Comic-Caps: The Walking Dead #1-6

17 May

Robert Kirkman – Creator, Writer, Letterer
Tony Moore – Penciler, Inker and gray tones
Cliff Rathburn – Gray tones

Chapter 1: Days Gone Bye (#1-6)

Issue 1
The Walking Dead kicks off with a shoot-out between two police officers and an escaped prisoner from Grant County Prison, during the shoot-out one of the officers who we come to know as Rick Grimes is shot in the chest. Rick awakens in hospital, alone, in a scene that looks like it was ripped off the screen from 28 Days Later.

Rick starts to make his way out of the hospital and heads home, on the way he commandeers a bicycle but what’s next to that bike makes Rick realise the world he knew is gone. The body of a young lady torn to shreds gurgles blood and bile and uses whatever strength she has to lift her arms to attempt to grab Rick.

Rick gets home onto to find it’s been raided but there’s no sign of his wife and son. As he steps out of his house he gets smacked on the back of the head with a shovel being wielded by a young boy called Duane. When Rick comes to he’s greeted by Morgan Jones, the father of Duane who apologises for his son and then proceeds to fill Rick in on everything that’s happened while Rick was in hospital.

Rick, Morgan and Duane head over to the police station that Rick worked at to stock up on weapons, and so Rick can change into his uniform because it’ll make it easier to move about in Atlanta to search for his wife and child. Rick gives Morgan the keys to one of the police cruisers and as they’re saying their goodbyes a walker appears the other side of the fence, as Rick draws his gun Morgan tells him there’s no need, it can’t get to them and he may need that bullet another time.

As Rick is making his way out of town he makes one last stop. He gets out his car and walks over to the young lady whose bike he took, he draws his gun and pulls the trigger putting an end to her suffering as a tear roles down Rick’s cheek.

Issue 2
It’s not long until Rick’s Police cruise runs out of fuel and all the petrol (gas) stations are empty, Rick comes up on a farm and as he enters he finds the occupants, a family, it looks to be a murder-suicide, or to be more exact a mercy-suicide. He takes a look around the house and heads over to the stables and finds a horse, saddles up and heads to Atlanta.

Rick arrives in Atlanta but it’s not long before he’s in a lot of trouble and very quickly finds himself completely surrounded by the undead. He get’s knocked off his horse and manages to scramble himself away, unfortunately the horse isn’t so lucky and becomes lunch.

A few walkers spot Rick and head in his direction, he panics and starts shooting them, as he backs towards an ally a hand appears on his shoulder, it’s a young man called Glenn, he tells Rick to stop shooting as he’ll have the whole city on them and that if Rick wants to live he should follow him. They head up and over the buildings and down the other side and start making their way to Glenn’s camp.

Rick asks where all the people in the city have gone, Glenn tells him “that was them trying to eat us”. It dawns on Rick that his wife and son and more than likely dead if they made it to the city, that everything he’s been fighting for since awakening from his coma is gone.

As Rick and Glenn make it to the camp Rick stops suddenly, it’s Lori and Carl, they’re alive.

Issue 3
Rick and Lori embrace, neither of them believing they would see each other again; Lori tells Rick that she and Carl would never have made it this far without Shane, who gives Rick a tour of the camp. We meet Dale, Jim, Carol, Sophia, Amy, Andrea, Donna, Allen, Billy and Ben.

During the night Rick and Lori show each other just how must they’ve missed one another (bow chicka wow wow!), the next morning Shane suggests he and Rick go hunting but before they head off Dale has a quiet word in Rick’s ear about Shane having feelings for Lori and that he should be careful with Shane being around Lori.

While hunting they come across a walker eating a deer and discuss whether it’s safe to take the deer away from it but in the end decide it’s best not to find out. Just as they kill the walker they hear a gun show from the camp. Lori, Donna and Carol are doing the laundry in a nearby stream, as they head back a walker comes from nowhere and makes a move for Donna.

Allen can’t get a clear shot but Dale runs over and chops its head off with a shovel, which doesn’t kill it so Allen blasts it with the shotgun. As Rick and Shane come running out of the woods, Rick makes a beeline for Lori to make sure she’s okay as Shane looks on from the background with a contempt look on his face.

Issue 4
After the attack in Issue 3 Rick is concerned about the safety of the group and tells Shane they should think about moving away from the city outskirts and move further into the countryside. Shane disagrees as he believes staying where they are will get them rescued quicker when the Government comes looking for survivors. Rick agrees to stay only if they get more guns so the whole camp can be armed and better protected.

Rick and Glenn head off to a gun store in Atlanta, much to Lori’s behest as she doesn’t want Rick to put himself in danger. As they head to the city they make a quick stop first, Rick surmises that the reason the walkers don’t attack each other is because of the smell, they use that to sense who to eat so with a axe, Rick begins to chop up a dead walker so both he and Glenn can cover themselves in it. Glenn throws up a couple of times, especially when Rick sticks a hand in Glenns pocket.

