I have to admit, my first impression upon opening the second volume of the Walking Dead series was "what happened to the drawings?" They're different. Moore no longer contributed his careful and beautiful drawings to these bloodthirsty, ravenous ghouls.

But as I read the story, I realized that it wasn't entirely about the art. It was mostly about the writing. Adlard and Rathburn contributed drawings that, while nowhere near as detailed and amazing as Moore are otherwise good for conveying the story to the reader.

In volume two, the survivors, post battle in which some of their number die, decide to press on. They look for other survivors as well as a place to survive. They encounter a former football player, his daughter, and her boyfriend. These folk are added to the group, though distrust lingers in the air.

The find themselves at a nice, gated community. The ground is covered in snow, and it couldn't look more inviting. It's getting late, so they decide to spend the night in a few of the houses, and then in the morning, they'll clean them out of any lingering undead, and divide them up, living in an extremely safe community behind a sturdy gate.

The sun comes out the following morning, melting the snow, revealing a sign that would have told them immediately that this was a bad idea.

They escape, suffering more casualties, and make their way further until they get to a farm. There, the farmer (a veterinarian) and his children live in relative peace. Though when asked why they can't use the barn as sleeping quarters, the survivors find out that not everything is as bucolic as it would seem.

Kirkman knows how to write a story that you just never want to end. He adds new, three-dimensional characters every once in a while so the number of survivors doesn't always approach zero as time approaches infinity. There are currently nine volumes of this series available in bound editions, and from what I've read, I think that all nine will be worth the time and money spend acquiring and reading them.

The Walking Dead series will appeal to you if you're a fan of the classic zombie (that is, a zombie that is incapable of moving faster than a shamble). It goes along well with books by authors like Max Brooks, and films by directors like George A. Romero. ( )

Amazingly written, but traumatizing. ( )

I found the art really fell-off in quality in this volume vs. the first volume. ( )

While I do agree with a past reviewer, the art seems.... I don't want to say not as good but all the character's look different, a little more angry and less human kind of...and I mean the people in it not the Zombies, though there were allot less of them which is ok because there are plenty and this story involves Zombies but isn't quite as much about them.

I really have been loving this series and outside of that the second book in the series is equally as great as the first. This story explores really different issues of survival than the last one, mainly involving sex, morality and helping hospitality grief and starvation in this fucked up world, while the last issue touched on those it's main themes were rather different.
But these weren't even all the things dealt with, this book has allot to it.

I also like the fast pace the characters have, there is always a changeover of characters. Some we have gotten to know are killed rather quickly and only live on as memories of the characters, some are dramatically changed, while some are hardly mentioned put on the back burner but appear in the back of the panels perhaps they will surprise you. Not to mention some characters we hardly know die before we even get a chance to, while a few such as the main character his wife and his kid stay with us, although they all get changed. Nobody really has much of a chance to ever stay the same it seems and may really shift as people twice or more in one book, which is really good in this series because it's about having to adapt, your life being seriously changed and having to adapt. One of the main issues this book involved is sex and intimacy with danger all around and the threat of starvation, my only real concern was I was hoping someone looted a supply of condoms (which was not mentioned anywhere) because while Ricks wife is already pregnant and many of the concerns for that pregnancy are brought up, I can only worry about the other female characters getting into a similar situation, because it's hard enough to know if even they will survive let alone going through pregnancy and their newborn children. Thats not a criticism as much as a concern. It's a hard call to say weather it's "not believable" of some characters to not have safe sex even if it's even more logical than before"

This book kept my attention all the way through and I emjoyed every panel of it, wanting to go back and read it again (like the first volume) studying the pictures and art (while I said I'm not sure I like the art as much, but it uses allot more blocky shadow effects like Mike Mignola, so overall I can't say the art is any worse it just seems like there is a style shift going on. (Like I said my only complaint is the characters look pretty different and seem less human looking, a little more exaggerated I'd think). I wish I still had the first walking dead volume so I could compare. I have high expectations for Volume #3 ( )