Imagine the world as you know it gone, and you are constantly on the run. Pursuing you slowly but surely are a horde of exhaustless dead. In this graphic novel The Walking Dead 2, our little band of ragtag survivors finds themselves in a prison, literally. Surrounded by a fence, which keeps the dead out, they must now clear the grounds of any "leftovers" which might be hiding in dark corners. It's an enormous task. The good news is that they have a lot of food, and room to move around. The bad news is that the prison was still occupied by a couple of prisoners and they have no idea what crime these men committed to be there. Trust isn't an issue in a world where everyone must have each others back, including strangers. Each person there has lost someone, and human nature is to cling to anything you have left. Families are formed, friendships are tested, and enemies are quickly dispatched. The new rule is "kill and you die" which means kill one of the living and you will become one of the dead, but not the walking dead, just plain dead.
I wont give anything away, but I will say that I was completely shocked, disgusted, appalled, giddy, distressed, moved and keyed up by this novel. I know that they could never put this on film because they wouldn't ever get permission for such staggering "kick in the teeth" carnage. At one point I had to just put the book down and wait for the blood to come back to my face.
I can't stress enough how richly this graphic novel is drawn. The artistry, the sheer genius of it and the rawness just oozes off the pages. I have seen zombies in films that cannot mirror the ones that are on these pages. Their eyes are filmy white, skin peeled back by the rays of the sun, maggots dropping with every shuffled step, putrid organs now black with rot trailing behind. Their fingers, and arms and legs are bent at angles the human form wasn't meant to. It's a feast for the eyes, as well as the brain.