Comic Book Review: The Walking Dead, Volume 1 “Days Gone Bye”

It would be pretty difficult to be alive and be someone who is online a lot and NOT know about The Walking Dead. I’ve heard A LOT about it, but I have yet to watch the TV show (I know, I know. But I lived in another country for a while and just didn’t have time). However, I’ve definitely been intrigued by it, so it was high on my list of comics to check out when I started reading them. So far I’ve read the first three volumes and I bought the fourth volume yesterday. I’m kind of obsessed. I want to read a decent amount of the volumes before I start watching the shows so I can compare and not having anything spoiled. I thought I’d review the first three volumes for you this week!

There may be spoilers if you’ve never watched the show, because I don’t know when what happens in the books happens in the show so I can’t warn you. I’ll just say: there are potential spoilers in this review.

Volume 1: Days Gone Bye – Goodreads Summary:

The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled: no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living.

What I thought:

I thought Volume 1 did a fantastic job at introducing the series. We get a really good idea for what is happening and I kind of fell in love with the series right away. I think it makes you feel the fear and anxiety that these characters, particularly Rick, feels throughout this whole first volume. I definitely felt for the characters and I wanted each one of them to survive. The human factor in The Walking Dead was wonderful and it made you connect with these characters from the beginning. There’s a focus on how humanity would adjust to life in a post-apocalyptic world after being so used to living comfortably in our current society, which I really enjoyed. The dystopian/post-apocalyptic genre is my favorite, so this fit in quite well with what I like.

I also really love the artwork. I think the black and white illustrations worked really well, and boy, were those zombies GROSS.

[Potential spoiler alert] At the end of volume 1, Shane goes absolutely crazy and is about to shoot Rick when Carl shoots him. I was discussing this with a friend who watches the show and was told that this didn’t actually happen in the show until the end of like season 3 or something. I was also told that the relationship between Shane and Lori was a lot more intense in the show than in the comics. In the comics, they’ve slept together only once but when Rick shows up at their camp, Lori goes right back to Rick. I thought this was an interesting change, but I can understand wanting to elaborate on their relationship as it probably added a lot of drama to the show.

I really enjoyed this first volume and I was glad that I already had the second volume checked out from the library and waiting to be read. If you like the show or just love a good zombie story/human story, you should check out these books! Especially if you’re a fan of seriously awesome zombie art. Definitely recommended.

Written by Robert Kirkman; illustrated by Tony Moore

Make sure you check out my review for Volume 2: Miles Behind Us on Thursday!

Have you read The Walking Dead comics? What did you think? Also, can you tell me (spoiler-free if possible), what the differences are between what happened in this volume and the show? 🙂