It happens every year or so that there’s a show, movie, book, band, or whatever that I’ve heard enough good things about that I know it’s going to be great, yet still never get around to picking up. Over the weekend I checked one of those off my list with the purchase of The Walking Dead Book One. There are five trade paperbacks out collecting the first two years or so of its run, and there’s one hardcover out which collects the same material as the first two trades1. In the afterword the writer says that he loves horror movies but what he hates about them are the words, “The End.” What happens once they flee to the island, or get rescued by the army? The Walking Dead is an ongoing comic series which tells the story of a group of survivors trying to stay alive and avoid zombies. Each story arc reads like a movie, so you end up really seeing the characters develop as the story progresses.
- Comics have a strange thing that’s the opposite of books, where they’re usually collected in paperback first, then hardcover later if they’re successful. The hardcovers are usually printed on better paper, collect more issues per book, and contain lots of extras like sketches and interviews. The downside is that where the paperbacks usually lag behind the monthly comic by 6 months to a year, the hardcovers are that much farther behind the current storyline. The hardcover “book 2”, which will collect 13-24, is due out in February. By that time you’ll be about a year behind the comics, which will be at issue 33 or so I think. I hate owning series in multiple formats. If I start reading it from issue number 1, I’ll keep reading it as a monthly comic. If I start reading it late, I’ll only pick up the softcovers. Since I’m already behind on this one, I’m just going to wait for the hardcovers, and when the series ends I’ll have a nice set of volumes to lend out. ↩