They make their way into the city and through the crowd of undead without being detected, find the gun store and Rick grabs a trolley so they can carry more guns. After they’ve loaded up and start making their way back it starts to rain and the walkers around them start to notice them, the rain is washing smell off. They make run for it with Rick covering Glenn who’s pushing the trolley full of guns but a walker comes from behind and bites Rick on his shoulder. After they get free and clear of the city Rick quickly checks to see if the bite broke skin, luckily he only lost the shoulder of his jacket and asks Glenn not to tell Lori how close they came to being eaten.

Lori is standing out in the rain waiting for Rick to come back, Shane approaches her and asks her to come back to camp and that he’ll keep her company. Lori pulls herself away from Shane and tells his that Rick’s alive, he’s her husband and this has to stop. Shane asks about the night when they were on their way to Atlanta, Lori tells him that night was a mistake.

Issue 5
Two weeks have past since Rick and Glenn came back with the guns, during that time Rick and Shane have been teaching everyone how to shoot and everyone is pleasantly surprised to find that Andrea is a natural with a gun. Much to Lori’s annoyance, Rick is also teaching Carl how to shoot and when Rick decides that Carl is ready to have a gun on his person at all times, Lori is really not happy about it.

After gun class Rick, Shane and Dale head out into the woods to gather fire wood for the deer Shane got the other day. When Dales asks if they should head back to camp as they’ve probably got enough firewood to last them the night, Rick says it’ll probably get really cold in the night so it may be worth getting some more. Shane completely blows his top and starts swearing at Rick and telling him he’s not move the camp and wants to hear no more about it and proceeds to storm off. Dale turns to Rick and says “That boy’s got problems”.

Back at camp everyone is sitting around the fire, eating deer and reminiscing about what they used to do for a living before everything went to pot. Amy heads to Dale’s RV to pee, when she comes out she spots a walker to her left but doesn’t see the one to her right which takes a huge bite out of her neck. Suddenly a swarm of walkers flood the camp, as Lori, Carol, Allen and Donna are taking the kids to a car to keep them safe Lori almost walks right into a walker and drops her gun, Carl get his out and shoots it in the head.

They quickly dispatch of the invading walkers but one gets on top of Jim, he manages to knock it of hi and caves its head in with the butt of his gun. After it’s all over Andrea is on her knee’s holding Amy, she takes out her gun and pulls the trigger as she can’t let Amy come back as one of them.

As everyone is checking with each other to make sure they’re all okay Lori spots Jim and see’s that he’s been bitten on the arm.

Issue 6
The camp have a funeral for Amy and say their last goodbyes to her, Jim is in the camper after being bitten and Rick, Shane and Carl have gone out hunting. Carl makes a comment about how they don’t need as much food now that Amy is dead and Jim’s sick, at this Shane snaps and starts having go at Rick. They have a massive argument about staying put or leaving which results in Carl running off back to camp in tears.

Back at camp Jim has requested that the group let him turn so he can maybe be with his family once again, they take him deep into the woods and say their goodbyes.

The next day Shane wants to go hunting again, Carl asks if he can come but Rick says no as he needs to speak to Shane privately. Shane punches Rick in the face and storms off, Rick goes after him. After Rick catches up Shane turns and points his shotgun at Rick and tells him everything was perfect, that Lori would have come around, that he should have stayed dead. Just as Shane is about to pull the trigger he’s shot in the neck. By Carl.

Rick hugs Carl who’s in tears, he says “it’s not the same as killing the bead ones, daddy””It never should be, son. It never should be” he replies.

Final Thoughts
Not a bad start, the hospital scene was very reminiscent of 28 Days Later and the introduction of Morgan and Duane helped fill us in on what has happened and to also give us an insight into Rick and his motives. The 2nd issue was nothing more than a vehicle to get us to Glenns camp so Rick could be reunited with his wife and son, I do think they could have taken a little longer to reunite them but on the other hand getting them back together is what sets the main focus of Chapter One up and that is Shane going off the rails and trying to kill Rick so he can have Lori all to himself.

If you watched the TV series of TWD then you’ll know that the show followed the comics quite closely, with the exception on Donna, Allen and the twins the rest of the cast is there. The biggest change was that in the show, Rick shot Shane, where as here, it was Carl. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Carl over the next chapter as he comes to grips with what happened and how Rick handles the situation and will he tell Lori what really happened?

I guess with Shane being gone that Rick will finally get his way and get the camp moved into the countryside but what dangers lie out there and with winter now upon them will they be able to find enough food and be able to keep warm? Check back in two weeks to find out.

Next week I’ll be recapping Robert Kirkmans Invincible comic, carrying on from where we left off with the Eight is Enough story arc covering issues 5-8. I’ll be back with more of The Walking Dead the following week where I’ll be recapping Chapter Two: Miles Behind Us covering issues 7-12.