By Robert Kirkman – creator, writer, letter, Tony Moore – penciler, inker, gray tones, Charlie Adlard – penciler, inker, Cliff Rathburn – gray tones
Place: Publisher & Year: Berkeley, CA: Image Comics, Inc., 2010
Genre: Horror
Format: Graphic novel
Series: The Walking Dead
ISBN: 9781582406190
Audience: Adult
Number of pages: Unpaginated
Setting: Kentucky, Atlanta, GA and surrounding rural areas
Time period: Contemporary
Plot summary: Small town police officer, Rick Grimes, awakens from a coma to find his world turned upside down. Before he can even leave the hospital, he encounters his first walking dead person. As he seeks both safety and his family, he encounters many of the walking dead as well as a few live people.
Illustrations: Black and white drawings include the gruesome details involved with killing zombies as well as both tender and tense moments between the living characters.
Appeal factors:
Pacing: Extremely fast paced; zombie danger lurks everywhere.
Characterization: The story is told primarily from Rick’s perspective, but does include other perspectives. All of the characters become increasingly important both to the story and to each other due to the nature of their situation.
Frame: The first panel of this story shows two police officers working as a team in a violent situation; this panel establishes the frames for this story – violence and team work.
Tone: Dark, violent
Story line: A realistic survival story set in an unrealistic situation.
Subject headings:
From Pima County Public Library:
Survivalism — Comic books, strips, etc.
Interpersonal relations — Comic books, strips, etc.
Families — Comic books, strips, etc.
Comic books, strips, etc. — United States.
Zombies — Comic books, strips, etc.
Graphic novels.
Comic books, strips, etc.
Horror comic books, strips, etc.
Similar works:
Books
World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry
Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier
Zomblog by TW Brown
Comics
Rotten by Mark Rahner and Robert Horton (authors); Dan Doughtery (illustrator)
Personal notes: I really enjoyed this book. I haven’t watched any of the television show, so I don’t know how they compare.
Other (diversity, themes, websites): Diversity – zombies, nomads, African Americans, Asian American
Originally published in single magazine form as The Walking Dead #1-12.
Includes an extra story and artwork at the back of the book.
I could not find a website for Cliff Rathburn
Ra's Spiral Path 
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