First published 2010
Rick Grimes and his group of survivors have been running for so long that the sight of a functioning community with walls, electricity, and living residents feels almost impossible to believe. A man named Aaron finds them on the road and offers an invitation to a place called the Alexandria Safe-Zone, a neighborhood outside Washington, D.C. that has somehow held together while the rest of the world fell apart. Rick wants to trust it. He also knows that wanting something badly enough is exactly how people get killed. Inside the walls, residents have jobs, routines, and a leader named Douglas Monroe who seems reasonable and welcoming. But Rick has survived too much to stop watching for the angle. He keeps his gun close and his doubts closer. The central tension here is not zombies. It is whether safety itself can be trusted, and what a man shaped entirely by catastrophe does when the catastrophe might actually be over. The volume closes on that question without flinching from it.
Genres: fiction, drama, survival, horror, thriller, post-apocalyptic
Vibes: dark, gritty, suspenseful, tense, thought-provoking
Tropes: forced-proximity, found-family, trust-issues
Setting: Alexandria Safe-Zone, Washington, D.C.
148 pages · Comics · Image Comics
Content warnings: death, gore, graphic-violence