The Walking Dead: Volume 1 - Days Gone Bye.

If you're wondering where Trancers 5 is (probably all nine of you)...it isn't happening. I didn't want to watch that film anyway with how shit Trancers 4 was, but I actually finished the film, I had the review all written up, it just needed a polish and the images. I went out and found the draft hadn't saved, I lost everything and there is no way in fuck I am watching that shitstain of a fucking film again just to write a review on it. Basically watch the first three, pretend it ends there, that is all you need to know. To wash the taste of those films out of my mouth and the fact I lost the bastard review, I decided to do something I haven't done in about a year - a comicbook review. Enjoy!

Now I just want to say, I don't really care about The Walking Dead TV show, I know it's extremely popular and here I go being pretentious again, but I personally just found it boring. I'm sorry, but I did. However when I found out it was based on a comic, I was really interested to see if it worked better in comic form where I could set my own pace.

The Walking Dead has been going for nine years with over a hundred issues published  which is absolutely insane when you think about it, most zombie apocalypse narratives struggle to last for a ninety minute film, so I'll be interested to see how they manage to stretch this series out. It has won a heap of awards, people love it and me? Well, let's dig into the first volume...

Days Gone By collects the first six issues of the series. The first chapter is basically one long introduction, to lay down some groundwork and rules. Even with that in mind it's surprisingly action packed. Our protagonist is Rick Grimes, a cop that is shot by an escaped prisoner and ends up in 28 Days Later. Returning to his old home in search of his son and wife, he finds them gone and instead bumps into Morgan and Duane. They eventually arm up in the police station and then go their separate ways. Grimes destination, Atlanta.

The second chapter is largely one long action/chase sequence with Grimes arrival in Atlanta (by horseback, I might add, he struggled to keep the car fuelled), finding himself in a city overrun with zombies. We also get to learn more about Grimes. Although clichéd, it says a lot about Grimes' that the happiest day of his life is the day his son is born and that he remembers it with such detail. Quickly Grimes learns that guns aren't useful in large population areas, all they really do is alert the zombies to his presence. His life is eventually saved and he is reunited with his wife and son.

The third chapter is really the chapter that introduces the first real conflict, namely in the form of Shane, a spanner in the otherwise perfect moment of the reuniting of the Grimes family. The survival camp Grimes finds himself in, where Shane and his family have holed up, seems like a utopia but that feeling doesn't last long. The men and the women are given very archetypal roles. The men hunt and guard. The women clean. And not everyone is particularly happy with that.

The fourth chapter is an extremely tense and action packed chapter about Grimes and Glenn's trip to the gun store which is in the dangerous heart of the city. This plan is inspired by an argument between Grimes and Shane. The first full day Grimes spends at the camp sees one of the survivors almost killed by a zombie and he believes they would be safer if they moved the camp further away from the city, Shane doesn't. Grimes is a good guy, so he doesn't bother arguing, if Shane wants to stay, they'll stay, but Grimes wants to at least get everyone a gun, so everyone has constant protection. Their plan to get in and out alive? Rub zombie bits on themselves to disguise their human smell with that of rotting flesh. They survive and get their guns and weapons, but it was an extremely close shave. We also learn that Shane and Lori have already had sex, so really the real villain is Lori for being so nasty to Shane, as if he's the only one who is in the wrong, like he can just be thrown away now her old husband is back. What a bitch.

The fifth chapter is easily the most hard hitting, it fleshes out all the characters in the camp, only to have one of them get bitten and one of them killed as the camp is swarmed.

The final chapter is largely one big wrap up, namely for the events in the last chapter. There is a funeral and the one who is bitten is consumed by infection. Despite what happened last chapter, Shane still believes staying put is for the best, he is still relying on the government turning up at any minute to save them but now Grimes is even more determined to get everyone in the camper and to just run as far as they can, leading to a truly explosive finish for the volume.

The artwork by Tony Moore is excellent, I must admit I did find it strange that he went for such a stylised and almost cartoony look for such a dark story and I can't honestly say that it ultimately works...but the artwork is so nice it's really quite difficult to notice.

If you think Days Gone By is ever held back by being a comic book, you'd be all kinds of wrong. Kirkman just really gets...people. Even without the manipulation of flash and music, the way characters naturally react to things and the way characters play off of one another...it feels real and it's what makes it so incredibly hard hitting. Grimes getting reunited with his wife and son is a powerful moment and it isn't even coloured. Even the horror aspect works fine in this format, with the mixture of lots of twisted imagery and the amount of emotion the comic manages to convey through image, rather than through dialogue. It's just an incredibly powerful and hard hitting series.

Easily the best part of Days Gone Bye are the characters. Kirkman goes out of his way to flesh out all of the survivors, without ever slowing down the story to do so, Days Gone Bye is spotted with a small, but rich cast of characters. Kirkman also proves that no one is safe meaning every action scene is incredibly tense. You can never quite relax because you end up caring about everyone so much.

Our protagonist, Grimes, for example is brilliant. He is incredibly badass but also completely human and Kirkman gets the balance between these two aspects perfectly, providing us with thrilling action sequences and emotional downtimes that are just as poignant as each other. Plus he's just such a nice person, he is so innocent despite the shit going on around him but it's written to be completely believable. He's like Superman without being an alien and wearing tights. Then you take Shane for example, a character who is introduced as some kind of villain, we start off expecting not to like him, but as the series continues, we only sympathise and feel sorry for him more meaning that with the way the series ends, we get an absolute emotional kick in the balls and it shows us just how well written this series is that a bunch of black and white drawings can effect us so greatly. In the end the character I ended up liking the least was Lori, who came across as an utter bitch, she may as well be the big bad of the first volume.

So do I recommend it? Days Gone Bye is true brilliance. The combination of great artwork, thrilling action, a brilliant cast of characters and more emotional manipulation than a bit of charity propaganda made for one of the most enjoyable comics I have read in a very, very long time. I will most certainly be checking out the other volumes.

Think About It!

-Locke