The Walking Dead, Volume 02: Miles Behind Us

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 show more 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. show less

So the pacing here was much better than Volume 1, but I still had some issues with this which are encapsulated perfectly by Sparrow's delightful review. But to not be lazy and respond in my own words:

I love how this zombie story focuses more on the human story than actually fighting off zombies. In a time like this, life becomes more urgent, more present than ever before, so I think it's a beautiful approach to the genre. And from my--albeit limited--exposure to zombie stories, it's not the usual approach. It's also smart for the comic book format since the zombie fight scenes are not well-realized in this medium (as opposed to on the screen, when zombie fight scenes are pretty cool to watch).

But that said, some of the human drama just show more goes too far. I don't want to put in any spoilers, but the petty drama goes a bit too far in places. Granted, in this kind of a situation, there's bound to be plenty of in-fighting and pettiness like this, but it goes overboard sometimes and makes a lot of the characters very unlikeable.

I think it would have been nice had a woman writer been consulted on the character development. Like Simon Pegg's astute afterword to this volume points out, the great thing about zombie stories is that a zombie can actually overpowered by any regular person--fairly easily, in fact, if you have even the simplest of weapons. But the female characters mostly don't do anything. They get attacked, they get saved (or not) by the menfolk, they have sex with the menfolk, and they have pretty terrible dialogue. Don't get me wrong: The Walking Dead is a lot better in their treatment of female characters than most horror stories written by men, but it could be a lot better. Hopefully it becomes better with time.

On an unrelated note, it had been a few months between my reading the first volume and getting to this one, so I had a hard time getting back into the who's who of it all. There's a pretty large cast to keep straight, and it's ever growing, so I wish there were more visual distinctions between the different characters. Black and white makes it more challenging, I suspect.

One more gripe: since this volume is a collection of six individual issues, I wish there were breaks within this volume to indicate where one issue ends and the other begins. I just think it would make for easier reading, and it would give me the time to sit back and process what each issue is about--in that big picture sense of the word.

Anyway, that's a lot of criticism for such a short read, but it is a good read, and I look forward to reading more. I just have high expectations, and I hope the Walking Dead rises to meet them. show less

The camp is on the move, and our gang of survivors have transition from waiting to be rescued to finding a way to survive in this new world. The characters are changed by the hardships. All of them are dealing with loss, and react in many, unique ways. The tensions are rising as they face hunger, cold, fatigue, the stink of being shut in together in a small RV, the loss of key group members, an accident. We meet a father whose loss of a child raises questions about whether killing the undead is right, that we don't know anything about this plague and have not done anything about how to save them.

The story is not all bleak. People bond and geniunely care for each other. People who have lost loved ones fall in love. Judgments from show more previous life are falling away. A pregnancy brings up the question of the future. These glimpses make the story really strong - showing human resiliance in the midst of the unthinkable.

The writing is superb, the art is very strong, expressive. My only complaint is that the artist cannot draw children. But that's really a ridiculous hangup in this superb drama. show less

I probably wouldn't have bought this book if I hadn't already been watching, and really, really enjoying, "The Walking Dead" television series. Zombies are not as a general rule my cup of tea, but I do enjoy a good story.

And these graphic novels are very good stories, good stories that go well beyond the normal splatter-fest of modern day horror stories, and have great character development and storylines.

If you are trying to equate the original stories with the television series, this graphic novel, which collects together issues 7-12, concludes about where series 3 commenced, with them finding the prison. What is interesting is how the two storylines have major differences, who lives and who dies for instance, but the overall thrust show more and themes are equally engrossing. show less

All of these terrible things happen, but here and there you still see glimpses of hope; people falling in love and trying to help each other. Of course it also goes the other way; people saying things that would normally never cross their lips and there seems to be some serious plotting going on. This series is totally interesting and what keeps it going is the characters. The plot will pretty much stay the same because their focus is going to be on surviving and finding a place to build a new home for themselves. Can't wait to find out what's next.

