Comic Book Guy: We are the Walking Dead
Vampires are very much in vogue it seems; True Blood, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Being Human, Vampire’s Assistant and even Marvel’s X-Men are currently battling a Vampire infestation in the comic book world. So how long before they become passé? The sun is destined to come on the Vampire fad soon and with it a new contender must take the supernatural throne. Werewolves perhaps? Far too long they have been the Vamps’ lapdog, what we have instead are the slow shuffling feet of a creature that is by no means forgotten. They may take a long time to actually walk anywhere, but sooner or later they catch you, oh and eat you, these are good old Zombies.
In the USA, Halloween will see the season premiere of the adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s Zombie fuelled graphic novel, The Walking Dead (UK debut one week later on FX). A show generating so much buzz that it has already been green-lit for a second season, before the first one has even aired! So what’s changed since the purple-faced extras of the Dawn of the Dead, and when did zombies become hip? (That is to say true Zombies, meaning the slow, shuffling rotting corpse, pathetic on its own but spine-chillingly ravenous in a pack, not the sprinting infected of 28 Days Later for instance) It seems Robert Kirkman may have found the answer.
Currently on its 77th issue and looking at its 13th collection to be released later this year, Kirkman’s The Walking Dead takes the subject matter beyond the frontier of outbreak and isolated incident, as the books follow a group of survivors (who very rarely survive) moving from one desolate location to another. Led by Police Officer Rick Grimes (who will be played by the UK’s own Andrew Lincoln in the US adaptation) the story so far has covered a full year after the zombies started chowing down on folks. Life seems hopeless as no government rescue comes, no cure is found and the dead keep multiplying. Gripping an intense with deftly written characters and crisply drawn black and white panels, The Walking Dead has brought life back to the undead. It should be read and watched – no tricks, just treats.
Tune in.