I Can't Say It Loud Enough: The Walking Dead Was Never About Zombies and Its Very First Scene Proves It

I have written about The Walking Dead extensively for Screen Rant, and that is because I feel that there is so much to be said about Robert Kirkman's comic series – yet I often find myself coming back to one foundational point about the story, which is that it is "about" its human characters, not the zombies, and the very first page of the comic's debut issue makes that clear.

The Walking Dead #1 – written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Tony Moore – famously begins in media res, with the series' protagonist, police officer Rick Grimes, engaged in a firefight with an escaped convict.

I've always appreciated how this single-page moment sets the tone, and establishes the style of The Walking Dead comic, but upon returning to it, I've come to realize that it sets up the theme of the whole series, which is that the line between civilization and chaos is razor-thin.

Lately, I Have Come To A New Understanding Of The Opening Pages Of "The Walking Dead"

The Walking Dead #1 – Written By Robert Kirkman; Art By Tony Moore; Published in 2003

I've read the first issue of The Walking Dead multiple times, and up until now, I always took the opening scene at face value, as a shocking, attention-grabbing moment, which also served as a convenient way to put Rick Grimes in a coma, so that Walking Dead #1 could have its big, dramatic "wake up in the hospital during a zombie apocalypse" moment. However, now it has become clear to me that the decision to start the story here is a carefully calibrated creative choice, one that orients the reader toward the overall thematic thrust of the book.

Even before a zombie appears in a single panel of The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes’ life is radically changed by violence – human violence. It is a testament to Robert Kirkman’s writing that there is actually a lot to unpack about this plot decision, as well as the details that comprise it, considering that it all occurs in a sequence of eight panels. To be honest, I’m surprised more detailed analysis hasn’t been devoted to the way it inaugurates both the narrative and thematic trajectories of Kirkman’s story.

That is to say, longtime fans of the comic series will know that as The Walking Dead went on, Robert Kirkman became increasingly focused on exploring what would happen when the barriers between society and barbarism come crumbling down, rather than just serving up another spectacle of zombie-horror violence every issue. This is what gave Kirkman’s story its longevity, and I would argue, helped ensure its popularity – and the opening shoot-out scene signifies that this was the author’s intent from the very beginning.

The Walking Dead's Opening Scene Tells Readers Exactly Who Is More Dangerous, Humans Or Zombies

One Is Motivated By Hunger, But What Makes The Other Do Bad Things?

Walking Dead readers know that the comic is "about" much more than zombies, but for many people, that is still the default way of describing the franchise, as reductive as it might be. As early as 2007, Robert Kirkman articulated the true purpose of his series in interviews, which is why it struck me this time that it is so clear, in retrospect, from the start of The Walking Dead #1, when Rick’s attempt at preserving order and stability is rewarded with a bullet to the gut.

The very first scene highlights the tenuous, strained ties that bind human society together; by the time Rick Grimes wakes up in the hospital on the next page, zombies have gnawed through those ties, but they were really only ever a mechanism to unleash the story's true monsters. By their nature, zombies are unthinking, and ignorant of the pain they cause – but the same can’t be said of the human villains, from the Governor, to Negan, and beyond, who quickly rose up to make Walking Dead’s post-apocalyptic landscape even worse.

Rick Grimes' First "Walking Dead" Scene Foreshadowed Much Of What Came Later

An Important Starting Point For The Series

The Walking Dead, in its original sixteen-year run, was published entirely in black-and-white, a creative choice that was meant, in part, to evoke the origins of the zombie genre, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. It wasn’t until I started to develop my newfound appreciation for the comic’s opening scene that I found a greater resonance to this creative decision as well; Romero invented the modern zombie story, and it is almost as though Kirkman and original series artist Tony Moore omitted color from their series to signify their intention to reinvent the genre.

That is, to make it about more than just zombies, and in the process, make it far more horrifying. In other words, the existence of zombies might be unfathomable, but the depravities of some human survivors were perhaps all too predictable. This is foreshadowed by the first scene of Walking Dead #1, as are several other key elements of the series ahead, from the prominence of a prison as a location, to the biggest tragedies that Rick Grimes faced during the course of the comic – or rather, would befall his family and friends as he struggled to keep them alive.