Walking Dead there was Deadworld. Here is one of comics' longest running independents as Deadworld has had over 100 issues and graphic novels published and over one million copies sold over the years.

And it all starts here! A supernatural plague has been unleashed on the world. The dead return to walk the earth...but this is no standard zombie story. The dead are just soldiers for those who have crossed the Gateway. The lead zombies are intelligent, sadistic, and in addition to having a hankering for flesh, enjoy the tortuous ordeals they put the surviving humans through. Now seven wayward teens on a school bus, scramble to escape the zombie apocalypse. Little did they know that there were also intelligent zombies and they had a plan...and they had a leader, King Zombie. Death becomes very real to the teens as they lose some of their members and their hope that an abandoned riverboat will provide sanctuary proves futile.

The Deadworld Archives series collects all of the original Deadworld series published by Arrow and Caliber Comics from the 1980-90s into a series of ten graphic novels. BOOK ONE has the very first four issues of the series.

"If you like zombies, horror, and/or post-apocalyptic stories you should definitely be checking this series out." - Comicspectrum.

"You must get this if you're even a casual fan of horror or anything zombie or undead-related. It's clear The Walking Dead took some cues from this book (some of them honestly seem like blatant rip-offs), so go support a book that got the zombie genre right first." - Comicbastards.

"Plain and simple, you need to read Deadworld, old and new, because it is at the top of my list of Horror Comic Must Read Titles. - Dying Breath 5.0 out of 5.0" - DecapitatedDan