The Walking Dead (comic book)

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 3rd of July 2019, readers of The Walking Dead issue #193 reached the letters column at the back and found a shock. Robert Kirkman, the creator of the zombie comic, was telling them that this issue was the last. No announcement had come before it. No solicitation hinted at it. The series, published by Image Comics, simply stopped.

  That abrupt exit raises a puzzle. Why would a writer end one of the best-regarded monthly comics of its era without any warning? The answer starts with a pitch that was rejected twice, and with an invention Kirkman never planned to use. It also runs through two artists, a cast of rival communities, and a franchise that spread into television, games, novels and tabletop miniatures. Following that thread begins with how the comic got made at all.

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• 2. A Pitch in Disguise

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  Jim Valentino, a co-founder of Image Comics, gave the first piece of advice that shaped the series. Kirkman and artist Tony Moore had pitched a follow-up to George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, set in the 1960s. Valentino suggested an original concept instead, so that the creators would own the property outright.

  Kirkman, a fan of zombie films such as the Living Dead series and Zombi 2, and of the video game Resident Evil, reworked the idea. The new version was a more traditional modern tale of zombie survival. Image turned it down again, this time for being too normal.

  So Kirkman added a twist. In the pitch, the plague was sent by aliens, and the comic would be an alien invasion story. Kirkman never meant to write that book. He felt the lie was necessary to get the comic published, and it worked.

  The comic debuted in 2003 as a series about a Kentucky deputy named Rick Grimes. He is shot in the line of duty and wakes from a coma into a state-wide quarantine and a world overrun by the dead. That lie about aliens would come back around years later, as a running joke.

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• 3. Two Artists, One Voice

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  Tony Moore drew the first six issues of The Walking Dead, and he also painted the covers for the first 24. Cliff Rathburn shaded the art after issue #5. Then the schedule caught up with the project. Moore had difficulty meeting deadlines, and Kirkman approached Charlie Adlard to take over.

  Adlard became the artist from issue #7 and drew the rest of the run. Moore's covers were also used on the first four trade paperbacks, after which Adlard's covers took over. Apart from a few specials, the series stayed in black and white for its entire original run.

  The back of most issues carried a column called Letter Hacks. Here Kirkman talked about the issue and answered letters, mail and emails from readers, often writing it together with his editor, Sean Mackiewicz. The column gave a monthly comic the feel of a conversation, and it would later become the stage for the series' biggest surprise.

  Moore's early pages grew valuable as the franchise grew. On the 28th of March 2013, an episode of the VH1 series For What It's Worth appraised his original art for page 7 of issue #1 at $20,000.

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• 4. Survivors and the Dead

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  Rick Grimes wakes in a hospital and slowly finds his wife Lori and his son Carl among a new group of survivors. Also in the group is his former best friend Shane, who is secretly involved with Lori. The camp is only the first stop. The comic's real subject is how each settlement of survivors chooses to organize itself, and what each one costs.

  A prison becomes a home, shared uneasily with surviving inmates. Nearby, a town called Woodbury is led by the Governor, who holds Rick, Michonne and Glenn captive and plans to take over the prison. Later, the Alexandria Safe-Zone is run by a congressman named Douglas Monroe. Alexandria links up with the Hilltop Colony, reached through its scout Paul Monroe, known as Jesus, and with the Kingdom, led by King Ezekiel.

  The worst threat is Negan, the psychopathic leader of the Saviors, who live in a factory. The war against him is ended by Dwight, a Savior who betrays him. Afterward, newcomers such as Magna and Dante arrive, and Oceanside is founded out at sea.

  Then come the Whisperers, a tribe who disguise themselves as the dead and reject the idea of rebuilding civilization. Their leader, Alpha, clashes with Rick, even as her daughter Lydia begins a romance with Carl. When Alpha's second in command, Beta, takes over the tribe, he declares war on the communities.

  The dead themselves are sorted by Rick's group into walkers, roamers and lurkers. Walkers are the most likely to head toward a loud noise, hoping for human prey. Characters also use other names, including biters and stinkers. The undead follow and copy one another, so enormous hordes can travel together. As Abraham puts it, they are "walking nonstop, following a sound they've all forgotten."

