ZOMBIES ARE EVERYWHERE!

Oops. We didn't mean to alarm you. This is why punctuation and not TYPING IN ALL CAPS is important. Grandma, PLEASE STOP TEXTING US LIKE THIS. Thanks.

Let's try this again: Zombies are everywhere.

There. That's much less sensational. 

But when you really think about it, zombies aren't anything to be scared of. They're slow (except for those lightning fast ones in I am Legend). They're brainless. They're fragile. But that hasn't stopped zombies from taking over the media. It's the zombies' world these days; we just live in it. There are Nights and Dawns of the living dead, World War Z (also a book), 28 Days and Weeks Later. There's even zombie romance, with Warm Bodies (another book), and zombie TV shows like The Walking Dead. Not to mention movie spoofs like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, and zombie apocalypse survival guides. Even the Centers for Disease Control has gotten into the act with zombie survival kits and posters. You know a genre has totally saturated the culture when the spoofs start to appear.

The Walking Dead isn't just any book; it's a long-running comic series with more than a hundred issues spanning over a decade. That's more zombies than you can possibly shake a chainsaw at. The Walking Dead was created by Robert Kirkman, and the first issue in this blockbuster series hit comic stands in 2003. The first six issues feature amazing artwork by Tony Moore. (Moore was replaced by Charlie Adlard with issue #7, and subsequently filed a lawsuit against Kirkman in 2012.)

The Walking Dead is intended to be consumed, pun absolutely intended, in six-issue chunks, banded together as chapters. This module is about the first six issues, or Chapter One, called "Days Gone Bye." In this chapter, police officer Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma in a whole new world. Not one populated by genies and flying carpets, but a world crammed with flesh-hungry zombies. He has to find his family and do what he can to protect them from the hordes of—say it with us—the walking dead.

This series has been so screamingly successful it spawned not just a hit TV show, but a hit video game of the same name. The intensely visual graphic novel genre is perfect for telling zombie stories—these panels are so vividly drawn that they convey the poignant human side of the story as well as the gory zombie side. So grab a copy of The Walking Dead yourself to see just what got these zombies walking in the first place.

Survivalists are everywhere. You might know someone who's stockpiling guns for when the government comes to take all our firearms away. Or someone who's hoarding cans of Spam and gallons of water to survive "off the grid." There are blogs (that survivalists wouldn't be able to access if they're off the grid) and magazines (which wouldn't be delivered without the run-by-the-government U.S. Postal Service). OK, sorry. We're done.

But really, we're all trying to survive something. There's been a ton of speculation by psychologists with too much time on their hands about why we're all so obsessed with zombies. One theory is that zombies represent humans' primitive fear of predators, zombies being the ultimate scary predators. Another is that zombies symbolize emotional emptiness and boredom, and that we all fear the idea of living a "lifeless life," walking around in a bored, dead, lonely daze. We've all had days like that, right?

Finally, there's the idea that all these zombie apocalypse stories that keep us glued to the screen or page are really about the breakdown of society as we know it, a premonition about what might happen in a world where war, terrorism, disease epidemics, natural disasters, and financial collapse are all real threats. We read every day where something truly horrible is actually happening in some part of the world—Ebola, terrorist attacks, earthquakes—and what often ensues is usually a chaotic every-man-for-himself situation.

Now maybe we're just zombie fanatics because we love to see all the blood and gore. But really, these stories give us a glimpse of all the possible ways you could respond to a disaster of epic proportions. Would you save yourself and your family at all costs, even if it meant hoarding all the food and drinkable water and ammo and patrolling the fences? Would you try to take control of the situation and act for the common good? Hide in the nearest cave and wait for it to stop? Turn to religion? Turn away from religion? Wander around in a hopeless, lifeless daze?

The Walking Dead gives you a chance to think about how you might handle the unthinkable. But if you're just in the mood for blood-and-gore entertainment, it's an awesome example of that, too. And Kirkman and the artists manage to do it without special effects, CGI, or a makeup crew. Just the power of the pen and a creative imagination. Graphic storytelling at its best.