From the Prison to a Possible Utopia
By: Robert Kirkman
Getting ready for the season of pumpkin spice and all things scary and desperately missing my Walking Dead fix during that ridiculous season break, I finally rolled around to picking up the second compendium of the Walking Dead original comics created by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn. Picking up after the Governor’s attack on the prison, the story rejoins Rick and the remaining, rag-tag survivors as they eventually locate each other and once again merge to form a group. While the roaming dead may be the obvious menace, it’s the living, the survivors, who offer the most scarring interactions. Can Rick ever trust again? Can he ever love again? Can Carl have any semblance of a normal childhood? Could a random stranger with a dream and a story be their true salvation or an invitation into another trap?
Collecting the original Walking Dead volumes #49-96, the second compendium is good reading and even better exercise. Weighing in at over a thousand lush, thick pages the reader can do some good bicep curls while constantly trying to shift the book into a less straining position. (It’s hopeless; endure the pain as do the survivors in Kirkman’s bleak, bloody world.) The compendium is the size of a hardcover, the pages glossy and expensive smelling. It is a work of art and the inner turmoil of the characters, the expressions of shock, weariness, and the wages of paranoia tell in each facial line and slumped shoulder. As before, the characters (including some delightful new ones!) are well depicted. Each person is unique in looks and speech, their mannerisms separating them and creating this visual world in which we can wonder with the woebegone and, of course, the hungry dead.
It’s a horror comic, and by now pretty much everyone is familiar with the phenomenon that has become known as the Walking Dead. While the original comic book series, which inspired the show, is similar in locational choices (i.e. the farm, the prison, etc.) the characterization is vastly different as is the general storyline. Some beloved characters from the television series (and here I’m really talking about Daryl and Carol) don’t exist in this world, which for the most part is more emotionally disturbing and, if possible, darker. The idea that the living are more dangerous than the dead is a constant threat as is the vilification of the heroes. How can they really care about one another anymore? How is there anything left beyond the survival instinct and an innate distrust? Killing the dead verses killing the living: is there really a difference? Taking it slower than the first compendium, the characters are moving around less and confronting their psyche more often. Not to say that some exciting (and gruesome) things don’t happen, but the rapid pace is slowed and the tale nose dives into the effects of trauma on our remaining cast. Oh, and don’t get too attached to anyone.
The first compendium (volumes #1 through #48 respectively) went a little too far, even for my horror hound stomach during the story of the governor. Rape, torture, and pedophilia/incest depicted in picture form takes the villain to an all new level and puts images and fears in our minds that just maybe shouldn’t be there. Not to say that it wasn’t compelling. It was a gory train wreck that demanded attention and played the emotions all the way to the end. But I had to take a break from it after that. The second compendium, while less interesting (and slower paced) was also distinctly less disturbing, back at a manageable level of sadness, not too far off from the aura of the actual television series.
And now, October is only a month away and season five will return with more zombie love. Compendium 3 (volumes #97 through #144) will be released October 13th and in the spirit of Walking Dead fandom, I felt the need to return to the idea that generated the quickly growing franchise. While these weren’t my favorite Walking Dead volumes, the story was nevertheless gut-wrenching and compelling. A new location and a chance of normalcy leads to innate introspection: can anything ever really be that good again and are our characters too broken to function benevolently? Volume three is already pre-ordered, and I’ll wait with the requisite seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte to read it!
- Frances Carden
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