Walking Dead, Volume 1: Days Gone Bye

"Days Gone Bye" is a trade paperback collection that reprints the first six issues of The Walking Dead comic book series by Robert Kirkman. Published by Image Comics, it was released to retailers on May 12th, 2004. Cover price for the collection is $9.95 US. The Walking Dead follows the journey of Kentucky police officer Rick Grimes as he awakens to a world that has been overrun by zombies. Traveling across the state of Georgia, Rick finds other survivors of the zombie plague and together they struggle to survive in a world that no longer makes any sense to them.

Part One
Police officer Rick Grimes and his partner Shane are involved in a shoot-out with an escaped convict on an open highway in Cynthiana, Kentucky. Rick darts out from behind his car to take cover in a nearby ditch, but the convict manages to fire a shot into Rick's shoulder with his shotgun.

Rick awakens at Harrison Memorial Hospital. He's not sure how much time has passed, but he knows that it has been a while judging by his healed injuries. He gets to his feet, but his muscles are too atrophied to walk properly. He calls for the nurse, but no one responds. Rick steadies himself and manages to hobble out into the corridor. The entire building is deserted. He goes to the elevator and is shocked to find the remains of a zombie caught between the doors. He then goes to the cafeteria, but when he unbars the double-doors, he finds an entire horde of zombies trapped inside. They rush to get out and one of them grabs a hold of Rick. They grapple with one another until they both tumble down a flight of steps. The impact snaps the zombie's neck.

He manages to flee the building and begins walking down the highway (after procuring a proper change of clothes). He comes upon the crippled zombie of a female bicyclist lying in the weeds off the side of the road. The creature sees him, but is unable to do anything. Rick takes her bicycle and rides off.

He makes it back to his home, but finds that the house is empty. There is no sign of his wife and child. He walks around the back when suddenly a young boy comes up from behind him and batters him across the back of the head with a shovel. Rick awakens moments later inside the neighbor's house. The boy's father introduces himself as Morgan Jones and apologizes for his son Duane's actions. He tells him Duane mistook Rick for a zombie. Morgan tries to bring Rick up to speed about everything that has happened, but there is little to tell. Rick begins to realize that the entire country, perhaps even the whole world, has now become overrun with zombies. Morgan tells him that he heard rumors of their being protective shelters in major cities. Rick decides that he must go to Atlanta. His wife's family lives there and he is confident that they must have gone there during the zombie outbreak.

The next day, Rick drives Morgan over to the police station where they stock up on supplies and ammunition. He lends Morgan one of the spare police cruisers and takes another for himself. As they leave, they spot a zombie behind a chained-link fence. Rick goes to shoot it, but Morgan discourages him, telling him that the thing is trapped and that he would be wise to ration out his ammunition.

The two say their goodbyes and Rick leaves for Atlanta. Along the way, he stops by the roadside where he had seen the crippled zombie in the weeds. Despite Morgan's advice about conserving bullets, Rick decides to put the monster out of its misery.

Part Two
Rick Grimes sets out towards Atlanta, Georgia to find his wife and son. He eventually runs out of gas and is unable to find a suitable service station. Abandoning his police cruiser, he walks on foot until he reaches a farmhouse. The residents of the home are dead, their rotting bodies lying in the floor of their living room. However, there is a horse in the stable that Rick decides to use as his new means of transportation.

He rides the horse until he get to Atlanta. The streets are barren and littered with debris with no signs of life at all. Suddenly, zombies begin to emerge from the shadows. They attack him en masse and Rick falls from his horse. He hacks away at his nearest attackers with a hatchet, but the horse, left with no defenses, quickly falls prey to the ravenous zombies.

A young Asian boy named Glenn Rhee spots Rick and helps him down a side alley. They scale a fire escape and make it to a rooftop and Glenn explains that the zombies are slow and apparently lack the coordination and dexterity to follow after them. They make it across the city by leaping from rooftop to rooftop. As the zombie population becomes less congested, they go to ground and make it to the outskirts of the city.

Glenn tells Rick that he is but one of a small band of survivors who have been living out of a camper a short distance away. When they reach the camper, Glenn introduces him to several of the survivors, but Rick is overwhelmed when he discovers that among them are his wife Lori, his son Carl and his old partner Shane.

Issues

 * The Walking Dead #1
 * The Walking Dead #2
 * The Walking Dead #3
 * The Walking Dead #4
 * The Walking Dead #5
 * The Walking Dead #6

Appearances

 * Rick Grimes
 * Carl Grimes
 * Glenn Rhee
 * Lori Grimes
 * Morgan Jones


 * Amy
 * Andrea
 * Carol Peletier
 * Dale Horvath
 * Donna
 * Duane Jones


 * Shane Walsh
 * Zombies


 * Allen
 * Ben
 * Billy
 * Jim
 * Sophia Peletier


 * Humans
 * Zombies


 * Kentucky
 * Cynthiana
 * Harrison Memorial Hospital


 * Georgia
 * Atlanta


 * Axe
 * Rifle
 * Shovel


 * Dale Horvath's RV
 * Harrison County police cruiser

Notes & Trivia

 * 144 pages.


 * Includes a two-page introduction by series creator Robert Kirkman.


 * This volume had ten separate printings.


 * ISBN-10: 1582406723


 * ISBN-13: 978-1582406725


 * Issues in this compendium have also been reprinted in the following collections:
 * The Walking Dead, Book One
 * The Walking Dead Omnibus, Volume 1
 * The Walking Dead Compendium, Volume 1