought out desire to see the world, they leave to travel across the country to ensure that their father is safe. A father, a scientist, that was recruited by the CRM.
This goes heavily into the background of the CRM, what their plans are, and what they’re willing to do to achieve them. It includes the eradication of Omaha, and their plans to do the same with Portland…all things that are referenced in, and a big part of, The Ones Who Live.
While this story can be enjoyed on its own, as can TOWL, I believe this should have been advertised way more, and it should be considered required watching linking all the shows together.
The show had heart, hope, loss. I thought the casting was great, the characters were fantastic, and the performances were strong. I’d be sad if these characters never appear again. This one is sitting at an 8/10 for me. Complete opposite of its reception online, I really loved it.
I was never getting out of this without mentioning this! I loved The Walking Dead Telltale series so much, and Clementine is still one of my favorite characters in the universe. For those that don’t know, these are story based, decision making games. Very little action, but the choices you make can change some things, and there is still a hell of a lot of suspense. I played the first three, including the Michonne based add-on, I just need to finish the final season off that was completed by Kirkman’s Skybound Games when Telltale originally went belly up. For the ones I have played though, I’ve given the series a 8.4/10. They are even worth replaying!
This is a newer TWD release, and although it has been panned by critics and fans alike, I am still a bit intrigued by it. Definitely something I would only grab on sale, but I don’t know, I’m interested. It features the tv cast as the game characters, but apparently your choices can change the course of the game and change it from what happens in the show. The gameplay is alright looking, but apparently the controls can be clunky…but for cheap? I probably still will.
If you’ve never watched, played, or read, this may all seem like a bit much. But I’d really recommend giving at least some form of the property a go. There is a lot to be enjoyed here.
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