Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead is an outright zombie phenomenon. The comic has spawned two television series, spinoff novels and an ongoing series of video games. Underneath all this, the original comic book is still going strong after an impressive 167 issues. Now, thanks to a video released by AMC, we can revisit that very first issue courtesy of the motion comic you’ll see above.
This is where all the blood, gore, misery and killing time in abandoned buildings started folks, opening with Rick Grimes being shot and ending up in a coma. He awakes to find a collapsed world, flesh-hungry zombies trudging the streets and society having irrevocably broken down. This’ll all seem pretty familiar to any fans of the TV show, as the first episode hewed very closely to the events of Kirkman’s comic.
The motion comic features artwork by Tony Moore and a performance by veteran voice actor Phil LaMarr, and producers Juice Films have done an excellent job of translating the stark black and white images into animated action. But something was nagging at me throughout this video – I was sure I’d seen it somewhere before.
A quick bit of Googling confirmed my suspicions – despite being touted as a new release, this motion comic actually debuted way back in 2010 as a promotion for the then-upcoming TV show. So, what gives? Are AMC trying to get money for old rope? Have over-excited writers on other websites jumped the gun without doing due diligence? Whatever the answer to those questions might be, even after seven years, this remains an exciting peek into the primordial ooze of The Walking Dead.
