Both have two themes in common:
1. Zombies
2. Exploring the darker side of humanity in times of crisis
It's great to read two zombie titles simultaneously that offer a fresh take on the genre. Far from straight hack and slash, both speculate on what it would actually be like to live in a world where the dead walk around trying to eat your brains.
I must admit I was a bit turned off by the opening of The Walking Dead. A deputy sheriff who is shot falls into a coma, only to awaken later in the hospital to find the world over run with zombies. Hmm...feel like I've seen that opening somewhere before...I can only hope that was written before Robert Kirkman saw 28 Days Later. Either way, the series moves quickly on from there to be quite excellent. Kirkman does a good job of keeping the story suspenseful and fresh, and he's not afraid to take the reader to some very dark places.
World War Z, which admittedly I have only started, is told through a stories of interviews with survivors of the Zombie World War. I almost didn't buy this based on a few negative reviews on Amazon, but I'm glad that I trusted my judgment. The negative reviews said things like "Where's the action?" or "Where is the suspense?" I love action and suspense in my fiction as much as the next person, but how are we ever going to break any new ground if every writer sticks to plot-driven hack fests? Kudos to Max Brooks for finding a new angle on the zombie genre and doing an excellent job writing it. It's an idea so good it pisses me off that I didn't think of it first.
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