Bookmarked: ‘The Walking Dead’ is Cadaverous and Compelling

Content warning: Murder, suicide, assault and depression.

Society’s dead, but humanity lives on —  this is the premise of the comic book series “The Walking Dead.”

Created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, the series featured 193 monthly issues between October 2003 and July 2019. It followed the unwavering Rick Grimes and a group of survivors persisting through the years in a zombie apocalypse.

The comic inspired a televised adaptation developed by Frank Darabont, which premiered in 2010 and followed the same plots and characters. At one point the show peaked television ratings, but the cycling of showrunners and creatives dwindled interest where the comic’s vision remained constant.

Rick’s story starts at society’s end. Being shot on the job as a police officer, Rick falls into a monthslong coma due to his injuries. He wakes up to a world that ended while he was asleep. With laws and infrastructure ceasing to function, the former lawman locates his family and makes it his mission to find shelter from the undead.

The source of the zombie outbreak is purposefully ambiguous, but its outcome is thematically explicit. The synopsis of each issue states “In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living” — and the series lives up to the statement.

Household utilities like showers, batteries, soap and gasoline are revered as treasures, while TV, news outlets and phone services go extinct. The characters of “The Walking Dead” either adapt or die as suburban settlements are traded for sleeping bags and campfires.

Moore set the visual tone for “The Walking Dead,” despite only illustrating the comic’s first 24 covers and the entirety of the first six issues. Leaving the series to explore other projects, Moore (“Fear Agent,” “The Exterminators”) emphasized human emotion and grotesque imagery.

Colored in black and white, the opening chapters of “The Walking Dead” are expressive and visceral. Following Moore’s departure, artist Charlie Adlard built upon these concepts whilst stripping down Moore’s excessively bombastic features for the remaining 187 issues.

Adlard (“White Death,” “Codeflesh”) allowed dread to permeate the page with his roughspun aesthetic. The shift to a minimalistic style utilized empty space and shadowed imagery to convey a desolate tone while depicting the zombies with pronounced skeletal gore. The violence is ghastly but simplistic, and its characters are motivationally obscure. Adlard’s art carries a grim narrative and constant sense of unease toward what’s missing from the page.

In creating the series, Kirkman (“Invincible,” “Marvel Zombies”) writes a world where humanity is pushed to its most sadistic point. Topics regarding murder, suicide, assault and depression are all touched upon routinely. While the subject matter dips into excessiveness, it does so with purpose. Kirkman’s strength is conveying the power of perseverance and finding a path forward.

Without social order, those who survive amongst the dead must also contend with the living. Murderers, sociopaths, cannibals and cults all antagonize Rick’s group of survivors. Each rival faction embodies a depravity that counters the enduring empathy of the protagonists.

While Rick Grimes takes center stage, “The Walking Dead” is really an ensemble book. The mysterious Michonne, adventurous Glenn, markswoman Andrea and Rick’s son Carl are just a few who captivate readers with personal struggles and intertwining relationships.

Oftentimes, the dozens of characters entering the series exit in brutal fashion. Each unceremonious death contributes to the comic’s seemingly futile atmosphere, outlining the abrupt reality of death.

Rick himself undergoes a staggering evolution with each loss suffered and each force opposed. His journey is one of continuous self-discovery. He emerges as an unsure leader and transforms into a jaded pragmatist, an idyllic hope and, finally, a confident realist. 

By the end of the series, Rick is outlived by his legacy. His leadership flourishes a network of settlements that rebuild society, while his son Carl starts a family of his own.

It’s a finale the televised adaptation of “The Walking Dead” seems incapable of achieving. In its early seasons, audiences and critics alike were won over, only to bog itself down with bloated plots and baited deaths in series’ later years. AMC’s on-screen counterpart ended with 11 seasons and a fraction of its former audience, yet the network seems convinced spin-offs will reclaim former glory. 

With the upcoming show “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live,” it seems unlikely Rick Grimes will be put to rest. 

All 193 issues of “The Walking Dead” are available digitally, across 32 volumes or 4 compendiums.

Featured image by Hanna Houser / The Phoenix