The Hiding Dead

The first issue of The Walking Dead I picked up was #31. I very clearly remember the issue, and my own complete confusion as to what was going on - some lady with a sword was being forced to fight chained-up zombies in an arena by a guy with an eyepatch. Strange as it was, it was interesting enough that I went back and picked up the first trade. It took long enough to catch up that the next single issue I bought was #36 - but I haven't missed an issue since.

Between the source material, Frank Darabont, Bear McCreary, and the excellent casting, I was primed very early on for the Walking Dead TV series to be something very special. That said, though, direct adaptations are always really difficult for me, because I can't stop myself from watching them in pure analysis mode - why did they leave out that panel? Is that character going to act the same way? Are they going to use that one great line? Why did they move that one moment to a different scene? Even when I can look back on something as being a very well-done adaptation of beloved source material - Scott Pilgrim, for example - there's always some part of the experience that feels hollow in retrospect, because it's impossible to let myself just watch.

I did, in fact, analyze every second of the premiere this way. Even still, I was absolutely amazed to find myself being moved a great deal by the character moments. What Darabont did with Morgan and Duane especially, by dealing with the mother, took their story to a whole new level and not only made me care about the TV characters as an entity unto themselves, but actually made the comic's Morgan and Duane more interesting and three-dimensional in retrospect. It was positively thrilling to hear that the premiere had such great ratings, because it alone earned this series another several seasons in my eyes - I was already dying to see Tyreese, Michonne, the Governor, Axel, and so on, but to see them not only in flesh and blood, but taken as far beyond the comic as Morgan was? I don't even have words.

Oh, and Glenn? We haven't even technically seen him yet, and he already kicks all kinds of ass.