This series follows a group of survivors after the rapid epidemic of an unknown virus that has created “walkers,” or zombies. Rick Grimes, former sheriff of his small town, awakens from a coma in an entirely changed world. Clinging to his identity and leadership role in his community, he upholds the values and behaviors expected of a “man of the law.” His wife, Lori, and son, Carl, team up with Rick’s best friend and former work partner, Shane. Lori, Carl and Shane have been living in a small camp with a rather dysfunctional group of survivors. Once reunited with Rick, they move from one location to the next, believing that traveling towards a major city promises information, sustenance and security. Their journey is consistently disrupted by detours and disappointments, and slowly the survivors’ hope of arriving at a “promised land” morphs into an illusion. They learn to cope with the walkers, which once seemed the primary threat of their post-apocalyptic world, but it is quickly unveiled that the walking dead are nowhere near as sinister as the living.
Above is an image from chapter one of Compendium One (issues 1-48). In this moment, Rick experiences an encounter that changes his perception of the world in a major way. From this point forward his struggle becomes about returning to a past that cannot be recovered. In my thesis, I follow Rick’s decline into physical and mental fragmentation as he approaches, but never embraces the abyss.
