Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Walking Dead: Compendium One

A comic about the beginning of a zombie apocalypse and how it changes people. What I love so much about The Walking Dead franchise is that it focusses less on the zombies and more on the morals of people and how far they will go. This compendium is season one to halfway through season four of The Walking Dead TV show. We see Atlanta, the farm, and the prison era. Progressively Rick loses some of his morals, and becomes more hardened due to the world and constant and loss around him.

I love the differences between the show and the comics. The comic is definitely a lot darker. Some main differences are Michonne and Tyreese getting together, and Tyreese dying at the prison by getting his head chopped off, Carol being a lot more dependent and then committing suicide, Sophia living and building a relationship with Carl, Lori dying a few weeks after she had Judith, Shane dying before they made it to the farm, Carol and Tyreese being together for a while, there also are some characters in the show that aren’t in the comics like Daryl, Merle, Lizzie & her sister Mica. As well as characters in the comics that have a larger role than they do in the show like the prisoners they meet at the prison.

Overall, I think this comic should be read by anybody who really enjoys The Walking Dead show on AMC.

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corabookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated

4.75

I read this book after watching the show, so I kind of knew what to expect, but at the same time, the comics are very different! It's as if both the show and comics follow roughly the same plot with roughly the same characters, but it's all jumbled up--different events happen at different times, and to different people, and a lot of characters had really different personalities. Some characters from the show (Daryl!) don't even exist in these books!

The first compendium is a collection of the first eight volumes of the series (which follow roughly the same plot as the first 3/4 seasons). It starts, as the show does, with Rick awaking from a coma and finding the world filled with zombies, following his adventures as he reunites with his family and they try to survive in this new world. Much of this story focuses on their survival: figuring out how to cope with death (or not), making tough decisions, learning how horrible people can be. Some parts of it were even more violent than in the show, but otherwise, it contained a lot of the same things: zombies, gore, lots of kinda pointless relationship drama. All in all, it was really interesting, and I loved getting to see more of these characters and their adventures in a slightly different story!

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somniastar's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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kyarabereading's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.25

I’ve been a fan of the Walking Dead television series, and I thought it was finally time to read the comic book series it is based on.

This comic book follows Rick, a small town cop who has to become the leader of a small group of people doing what they can to survive through a zombie apocalypse. It shows us all the pain, all the gore, all the struggles that come with survival. But it also shows us how important community is during dark times.

Though I’ve already see the television series, I found myself still surprised by the events that occurred in the comic book series. I never quite knew what was going to happen when I turned the page, and that - the not knowing - kept me hooked on this story until the very end.

The Walking Dead shows us how quickly people can lose their humanity and their minds when facing something like a zombie apocalypse. It shows us what people are willing to do to survive. Even the protagonists are morally gray at best, making questionable decisions just to survive.

The television series itself is already pretty dark, and yet I found this comic book series to be so much darker. And the art style worked beautifully in capturing all that darkness, all that action, all that gore.

I will admit that at times it was too much for me, and it made me grateful that so many changes were made when turning this comic book into a TV series. There are many moments in this that I think would be too much on screen, but work better in a comic book format. And without saying any spoilers, there were some parts I felt very uncomfortable with, and I think the TV show was honestly better off without them.

Despite all the painful moments, it also had a lot of happy, and even funny moments. Emotional moments. Moments that helped me connect more with the characters. Moments that helped me realize that no matter what was thrown their way, they were retaining their humanity.

I enjoyed this read, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

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