Robert Kirkman

This is a housekeeping volume, mopping up after the last major story arc while setting up elements for the next, but damn if it wasn't one of my favorite volumes in a while. For so long, we've just seen the characters reacting in the moment to awful, sudden and violent acts. It was refreshing to actually see the characters processing the consequences of recent developments and interacting with one another in conversations aren't shouted while under attack from zombies or other enemies. It show more helped me remember that I actually like some of these people. I wouldn't mind another volume of the same before the next Big Bad comes down the road. show less

"This changes everything can't you see that? We can finally stop surviving... and start living."
-Robert Kirkman in The Walking Dead: Compendium Vol. 2

The Walking Dead: Compendium Vol. 2 by Robert Kirkman combines issues 49 to 96 (volumes 9 to 16) showcasing the core group rebuild themselves after their loss in Vol. 1 and by doing so they stumble upon uncharted territory where they must adjust to a new way of living with people who survived using different means than they did.

The book does a show more great job raising many moral dilemmas and flaws in human thinking and the need for stability and normalcy. Even beyond the masterful storytelling many of the issues are thought provoking and the characters feel a lot more real compared to the first compendium. One of the very few times where I liked the second installment more than the first; The Walking Dead is one of those stories that seem to get better as time passes for them and the people and problems become more fleshed out. Compared to the first compendium I thought the way they wrote women was less infuriating and the actions of the characters carry more weight and make more sense. I love the way this is written and it completely immersed me in the story.

While I don't think it's fair to compare the show counterpart to the comics since the stories vary quite significantly I do think it creates insight in the only part of the compendium I thought was lacking- pacing. Everything happens very quickly to the point of it being comical. In one of the panels Rick, the main protagonist, even comments on how everything happened in a single day. There isn't time to breathe and when things aren't as exciting as usual they throw romantic drama and character relationships in the mix show less

Dale has never been my favorite character so I actually LOVE what happens to him in this novel. It's almost like, "You dumb fuck! You deserve it! This is great!"

I always got the impression that he felt he was better than everyone else and knew better than everyone else and look what happened to you, you dumb fuck!

Adrianne

Finally our long national nightmare is at an end. Finally no one has to read anymore Walking Dead comics.

I found this a volume of two halves. The first half was enlivened by the "Negan reforms" subplot, Negan being one of basically two characters I have ever given a shit about in this series.

But then Negan departs the series and it goes on to be more "Rick waffles about a thing." Rick's community discovers a massive society out in Ohio, but they are dystopian. I found a lot of this show more improbable. The first journey to the other society was very lengthy and protracted over weeks; by the end of the book, it felt like the characters were zipping back and forth in hours. (There's one bit where a group of characters comes to the rescue of another by coming a day later. Why would you decide one day after someone left to follow them in the case they needed help at the end of their weeks-long journey? And how come you couldn't get one group member to run a little faster and catch them up?) The new society has a rule that everyone automatically gets the same social status as they had before the zombie apocalypse... but like, why? And how would that be enforced? Why would everyone buy into it?

There's potential in finding a new group of survivors who did things differently than Rick and thus were more successful (usually they only find less successful groups), but as always Kirkman manages to strip the debate of all nuance by making the people with a different perspective slatheringly evil. And as always Rick seems like he's going to face a moral dilemma, but doesn't have to make an actual hard choice because events take it out of his hands.

The epilogue issue is dumb, too. Everyone venerates Rick, but I don't know why, because what useful thing did Rick ever actually do? In his final issue, Rick talks about how they can create a new society with potential to undue the mistakes of the old one... when we actually see the new society, it's just as shitty as ours. Well done, mate, you sure showed how good your values were.

Plus the revelation that the series's back cover blurb is an in-universe inscription on a statue of Rick is staggeringly stupid.

Anyway, I don't know why I staggered all the way to the end even though I never really liked this series except in short spurts, but it was always a quick read at least. You couldn't pay me to start watching the tv show, though. show less