Why I Love The Walking Dead: Part 1 of 2
The best Zombie story ever told
Intro
What’s going on! What’s going on everybody! Happy Thursday! I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!
I wanted to be more positive on this Sub Stack, I know making things is hard. I was going to see Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny over the weekend and then come on here Monday and talk about my love for Indiana Jones and how Dial of Destiny was a great send off to the character. The trailers looked pretty good, I trust James Mangold to make good movies, and Indiana Jones has always been one of my favorite movie franchises. Well then I saw the movie and it wasn’t for me, it’s probably my least favorite of the series because Crystal Skull is by no means good but it still has the Indy heart and some fun memorable moments. Dial of Destiny is completely forgettable minus the third act which either works for you or it doesn’t, and for me it didn’t. And I think with any movie, but especially movies like this, how the movie ends really taints or enhances your enjoyment of the movie. For me Dial of Destiny had an ending that tainted whatever enjoyment the rest of the movie had given me.
So I also had some personal things happen in my life that led to Monday’s post not happening but maybe down the road I will talk about my love for Indiana Jones. But today I am talking about my love for The Walking Dead!
Why I Love The Walking Dead: Part 1 of 2
You can read all about how and when I started reading comics here but like most people who start reading comics you always start with the superheroes. You start with the ones you know so for most people that’s Batman, Spiderman, Superman all the characters whose name ends in “man.” But I think most people who stick with comics and start to develop a fandom of the medium start drifting around to see what else is out there in the comic book world that isn’t men/women in tights. Which is what happened to me, I’ve always been one of those people that when I get INTO something, I deep dive directly into it and want to know everything about it. So when comics entered my life it was a switch being flipped in my body that made me go “ I need to read everything, and learn about everything comic book related.” With that goal in mind, it didn’t take me long to get to Image comics and The Walking Dead.
I had known the name of “The Walking Dead” from the TV show that was about to head into their 3rd season when I jumped on board with the comic. I had learned from my Google research that the show was based on the comic and the comic was much different from the show.
So I bought the first 2 compendiums (the second one had literally just came out the week after I decided to jump into the world of the Walking Dead) and I read both compendiums in 3 days. I read 96 issues in 3 days out of sheer fandom and a relentless quest to catch up the current issues and be ready for issue 100. I also read them so fast because still to this day it is the best comic I have ever read with some of the best cliffhangers, character development, and storylines in the history of storytelling.
The Walking Dead is my favorite comic book because it’s as captivating as it is unpredictable. Kirkman will spend 30 issues setting up a character as one of the main characters of the story, and then kill that character off with no fanfare. Then just to rub a little more salt in the wound he will also kill off 6 other characters in the next two pages and reset the cast.
The main difference between the show and the comic is the show feels like a show with build ups, epic showdowns, and good guys vs bad guys on the battle field. The comic feels like real groups of people coming in conflict with each other and trying to survive.
SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW AND COMIC!
The perfect example of this being how the show handles the showdown with The Governor and Rick. In the show they meet in the middle of the battle and have a slugfest. In the comic the Governor makes one of his community members shoot Lori in the stomach when she is running away, oh yeah but what they don’t know is she is running away with a BABY! So the baby also GETS SHOT THROUGH THE HEAD! And once the women who shot Lori finds this out she is so disgusted with the Governor that this random lady shoots the Governor and he just gets eaten by zombies. In the comic he also cuts off Rick’s hand which plays a major part in the rest of the series, but Rick never gets revenge on the Governor, the Governor wins and then gets killed by his own group. It really feels like a true story being told, and not a story with multiple happy endings and good prevailing over evil. A zombie apocalypse would be hell on Earth and that’s what the comic makes the reader feel like they are reading. A semi realistic take on what would happen if a zombie apocalypse happened, the zombies would be one thing, but what people would be forced to be turned into would be far worse.
I wanted to talk about Negan but he is such a great character he deserves his own post, so join me Monday when we talk all things Negan! But before you head out of here make sure to check out the:
Plugs
Kickstarter - THE DIGITAL VERSION IS COMPLETE! Imagine Nation #1 is FINALLY complete, if you backed the Kickstarter you should of already received your digital copies. The stickers and mini poster HAVE ARRIVED! , the T-shirts still have not shipped.
The website for “Wilson Comics” is currently being created. Which is where the digital version of Imagine Nation #1 will live if you want to check it out and weren’t able to get it through the Kickstarter.
D.N.A. (Dinosaur Nazi Assassins) is 8 pages from being completed! The first issue will be black, white, and FREE!
The Elevated - My take on superheroes has the first issue fully drawn and colored, just waiting to have the Kickstarter rewards taken care of for the “Imagine Nation” campaign before my focus shifts to The Elevated. You can read about what exactly “The Elevated” is down below:
The Elevated: My Superhero Epic!
Imagine Nation: Issue 2 is written, I just need the money to help fund it.
The Only Sports Podcast posts once a week (on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.) New episode will be up Friday!
Threads: YAY! Another new social media platform, I joined it, follow me on there I guess.
LinkTree: If you are interested in any of that above or any of my socials, click the link below:
All the Links
Thank you all for reading and have a great weekend!