Table Of ContentCOLLECTOR’S EDITION
Entertainment WEEKLY
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO
The
Walking
Dead
PHOTOGRAPH BY DYLAN COULTER
Contents
Cover
Title
“Undeath Becomes Him” Foreword by Chris Hardwick
Why We Love Zombies
Season 7: Your Sneak Peek
Season 1: After the World Dies
Cast Roundtable: The Dirty Half Dozen
Season 2: Battle of Cain & Abel
Making of a Zombie
Season 3: Cutting to the Quick
Steven Yeun’s Personal POV
Season 4: The Night Shift
Signs of the Apocalypse
Season 5: The Talk of the Town
You Can Live in Alexandria
Inside the Mind of Robert Kirkman
Season 6: Shock & Awesome
The Dearly Departed
Credits
Copyright
THE TWO COVERS
This collector’s edition of Entertainment Weekly has two front covers,
one of the living, one of the undead.
INSIDE: ORIGINAL ART!
All the season chapters open with panels that trace the journey of
survivors in the series, created by the artists who draw The Walking
Dead comic books.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DYLAN COULTER
Pictured: Lauren Cohan, Andrew Lincoln, Steven Yeun and Norman
Reedus
Foreword
Undeath Becomes Him
I’ve watched the series go from cult hit to cultural movement, and served as
fan ambassador, zombie therapist and full-time Walking Dead Customer
Service Desk. What keeps me glued to the screen? The stories, the cast and
crew, sure—but most of all, the community. BY CHRIS HARDWICK
EVERYTHING IN MODERATION: Chris Hardwick during his live aftershow.
THE FIRST TIME I SAW THE WALKING Dead was at San Diego Comic-Con,
2010. I was there with a few friends, and we wandered by the AMC booth on the
convention floor, where they were playing the trailer for this wild new adaptation of the
comic. The trailer played, and all of us reflexively uttered strings of excited expletives—
which I’m not allowed to write here because people are sensitive about swearing but
fine watching a show where people’s brains get stabbed out of their heads.
We watched the trailer play five more times. When I got back to L.A., I was able to
obtain the press screener, which was only the first two episodes. I was hooked.
Immediately. “ ‘Cuz if there really was a zombie apocalypse,” I’d prattle on to whoever
wouldn’t walk away from me, “that’s what it would actually be like.” Having to wait for
the remaining episodes to air was like being in a middle seat and having to pee—I
needed relief. When I finally got it, TWD became my new favorite show.
Early the next year I caught wind that AMC might experiment with an aftershow that
would wrap up all the action. It was a naive time before rhymes were fully understood,
so it was referred to simply as The Walking Dead Aftershow. At the same time I was
pursuing the job, I got a call from one of the executives at AMC who just happened to
have been my first television boss when I worked at MTV back in the 1900s. It’s a good
lesson, kids! Never give up and you too can have the kind of career that keeps coming
back from the dead.
And thus began one of the most significant journeys of my life. In the last five years
I’ve gotten to be the weird Cousin Oliver peering in through the window of The
Walking Dead—the overexcited towheaded boy who is sort of involved with the show
and stands proudly near it. The show is beautifully shot and directed, with stunning
special effects (no one else was skilled enough to do good zombies on high-def TV
before Greg Nicotero), masterfully written and brilliantly acted (Emmys: Nominate
these people), and yet those things only account for a hit show. What makes it a
monster-hit-global-phenomenon- pop-culture-defining monolith is one simple word—
community. It’s an “Inception” of community layers: The Walking Dead is a show
about a tight community made by a tight community for a tight community. It makes
us face the most basic questions about who we’d become in an extreme world and who
would be there with us.
The people who make the show are genuinely some of the most wonderful people,
who care deeply about each other and understand that this experience is the most
rarefied of TV air. They are not just actors taking a paycheck for a job, they are also a
part of the fan community. You can feel it when you view their Instagrams or see any
pics pop up on the Internet with excited Walking Deadheads who spotted them in the
wild. They happily take the time to share in that excitement with those who have made
it a part of their lives.
I’ve never seen a show that had a following with such a broad age range—kids,
parents, grandparents. This show is a bonding ritual for them. I’ve been lucky enough
to meet thousands of them, from little girls who’ve told me they want to be Michonne
to grandpas who tell me how to recycle poop to grow crops if society falls. (Well, one
guy. True story.) We are part of a worldwide club that can immediately connect on
who might die next in the show, what our zombie apocalypse escape plan is, which
Abraham Ford-ism best describes us (me: dolphin smooth) and, of course,
CORALLLLLLL.
From the bottom of my edible heart I would like to very sincerely thank both The
Walking Dead’s team for adopting me and the legion of amazing fans for allowing me to
be an annoyingly enthusiastic part of your Sunday-night ritual.
