Product Description: 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: there is no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally begin living. This volume follows our band of survivors as they set up a permanent camp inside a prison. Relationships change, characters die, and our team of survivors learn there's something far more deadly than zombies out there: each other.
Story Gets More Interesting; Art Stays Bad; Sexism Gets Worse The more morally grey something is, the more interesting it is to me. Hell, my favorite season of Angel is the fifth, when he becomes the CEO of the evil company he'd been fighting for the previous four seasons. I love seeing characters in a bad situation, forced to develop and do things that will up the drama-ante and push them in ambiguous directions. It's just plain interesting.
So I'm glad Kirkman filled this third volume to the top with moral ambiguity, because the whole idea is really seeing how these characters deal with a world taken over by the dead. The problem is, as I stated in the last issue, the characters aren't really distinguishable from each other. Rick develops nicely and so does Tyreese, but everyone else seems like cardboard cutouts. That, plus every time they open their mouths, they become exposition machines. The dialogue in this sucks. There is absolutely no way around that. Unlike the mediocre second volume, the story makes up for it a little, but it still leaves me a bit dry.
And there are also much worse problems. For one, the art--no long Moore, who illustrated Volume One which was the only really GOOD volume so far--is not getting much better than what we saw in Volume Two, which--to say the least--wasn't so good. But that doesn't even register when you compare it to the NEXT problem:
I just can't get over the overt sexism in this comic, and how it seems to be getting worse and worse with every issue. The character Andrea, who is known as the best shooter of the entire gang, has to convince the men to let her come along to kill zombies. They agree, but she is only allowed to get the ones they don't kill. Rick's wife Lori is pregnant, so every time she offers up a complaint--despite its validity--the characters blame it on hormones. Similarly, when Lori is arguing with Rick and calls him on trying to act like a patriarch, he tells her to "Shut the (expletive) up!" Of course, no one comes to her defense, because in the world Robert Kirkman has created, women are submissive to men. It brings my enjoyment of this series down considerably, and I'm getting to the point where I'm not sure if I'll continue with this book or not, no matter how good the story gets, if it even does get better.
5/10
A Great Story of Life Amongst the Zombies How can Robert Kirkman possibly top Volumes 1 and 2 (comic books 1-12) of The Walking Dead series? I don't know. But he does it again, here, with Volume 3.
What's worse - the zombie threat, or the threat the survivors pose to each other? You'll have to read the million shades of gray in this edition of the zombie classic!
An Awesome read just like what my title says, this comic is an awesome read. zombies, death, guns, and the occasional madman. c'mon now, what more does a comic need?
Death Row Most of the folks here already know that The Walking Dead saga is a compilation of stories by Robert Kirkman that expand on the story that is well know to any zombie movie fan. The main story. The one started in earnest by George Romero in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead [and was later remade in 1990 (the version that I prefer) by Tom Savini (with Romero oversight)]
The Walking Dead Volume 3 continues the story of Police Officer Rick Grimes and his band of normal-world-refugees as they find a new home after a perilous Georgia countryside journey across a world suddenly infected by a Walking Dead sickness. The home that they find kept the bad locked in when the world was normal; in our players' New World their home will hopefully keep the bad out.
But there are some inhabitants already in their new home...both alive and undead. Which will be most dangerous to Rick's group? That's the question and plight of volume 3.
I'm not a regular comic book reader. But I was drawn to The Walking Dead by the volume releases that bring the convenience of being able to get several chapters of the story without the month to month waiting for each issue. And I am now hooked.
The volume releases of The Walking Dead are like reading a screenplay with storyboards of a version of Night of the Living Dead that began simultaneously, but in a different part of the country. Yes, it's kind of a rip-off of a story (stories) already told, but the key is that it's done very very well. The zombies are true to the original Romero creation: slow and stupid as opposed to the 28 Days Later (2002) or 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead fast and thinking zombies.
Each volume takes under an hour to get all the way through, and they leave you wanting more. Volumes 1 through 5 are all available individually. A hard cover edition of volume 1 & 2 is out and a hard cover edition of volumes 3 & 4 is scheduled for early 2007. Volume 6 is scheduled for release the last week of February 2007; I have no info on a hard cover release of volumes 5 & 6, but I'm sure that it will happen if you prefer to wait.
So anyone in need of a very well done zombie fix that you don't put into your DVD player should absolutely get down with The Walking Dead sickness. Add it to your cart, but be sure to start with volume 1 and read them chronologically.
awesome kirkman series... don't miss out on the walking dead, one of the best comic book series out there right now. one big thing going for it is who the heck knows what's going to happen next or who's going to get unceremoniously waxed at any second. it's post-apocalyptic greatness, and a must-read.
the series is done in black and white, but the shading is so good i don't even miss the color. big props to whoever does the shading.
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