670 WALKING DEAD, THE
stint. In 2000, a number of high profi le creators, including Waid, developed the Gorilla
Comics imprint for creator-owned titles that were published through Image Comics.
Only a handful of issues ever saw print, and Waid and Barry Kitson completed their
Empire project through DC a few years later. In 2001, Waid began a one year exclusive
contract at CrossGen Comics. He contributed to a number of titles, but his most fondly
remembered CrossGen work was on the fi rst 10 issues of the Sherlock Holmes pastiche
Ruse.
In 2005, Waid signed an exclusive contract with DC, and immediately began playing
a major role in redefi ning the DC universe. His 2003, 12-part limited series Superman:
Birthright presented an up-dated telling of Clark Kent’s decision to become Super-
man, and was, for a time, the offi cial Superman origin story. Beginning in 2005, he
wrote the fi rst 30 issues of a rebooted and re-imagined Legion of Super-Heroes , renamed
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes halfway through his run. Waid was one of four
prominent writers given an editorial role in guiding the events of the DC universe in the
wake of Infi nite Crisis. From mid-2006 to mid-2007, the four also co-wrote the weekly
limited series 52.
In the summer of 2007 Waid assumed the position of editor-in-chief at Boom! Stu-
dios. In addition to guiding the company’s development and mentoring young writers,
Waid continues to write, not only titles such as Irredeemable , Th e Unknown , and Th e
Incredibles for Boom! Studios, but also Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel.
Randy Duncan
WALKING DEAD, THE. Debuting in October, 2003, this ongoing series revolves around
a cast of ever-changing characters living in a world infested by zombies , where only
pockets of humanity still exist. Written by Robert Kirkman ( Invincible , Th e Astound-
ing Wolf-man ), the series came at a time when the zombie-themed fi lms were gaining
momentum with fi lms like Resident Evil (2002) and 28 Days Later (2003) participating
in a renewed interest in zombie narratives. However, unlike these fi lms and the later
remake of George R. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (2004), Walking Dead contained the
cinematic slow-shambling rotting corpses made famous by Romero in his zombie fi lms
since the original Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Additionally, like many other zom-
bie narratives that focus solely on the outbreak phase of the zombie attacks, Walking
Dead bypasses the outbreak altogether and follows a group of survivors as they change,
adapt, and accept a new world order. Th e power of the story lies in the richly developed
characters and plot complications that occur over dozens of issues.
Th e story revolves around the main character, Rick Grimes, and his family. At the
onset of the story, Rick is a policeman who has awakened in an abandoned hospital
where he had been recovering from a gunshot. He manages to fi nd his wife Lori and
son Carl with a group of survivors, including his former partner, Shane. Strain occurs
between Shane and Rick as Rick assumes leadership and directs the group to make
an eff ort to get to Atlanta, Georgia. Th is escalates until the two are pitched to fi ght,
only to have Carl kill Shane to protect his father. From this point forward, Rick leads
