T-shirt #325 - 10 years of The Walking Dead

T-shirt #325 - 10 years of The Walking Dead

Tonight the second part of season four of The Walking Dead premieres.

I have written about The Walking Dead many times on the blog as each month (and lately twice a month) it always tops my weekly comic book list. I have reviewed the comic a few times, such as in T-shirt #206. Also, recently, I thanked Darrough West for turning me on to this comic.

Yeah, yeah, I was NOT a fan of The Walking Dead from the start. I did not catch on until issue #43 and then I bought all the trades and read the entire thing. I can't buy every comic, and I cannot keep my finger on the pulse of what is hot, was hot, or may become hot according to some people.

Check out the cool write up at THE WALKING DEAD on COMIC VINE.

I am not calling this one a "hiatus" post. This is not what I consider a "hiatus" shirt. Actually, this is a brand new shirt, which just arrived at Fanfare as described back on Friday in my Weekly Comics List entry.

LATE POSTING

Once again, I posted an incomplete entry. It's now Monday, and I am back in time yet again finishing up another blog post. But this does give me the privilege of hindsight in a sense. I have already watched the premiere of the second half of season four of The Walking Dead. No review from me. I will leave that for better minds. But I enjoyed it.

I LIKE SURVIVAL STORIES

I like survival stories. As a young boy, Swiss Family Robinson was a particular favorite. It's no surprise, then, that my favorite Stephen King novel is the Stand. The greatest element that attracts me to The Walking Dead is that survival story element. I especially like apocalyptic survival stories, so much so that I am writing one. I was working on my survival novel the morning of September 11th, 2001. In my novel, planes fall out of the sky. I gave up working on that novel back then, which, is now over 12 years ago. I have been plugging away at the novel, which is meant for YA readers, ever since, but I have not yet finished it. The Walking Dead inspires me to work on it. What's the first priority during an apocalypse? What are the second through fifth priorities? Surely, the situation impacts the priorities. Safety from zombies is an issue in The Walking Dead but not in my novel.


But gathering supplies, safety, and coping with the aftermath of a devastating apocalypse fascinates me. I like thinking about what people would do, how they would behave. Who emerges as a leader in the new world? How does the aftermath of an apocalypse change people? I am still working on the answers to these questions. I find the way The Walking Dead is answering these questions to be riveting: a good story well told.

WHY IS THE WALKING DEAD ALWAYS ON TOP OF MY COMIC STACK EACH WEEK?

Mainly, it's an easy read. I know that reading the comic will not take very long at all. So, sometimes, a comic will fall in the stack based on the time it takes to read it. With The Walking Dead and its most recent issues, I am not fully entranced by the All Out War story line. I think it's inevitable, and it's interesting. But I do not agree with all the story choices. Mainly, the comic hits the top of my stack because it's an easy read. I like it very much, but I might not put it among my top five favorite current titles.

And, so, I am going to have to do more exploration of how I rank titles and what it means.

While I am on this subject, I moved up some titles in the most recent comics stack. I had integrated the stack from 1402.05 with some from the previous week, and I bumped up Uber, God Is Dead, and Codename: Action in my reading last night.

I am still intending to dole out some reviews. I have a huge stack of comics in my office waiting, begging, to be reviewed.

Ultimately, to wrap up this blog entry, as I have no more shirts for this TV show/comic book, I am on board for the long haul. I like that Kirkman is dedicated to The Walking Dead comic as a long term project, interested in what the post-apocalypse world looks like five years out, ten years out, and more.

The TV show deviates significantly from the comic book, but many plot elements sync. From a story telling point of view, I am very interested in how these stories align and the ways in which they do not.

Also, just as a quick final aside, the CASTING for the TV show is brilliant, and in some cases superior to the comic book versions (such as in the case of Herschel, Maggie, and the Governor). I am sure that I will continue to write about The Walking Dead in this blog and in the transition blog after my t-shirt year ends even without a shirt to focus my efforts. For now, enjoy some of what I feel are the best covers from the comic book series.

The Walking Dead COVER GALLERY

Favorite The Walking Dead covers. The only criteria is that I like them.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 40 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1402.09 - 19:38 (82 minutes until The Walking Dead part two season four premiere!!)
final publication - 1402.10 - 20:00