The Walking Dead, Compendium 1 by Robert Kirkman

I love Goodreads. It showed me that I started this massive set of comics in February 2013 and finished it yesterday. It seriously did not take me this long to get through it because I kept putting it down and away as I watched the series. It was difficult for me to decide if I wanted to travel along with Robert Kirkman - the TV writer - or Robert Kirkman - the comic author.

I chose the TV writer.

The TV show is dark and violent. The comics are even more so which actually, I don't know why, surprised me. I would say there is more sex, but in reality it was the violence of the sex that caused me to put this away for a bit and carry on with the, less sexually violent, show. Having finished the first compendium, I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the show. Unless they are one of those Daryl Dixon fans ("If Daryl dies, we riot" people) because the Dixon brothers don't exist in the comic world. As much as I do like Daryl, I was fine with him not being in this world.

We have a lot of the same characters as the show and a lot of the same plot points. But throw those in a basket and mix them up because the same plot points don't happen to the same characters. Which made this a very interesting read and comparison to the show. I wondered, more than once, why the change to the show? Rick loses a hand in the books, doesn't in the show. Dale lives and loses a leg, Dale dies early in the show. Hershel loses the leg but doesn't in the books. Andrea is actually someone I like in the books, not so much in the show. And Lori and little Judith? That part actually took me by surprise, the violence of that scene in the book.

We end this compendium with the Governor's storm (and several botched attempts - he was a bit smarter in the show) of the prison.

I already have Compendium 2 so hopefully that won't take me years to finish.