So, Carol is with Tyrese, Dale and Andrea are hooking up, Hershel loses his shit, Glenn leaves the group for Maggie after like a week, Carl kills Shane and Otis lives.

Wait, what?! Haha.

I must say, I expected none of this going off the show. Really enjoying it, though!

Recensione sul blog: http://thereadingpal.blogspot.it/2018/05/recensione-181-il-lungo-cammino.html

Ritorno nel mondo di The Walking Dead con il secondo volume. Dopo la morte di Shane, il gruppo decide di seguire Rick e di cominciare a muoversi per trovare un luogo più sicuro. Durante il viaggio incontrano anche altri gruppi, come quello di Tyreese e quello di Hershel.
Anche qui ci sono personaggi che ricordavo dalla serie tv, ma con PARECCHIE differenze che mi rendono piuttosto felice. La storia, alla fin fine, sarà diversa. E forse non l'abbandonerò così presto.
Partiamo dalle cose che mi sono piaciute di più.
Grazie all'espediente degli zombie e a ciò che accade intorno ai personaggi, Kirkman ci fa esplorare varie sfaccettature show more dell'animo umano. Amore, pazzia, odio. Proprio come con Shane, non ci si può più fidare di nessuno. I legami sono messi a duro rischio, e non solo perché chiunque potrebbe morire in qualsiasi momento. Tutti i sentimenti diventano più forti: così le discordie, ma anche l'amore.
È interessante per me vedere come diverse persone potrebbero reagire ad una situazione simile, e come in effetti tutti i personaggi reagiscono in modo diverso, che i impazzendo, chi rinchiudendosi nel proprio dolore, chi invece cerca di andare avanti e sopravvivere.
La relazione tra Rick e Lori è davvero forte e quasi rinfrescante, in quanto si vede che i loro sono sentimenti veri. Non penso che siano molte le coppie che resisterebbero a quello che succede a loro due. Ma ci sono anche altri legami, improbabili in situazioni normali, che si creano tra gli altri personaggi. Alcuni di questi mi hanno fatto un po' storcere il naso, a dire il vero, anche per via di alcune scene che non sono di mio gusto in generale.
Una cosa che non mi aspettavo era la coppia Tyreese/Carol, che invece ho gradito molto. Li shippo in modo assurdo!
Al contrario, proprio come nella serie tv, Glenn/Maggie non mi ha lasciato nulla. Anzi, qui sembra molto più affrettato e senza un vero senso. Cioè, si mettono insieme perché non è rimasto nessun altro. Wow. Gli etero non smetteranno mai di sorprendermi, davvero.
Per quanto riguarda i personaggi, comunque, non mi sono ancora legata a nessuno in particolare. E invece mi rendo conto che molti non li sopporto. Come Hershel e le sue illusioni che i Vaganti possano essere ancora umani, quando prima di trasformarsi muoiono. Allora. Io posso capire tutto. Ma per credere una cosa del genere devi essere proprio stupido. E il rapporto conflittuale che sia viene a creare tra Rick ed Hershel deriva proprio da questo convincimento erroneo del secondo, che cerca di salvare i morti e poi manda via il gruppo di Rick, condannando persone VIVENTI ad una morte praticamente certa. Idiota.
In un certo senso però mi è sembrato che Lori e Rick si aspettassero troppo da Hershel, quando in una situazione del genere io non mi aspetterei nulla da nessuno.
Di sicuro di aspettano nuovi drammi, per via della situazione di Lori, e voglio vedere come si risolverà nel fumetto.
Il finale di questo secondo volume però mi ha lasciata un po' sorpresa... ma questo a causa della serie TV, quindi fa lo stesso. Come ho detto, è una storia diversa.
Lo stile di disegno è cambiato, in quanto è cambiato l'artista. È molto diverso dal precedente e non so ancora se mi piace o meno. Per ora tendo a preferire quello di Tony Moore.
Nel complesso è stata una lettura interessante, e spero di poter leggere presto il seguito. show less