Product Description

In the last volume we learned that no one is safe. Now, after the staggering losses they've sustained, Rick and Carl are left to pick up the pieces and carry on, knowing that they could join their fallen friends and family at any moment. This volume collects The Walking Dead issues #49-54.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11869 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781607060222
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Pause that Refreshes
The Walking Dead is Robert Kirkman's ongoing series that attempts to make the ultimate zombie movie in comic book form. In the process, he shows the effect that living in post-zombie-apocalypse world has on people. This volume reprints issues 49-54 of the ongoing series. Following the devastating events of The Walking Dead, Vol. 8: Made to Suffer (v. 8), the story starts off with Rick and his son Carl trying to find a place of relative safety as well as make their peace with what has happened to them.

Most volumes of Walking Dead have a fair amount of action, and this one is no exception. But in terms of story, this is definitely a pause of sorts. It serves partly as an epilog to what has come before, and equally as a prolog to a major new direction in the series as it moves forward. After the nonstop tension of the past few volumes, this is a welcome break that serves the reader well. We meet some interesting new characters and the survivors undertake a major new mission that will open the book up to a number of new possibilities in future volumes.

Overall, this is an easy book to recommend to readers who have followed the series up to this point. The story moves along at a good pace and there are some great moments featuring Carl and Rick. As much as I've enjoyed where Walking Dead has gone in past chapters, I'm equally curious to read more about what's still to come.

Picking up the pieces
After the violent explosion that was Volume 8 of this series it was to be expected that this segment of the story about Rick would be told with a little bit of a softer touch.
Rick and Carl are struggling to move on after the massacre at the prison and Michonne is off wandering by herself, killing the remnants of the zombies left at the prison.
Rick and Carl both get to face their fears and try to cope with the loss of everyone they knew, not knowing if anyone at all survived but knowing that Lori is gone from them. Each of them faces this in their own way and Robert Kirkman's compelling storyline reminds me that while the zombie action and full on mayhem of Volume 8 was part of the reason I really enjoy this series the smaller, quieter moments of everyone trying to retain some sense of humanity also make this series great.
The story leads us to some new people who perhaps are going to inject a spark of hope into the small group that Rick, Carl, and Michonne come together with, but that remains to be seen. Given the ups and downs that Rick has faced I can't say that I blame him when he tells Carl that he should trust no one and never, ever let his guard down.
The saga continues with wonderful storytelling and keeps me wondering what is next for Rick and the few survivors of prison as they hit the road once again.

A Necessary Pause
while it's true that this volume is slower than the last three, it is necessarily so. the intimacy present in volume 9 serves as the after-dinner cigarette to help stimulate digestion of the roller coaster ride of recent events. Kirkman is not slipping, and the series isn't going to stagnate; the focus of this story is changing into something more personal and real, if that was possible.

however, this volume is not without its shockers, surprises and scares (though they are scares of a different nature). it is one part epilogue, one part prologue (and two parts awesome).