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I did not start reading The Walking Dead comic from the beginning. Contrary to popular belief, I do not buy and read every comic book published. I do not even manage to obtain all the comics by the major companies each month. I struggle just to read what I do buy, which is arguably much too many comic books.Image Comics never impressed me all that much. I read early issues of things like Savage Dragon and WildC.A.T.s. I must confess to even buying Youngblood #1. (Hey, Rob Liefeld was in a fanzine APA club I was part of!) But I was not inspired enough to keep up with too many of the titles. Comics like Astro City, Godland, and The Darkness caught my attention. I liked many of those plus Wanted and anything by the Luna Brothers. But generally speaking, I steered clear of Image Comics.
Then one day on the Ultimate field, as often happens, I started talking comics with someone, in this case Darrough West (who has since moved to Chicago; miss you, brother!), and he recommended very highly a comic I had seen in the Previews solicitation catalogue but had resisted buying any issues, as I had to resist so many comics that looked interesting simply to keep the titles I bought each month under 50. (Not succeeding at this goal. I ordered 77 titles for May 2013. Damn Marvel Ultron event!)
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At Darrough's urging, I bought the first trade of The Walking Dead, and gave it a try. Within days, I was hitting the comic store for the other (at that time) seven trade paperbacks and buying other not yet collected individual issues to catch up.
By the time the TV series hit the cable airwaves, The Walking Dead comic would grace the top of my stack each week (meaning it was the first comic I read, usually the same day I bought it). The stories have continued to remain fresh, original, and engaging. I like that Kirkman is in it for the long haul. What does the world look like ten years after a zombie apocalypse? What about twenty years?
As for the TV series, I thought the first season was a little weak at the end (though I liked the first few episodes very much), but the second and third seasons have been excellent.
We have a dilemma in the Tower household tonight, March 31st, appropriately, Easter Sunday. The Walking Dead hosts its season three finale, HBO's Game of Thrones premieres its season three debut, and Liesel and I have discovered a new show, Top of the Lake, which also conflicts with the times of the other two.
For those only watching the TV show for The Walking Dead, you are missing out on some of the best comics published since the turn of the century and millenium. For those not even catching the TV show, if you like to think you are a discerning geek, then, for shame. (If you're not geeky, or cannot stomach flesh eating zombies, then never mind).
- chris tower
1303.31 14:56
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