Walking Dead comics, anyone else stop reading? OPEN SPOILERS!

Cafe Society
#1

I used to read them until the end of the Governer storyline where EVERYONE DIES except two.

I kept reading to the point the two survivors reach some bizarre delusional upper middle class gated community where everyone pretends there are no zombies or something. Also Rick was talking on the phone…hmm.

At this point I quit knowing eventually something will happen in the community and it will be overrun etc etc ad nauseum repeat etc.

I picked up a more recent comic and noticed Michonne is back somehow, is it worth reading the interval I missed and new ones? I think what put me off was the comic seemed to be going nowhere, or Rick was slowly being driven insane by loss. In fact I started guessing the last issue would be Rick finanlly stripped of everything that gave his life meaning accepting death and moving on(the zombie world being metaphorical etc).

#2

I never stopped reading, but I agree with you. The last 99 issues have been get chased by zombies, find temporary safety, bad stuff happens, leave, get chased by zombies, find temporary safety, bad stuff happens, leave. Wash, rinse, repeat. :rolleyes: While the story has been repetitive the writing has still been good and Rick gets “better”(?). I assume issue 100 will be filled with the death of some favorite characters.

I’m really hoping that issue 101 will jump ahead about 5 or 6 years. Lets see Carl in his early teens. With what he’s seen, he’ll either be a young bad ass zombie killing machine, or complete psychopath… or both.

#3

I stopped reading when they escaped the Governor’s town. The Walking Dead was no longer a comic book I was interested in reading.

#4

Still reading but I wait for the collections. I just finished Volume 16 " A larger World" Hard to say if you would want to continue or not… It all depends on your reasons for giving up really.

The story goes on… new characters are introduced others die. Rick and survivors keep changing based on the world they live in. That seems to be the major theme of the series. Rick now is not the Rick that woke up from the coma.

The sporadic zombie attacks and chaos that keeps breaking in is just to make sure the zombie fans are satiated. Interestingly enough the discussions in the TV series threads of what Rick must become to survive seem to be playing out. He has become the suspicious nasty me against the world character they think he should become. It is not going well for him.

I’ll keep going but it may not be to everyone’s tastes. I wasn’t a big fan of the Governor story but I got through it. I like it still. But it is up to the individual.

#5

Yes. Stopped around 80 something, but I should have stopped after the 30 something issue were Michonne tortures the gov for 20 pages. blegh. That was akin to those torture porn movies I avoid like Hostel.

I’m not one to whine about a lack of likable characters. I don’t believe likability is a requirement in fiction; compelling is. I could watch the loathsome Anton Chigur or Daniel Plainview for hours because they’re so compelling. I don’t give a shit about anyone in the Walking Dead.

Kirkman started the comic with the mission statement of, ‘we never see what happens after the end of a zombie movie - this comic is about what happens next, then next, then next…’ It turns out, keeping track of characters after a standard dramatic arc plays out is relentlessly boring, repetitive, and practically nihilistic. The series has failed as entertainment. It is an exercise in grinding.

#6

My main problem was with nearly everyone dead what was the point of their characters? Maybe I wouldn’t have been so pissed if I knew from the start the story was about Rick basically.

Also like I said the plot seemed to be spinning its wheels, I don’t need to see in real time someone’s day to day life(I could read free blogs if that fascinated me :stuck_out_tongue: )

See once they established the prison, they were sending out scouts and ambassadors basically to other strongholds. Interesting, very different dynamic. I was hoping they would continue, maybe some strongholds unite, maybe they try to make it to the Atlantic and find boats of survivors through which we would find out whats going on in the rest of the world etc.
I remember a free web based zombie fiction(Monster Island?) where needing meds survivors cross and ocean to explore NYC for the medicine, the plot picks up years later too, I seem to remember they find the crew of a nuclear sub still living. The point is the plot seemed to be going somewhere, exploring the new zombie infected reality etc. WD got to feel just like grinding time waste, which I was paying for heh.

#7

Not to be too picky about it, but 7 characters are alive past the Prison end.

Sometimes you need wiki’s for the likes of this, some novels barely feature some of them.

Status of comic characters

They are Rick and Carl, Glen, Andrea, Sophia, Maggie and Michonne.

#8

I actually stopped watching the TV show for the same reason. I hold out a glimmer of hope for the comic to move the plot on (ploddingly) but I expect that 100 may be the end of the road so to speak for me as well.

#9

I find the dialogue a little clunky and talkie but I still read. The most recent Trade paperback suggests the patterns people have been complaining about may be changing.

#10

Pretty much this. I thought it started strong, but gradually went just way, wayyyy too far over the top for my tastes. The Governor was beyond ridiculous as a character.

Really at this point in popular history I think I may actually be more tired of zombies than I am of vampires. At core I think the unrelenting depressive tension of the zombie genre has finally started to cease being entertaining to me.

#11

The last issue I read was when Michonne tortured the Governor, but didn’t kill him/make sure he was dead. That was it for me, there was no way she should let such an enemy live. So I was out. It was too unacceptable for me to accept and I accepted a world of Zombies.