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The Walking Dead Weekly #1


David O'Leary on the issue!

Hot Shot Of The Week
Released January 5th 2011

The Walking Dead #1
(Image Comics)

The little comic that could. Probably the best known indy comic still being printed today. All the platitudes that come with this title are justified. On the back of the amazing reception that the recently finished television series received Image made the decision to start reprinting the entire series weekly from the very beginning. For a fair bit of its run the book was one of the few books that saw its sales rise month after month and is a perennial best seller on the trade charts also. By starting where they are there is enough of a backlog of issues that this series will go weekly until the end of 2012 before it catches up with the monthly series.

It's nice to see Tony Moore on the credits again. He worked the first six issues before being taken over by Charlie Adlard and to look back over the work he did for the first time in years had a nice nostalgic tone. Of course for many more this will be the first time that they will set eyes on the book because of the TV show. Over 5 million people regularly saw the shows run in the US and many million more overseas. The interesting thing to see now will be the sales on this book and to see how that viewer-ship transfers to the book. Maybe it's the pessimist in me but I expect it to be small enough. Many people just don't know where to buy the book and if it isn't in their local shop then they won't know about it. Perhaps it would have made sense to have a TV advert of the book akin to what Vertigo did for Fables a couple of years ago.

Of course many people are now up to speed with the initial adventures of Rick Grimes and Co. but the first issue focused almost entirely on Rick being shot and waking up in hospital to find out what happened in the world. It follows Rick making his way to his station house and getting armed and driving off. The TV show followed the books fairly closely so there won't be much new here for new readers but if any new readers pick this up then it's a start.

Take A Look Inside

The Offical Word from Image

story ROBERT KIRKMAN, art & cover TONY MOORE

Starting in this issue, Rick Grimes awakens to a world he's not prepared for. This small town cop must now fight the forces of the undead while he searches for his missing wife and son. This is the issue that started it all! RETAILER WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES.

32 PAGES, BW, $2.99



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