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A Beginner’s Guide to Catching Up on The Comics

Discussion in 'The Walking Dead Comic Series' started by DragonRacer, Dec 1, 2016.

  1. DragonRacer

    DragonRacer Well-Known Member

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    Like many people, I fell in love with The Walking Dead TV show years ago and have faithfully watched every season. I knew the show was based on a comic, but I’d never really read comics before and it seemed like an overwhelming endeavor to try and pick up. After all, you see so many comics with alternate timelines and off-shoot universes to the point that you have no idea where to even begin. So, I stuck with watching the show. That was easy. Simple. Just tune in at the appointed time every Sunday during the seasons.

    After Season 6, I got curious enough about the source material that I decided to dive into the comics. I researched, asked around, and have found what I believe to be the easiest and most cost-effective way to read them (I’m not talking about pirating them for free from the Internet, although I suppose you could go that route). And since then, I have seen a few people like me asking how to go about tackling the comics, so I wanted to make an easy guide to help them walk the road I had to pound out for myself.

    So, if you’re a fan of the show and want to read the comics, but don’t know where to start or what the differences are between issues, volumes, and compendiums, here’s your easiest route from Point A to Point B. A quick word of warning: The Walking Dead comics are currently years ahead of the show’s present point, so go into this realizing that if you keep reading past that point, you may stumble on eventual spoilers for the show. However, also note that the show does not pull everything 100% from the comics... it has remixed character arcs, some of its own original material, some of its own original characters, and things of that nature. It’s best to consider the show and the comic as a sort of alternate universe of each other - similar, but with noticeable deviations.

    1. We’re currently at 166 issues and counting. Thankfully, the bulk of those issues are contained in three compendiums. Compendium One contains issues 1 through 48, which ends at the fall of the prison. Compendium Two contains issues 49 through 96, which ends around the time that Alexandria makes the deal with Hilltop to go after the Saviors. Compendium Three contains issues 97 through 144 and starts around the events of the mid-season finale of Season 6 of the TV show. This means a LOT of it will take place beyond the show’s current timeline and also contains the glory that is Comic!Negan. The compendiums were hard for me to find in a local bookstore or comic shop, but were easily had online (Amazon for me) for roughly $30-$35 each. That was a solid value for so much good content.

    2. What about those volumes you see? They are the exact same thing contained in the compendiums. Think of it in terms of The Lord of the Rings. That’s three separate books that make up one large story. Each chapter within the books is a comic issue. Each book (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King) is a volume. And those three volumes make up the whole trilogy - the compendium. So, if you get the compendiums, you’re already getting all those volumes and issues for cheaper than getting them individually.

    3. Okay, so Compendium Three ends on issue 144 and I said we’re up to 166 now. How do you fill in the blanks? Image Comics online sells digital and print copies of single issues or, my recommendation, start a subscription with your local comic book store. I visited two and was lucky enough to find issues 145 up to current (for me, that was issue 155 to be current before my subscription started).

    4. You’ve acquired all three compendiums, hunted down the missing single copy issues from 145 to 166, and started your subscription. Now what? Now, you play the waiting game like the rest of us. For the most part, The Walking Dead comics publish once a month, the first Wednesday of the month. Occasionally, you might get more than one issue a month. The last one of that nature happened in February 2017, where you got two issues released that month instead of one.

    Feel free to hit me up with any questions or if you need clarification. The Walking Dead is a super-easy comic series to get into and caught up on because it’s one linear timeline, although I do understand it may seem complicated at first due to all those volumes floating around. Go for the compendiums for your best value, then hunt down your missing issues past that (because who wants to wait around until enough issues are done to make Compendium Four, am I right?). Have fun and welcome to the wonderful 2-D world of The Walking Dead!
     
    #1 DragonRacer, Dec 1, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2017

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