The Walking Dead, Volume 03: Safety Behind Bars

The Walking Dead graphic novels never fail to shock me and Safety Behind Bars continues that tradition wonderfully. From start to finish, I'm always torn between wanting to linger on each page absorbing the details in the artwork and racing through the pages to see what unimaginable horror occurs next.

In this volume, the survivors start clearing out and moving into the prison they found at the end of the last book. As hope has often lead to death in the series, many characters were decidedly unenthusiastic. No matter, I was excited for them. Sure, the place had tons of zombies that needed to be killed and burned. No problem for the survivors. The tragedies (and there are a lot in this volume) stem from something far more dangerous - show more living people.

We learn what Julie and Chris were planning (which is a huge surprise that makes complete sense afterwards), see Tyrese go a little crazy, encounter more questionable "new" people, reunite with the destined-to-never-stop-suffering Hershel, and even have some budding young love.

What I really love about this series it that no one is ever safe. Just because a character has been around since day one doesn't mean they aren't going to be bitten or shot on the very next page. Newly introduced characters aren't necessarily the first to die, which leaves the reader having to constantly fear for their favorites. Even while death should always be expected, Robert Kirkman seems to always have a way for catching you completely off guard, making the experience all the more traumatic.

After Safety Behind Bars, I don't like or love this series, I'm completely obsessed with it. It's so much better than the TV series, which I absolutely love. Just knowing that I have ten more volumes left to read before I catch up makes me very happy. show less

Ok, so maybe it was not the best idea to read so many issues back-to-back. Clearly having a world overrun by zombies is an indication to the reader that the characters will not be having a whole lot of happy fun time but damn Robert Kirkman pulls no punches. The zombies take a back seat to the real monsters of this story...us.

What I learned from Volume 3: People are f**king crazy!

I don’t know if this series is changing, or if it’s just me. I didn’t like this volume as much as the others. While I still miss the illustrations of Tony Moore, preferring them to those of Charlie Adlard, I don’t think that this is quite it.

As the series progresses, the lights dim more and more. It gets darker, and the zombies cease to be the enemies within the pages. Further, as the characters grow more desperate for survival, the villains grow more villainous, and the heroes grow less heroic. It’s this decline, I feel, that makes me less and less intrigued to read the next volume.

While I know the staple villain in any zombie epic is not the undead, but rather, the people fallen on desperate times, I suppose that following show more such a story is less of an emotional commitment when reading a book or watching a movie. You don’t get to know the characters as well before they’re plucked away by careless actions of people who should know better.

The series is well written, as far as zombie comic books can go. But sometimes, good writing of sad content can do more harm than good. show less

The pacing/momentum is incredible in this volume, and it's always interesting when humans are the bigger danger in a zombie apocalypse than the zombies themselves. The story, I think, is really picking up, but the characters are still lacking in development, which for a character-driven narrative is rather problematic. The female characters are especially terribly written and hardly pass the Bechdel test.

The group clears the yard and enters the prison, they pick up the other group from the Greene farm, and one person turns out to be more dangerous than any zombie. You can tell that the group have been scared for so long now that they're getting used to it - not only the children, but the adults are admitting to human foibles like being afraid of the dark or make jokes about looting being a bigger problem than the zombies: "Hopefully it's just full of flesh eating monsters and our baked beans are still intact in there." It's the humanity of the characters that carries this series rather than any superhuman feats they may perform on an adrenaline high. As Lori notes, living life as if every day could be your last worked before everything show more changed, but now that they are forced to do it, it's simply horrible and a humdrum existence would be the dream. show less

Tredje delen av serien The Walking dead. I den här delen har Rick och de andra överlevande äntligen hittat fram till ett fängelse där det verkar som om de kan vara någorlunda säkra. Här finns mat och sängar, men också andra faror än enbart odöda...

Välgjord och mycket skrämmande. Kampen för överlevnad och kampen mot zombierna är väl skildrat och speciellt intressant är det sociala spelet mellan karaktärerna i den trängda situation de befinner sig i. Det är värt att poängtera att serien är väldigt blodig, otäck och inte ett dugg förskönande men att det är en del av seriens kvalitet. Egentligen är det här inte alls min genre, men jag uppskattade den verkligen trots detta och trots att jag inte läst någon show more av de tidigare delarna. show less

Omg, things are just getting so fucked up!

I am trying to not compare this to the HBO show but I just can't help it... I miss Darryl. There is no Darryl in these comics as of yet. BUT there is a lot of richness to the story as there are so many characters.

Sometimes i am wondering what these would look like in colour, but black and white is fine also. There are so many twists and turns in the plot, it is shocking me every five minutes. No-one is safe, I am not sure I have a favourite character yet... I do really like Tyrese and of course Rick.. Also Glenn. Not too fond of everyone else though, although Sophia is adorable.

I am officially binge reading these.