Walking Dead, issues 37-48.

Walking Dead 37-48, by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard.  

In this series of issues, life among our crew at the prison is actually looking up (all things considered). The garden they previously planted is now producing fresh fruit.  Baby Judith is born to Rick and Lori. A wedding even takes place.

Things seem to going well. But writer Robert Kirkman just can't let this be. One thing that we as readers have learned (and the characters have not) is that when things seem to be going well, that is the exact time that they will turn sour. Very sour.

The downhill run of luck begins when Carol kills herself, via the new method of suicide-by-zombie. And then the Governor arrives to wreak vengeance on Michonne and our crew. The battle takes place over a short period of time, but the action takes six issues to cover. Kirkman's scripting and Adlard's art work together to give us brutal action moments and nice character moments, sometimes simultaneously. There are very few moments where it felt like padding. The action -- all of the fighting, retreating, regrouping and fighting some more -- all made sense.


The cliffhanger of one issue is the arrival of the Governor's troops outside the prison, and the entire next issue is backstory of the Governor and the people of Woodbury, following Michonne's attack on the Governor. So readers of the book had to wait an entire extra month for the actual battle to actually take place and the cliffhanger to pay off.  Reading this story in hardcover form, I read it in large chunks. I feel so sorry for those who were reading this as the book came out in single issues.

Many people die in the battle with Woodbury, both in Rick's crew and the Governor's, including a character we've come to know well. A few of the humans are killed by zombies. But most are done in by fellow humans.