Miles of Zombies

“You doing okay?”
“I don’t know, Rick. It’s been a while since I’ve had a frame of reference for ‘okay.’”

TITLE:

THE WALKING DEAD: MILES BEHIND US

WRITER:

by Robert Kirkman

ARTISTS:

by Charlie Adlard (penciler, inker)
Cliff Rathburn (gray tones)

SERIES:

The Walking Dead #2

PUBLISHER:

Image Comics

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collection), Horror Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Suspense

DESCRIPTORS:

Horror, Zombies, End of the World, Survival, Psychological Studies, Life and Death, Disaster

SUMMARY:

The community takes some heart-breaking losses when a few zombies stumble upon their camp by chance in the dead of night. After breaking camp, they leave the outskirts of Atlanta, and give up on the possibility of finding sanctuary near a zombie infested city. Rick and his group find a possible haven in the gated community of Wiltshire Estates. They clear out a house and begin to settle in only to have the promise turn sour in less than a day.

Forced back on the road, the survivors head further away from Atlanta. Seven-year-old Carl is accidentaly shot by a dim witted man who mistook him for a zombie. Realizing his mistake, he rushes the boy and Rick to a nearby farm owned by a former veterinarian who might be able to save him. Hershel protests that he’s only an animal doctor but is persuaded to try. When the operation is over, Hershel invites the group to stay with him and his family on the farm while Carl recovers.

At first the offer seems to good to be true. However, Hershel and his children turn out to be nice people. Rick realizes that the community could make a go of an already working farm with plenty of flat lands to help them spot zombies in the distance.

Unfortunately, there are secrets hidden on the farm — secrets that when discovered, will cost Hershel and the community dearly.

APPEAL:

Although some scenes naturally flow quickly, many are of a moderate to slow pacing because Kirkman’s interest, and ours, isn’t so much the numerous ways to dispatch zombies, but what becomes of people without civilization and under constant danger. The comic is heavy in dialog, but knows when to stop and let the illustrations and action tell the story.

This is definitely a character driven book. Kirkman spends the most time with Rick as we watch him grow and mature into a role he never wanted. But the people around him are not slighted. The ensemble is large and changing as people die or leave but they each present their story and some change before our eyes. This time out we lose some people but gain a family and a couple of friends — or do we?

This is a drama masquerading as melodrama. Kirkman has genuine interest and love for the people he introduced in the pages. But it is a story that uses a zombie trope to reveal certain truths about the human condition. For the first time we get to view other prople’s — perhaps alien — notion of what the zombie plague is and what it means. It creates a conflict of beliefs. The major on-going storyline is centered around Rick.

Throughout the book you see people surviving the best way they know how. You may pick-up a survival tip or two, but the unpredictability of the human psyche and the mindlessness of the zombie defeats most tactics. Despite the possible nihilism inherent in the zombie sub-genre, the general tone of the book is hopeful. Most characters still believe that soon the government will reassert itself and rescue the survivors.

NOTES:

This is a black and white comic with greytones.

READALIKES:

If you like The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye you might want to try some of the zombie novels now available. Closest to The Walking Dead in terms of the psychological study of humanity is Brian Keene’s The Rising the sequel City of the Dead and a collection of short stories set in that dying world called The Rising: Selected Scenes From The End of the World. You’ll want to note, however, that the zombies are very different. Kirkman makes use of the standard slowly shambling mindless undead while Keene’s zombies are fast, cunning and intelligent.