“Okay, finished!
This has been an 18-year journey for me. Which is crazy. But here we are, at the end!
I have some thoughts.
1. This series is best read in binge fashion, not trade-by-trade as they came out.
The series really does read better when you can go through it all at once. You can remember the characters, you can remember the smaller plotlines, and you can see what the series is doing, overall. I really, really recommend reading the series this way, if you are planning to, and I’ll tell you that the way I first read it was trade by trade. In fact, I enjoyed it so much early on, I got and read trade one, then when I got trade 2, I read 1 and then 2, and I continued this practice probably until about…trade 15? I think the series feels more monotonous if you read it piecemeal, and I think the little differences in things are harder to spot, so it feels more same-y.
2. I think Robert Kirkman did an amazing job. Anyone who thinks differently can fuck themselves. It’s easy to criticize the series for its lulls, but it has SO MANY highlights and SO MANY big moments. It’s earned it.
3. I also think Robert Kirkman is to be praised for ending the series at a point where it felt natural to end rather than pushing through to 300 issues as he once hoped.
4. Charlie Adlard: The less-sung hero of The Walking Dead. Do you know what comic book artists hate drawing the most? Crowds. It takes forever. Do you know what Charlie Adlard drew a SHITLOAD of? Hordes. Herds. Swarms. Charlie Adlard’s art was key to the series. It gave the whole thing a vibe that was unique. I don’t even usually like black and white, and I didn’t even miss color while reading this, not one bit.
5. The ending: it’s good. It’s really good. It works. It doesn’t completely violate the feeling of the book while also not being TOO cheerful while also not being TOO bleak. It’s solid, and a solid ending on a book this long is hard to come by.
6. I think the show, which I got bored of quickly, might’ve hurt the comics a little. I think the show was slower-paced, and the best bits on the show came from the comics, for the most part, so I think a lot of us who were fans were pumped to watch the show, but then it lessened our enjoyment of the comics because it added to the feeling of same-y-ness. What I like about the show is that it brought a lot of attention to the comics, and I do enjoy that so many people were watching a zombie show, that it was a mainstream hit. But I think those of us who love comics are better off with the comics than the show.
~
This will always be one of those core series for me. How can it not? I enjoyed the shit out of the first half or 2/3, then waited a decade, then enjoyed the shit out of the whole thing. I could easily see re-reading this every 10 years or so. I don’t think I’d remember everything, certainly not past those first dozen trades that I read 10 times each 🙂
This is so corny, but: Thanks, Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Image Comics. I really appreciate that I got to read all of this.”