  Asked where the zombies came from, Kirkman said an answer existed but did not matter to the story.

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• 5. The Secret Ending

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  Around issue #150, the Commonwealth appeared in the comic, and that is where Kirkman's plan began to unravel. It is a large human community protected from the walkers. He had pictured ending the series around the time Rick and his allies arrived there, because that would give him a complete arc. But he reached it too soon in terms of issues.

  The math troubled him. He feared he had no way to reach an issue #300 with the ideas he had left. He also feared he lacked the material to keep going for even several more issues. So he chose to end the comic on his own terms.

  The finale followed the death of Rick Grimes in issue #192. Then Kirkman kept the ending a secret, which took real effort. With Adlard, he made cover art and solicitation information for Diamond Comic Distributors for issues that did not exist. These phantom issues ran through #196, with release dates reaching into October 2019. Their storyline hinted at the death of Carl Grimes, Rick's son, in the wake of his father's death.

  Kirkman said the comic was always built on surprise. He felt readers had to be surprised by the ending, once issues #192 and 193 covered enough of the aftermath of Rick's death. The surprise still had a coda. In July 2020, Image announced that the whole run would be reprinted in full color.

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• 6. Side Stories

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  The Michonne Special arrived on the 16th of March 2012 and followed her in the early days of the outbreak. It also revealed the identity of her two pet walkers. A string of other specials followed. The Governor Special in February 2013 showed his early days leading Woodbury and the fate of Scott Moon. Morgan, Tyreese and his daughter Julie, and her boyfriend Chris, each got their own one-off story as well.

  The Alien, released in April 2016, is a 32-page story about Jeffrey Grimes during the outbreak in Barcelona, Spain. Here's Negan! told the villain's backstory in four-page installments inside Image+, the publisher's monthly magazine. These ran across its first sixteen issues, from April 2016 to July 2017. In 2017 it was collected as a 72-page hardcover. Negan Lives!, a 36-page one-shot in July 2020, followed him after issue #174.

  Rick Grimes 2000 finally cashed in the alien lie as a joke. It is a five-chapter, non-canonical follow-up to an in-joke from issue #75. After Michonne knocks Rick out, he wakes in a science fiction world where the zombies are the forerunner of an alien invasion.

  The Clementine graphic novels, running from June 2022 to June 2025, followed the girl from the video games on a new journey.

  Novels took a different route. Between 2011 and 2014, Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga wrote books about the Governor, starting with Rise of the Governor in October 2011. They covered his survival in the ravaged world, his rise at Woodbury and the end of the prison storyline. Bonansinga then carried on alone, with Kirkman's name on the covers. In October 2019 a novel called Typhoon, by Wesley Chu, joined the line.

  In January 2016, Mantic Games, the maker of Kings of War, announced a tabletop miniature wargame called All Out War. Funded through Kickstarter, it began shipping to backers on the 7th of November 2016.

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• 7. Screens and Choices

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  AMC secured the television rights in 2009, and the first season premiered on the 31st of October 2010 to high ratings. The show loosely followed the comic. It introduced new characters such as Daryl Dixon and changed key plot points. Carl died in its eighth season, and Rick left in its ninth, though both characters remained for the comic's entire run. The series ended in 2022, after eleven seasons.

  Behind the scenes, the direction shifted. When the fourth season premiered in 2013, Scott M. Gimple became the third showrunner. He said he would stay as close to the comic as possible while remixing stories. Kirkman expected the show to track the comic more closely under Gimple. In October 2018, with the ninth season, Angela Kang was promoted to showrunner and Gimple took charge of all Walking Dead properties at AMC.

  Those properties grew to six companion series, the first two being Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond. AMC had earlier released an animated short of the first part of issue #1, with animation by Juice Films, voice acting by Phil LaMarr and art by Tony Moore.

  Video games took the franchise somewhere quieter. Telltale Games secured rights with Kirkman in 2011 and released its episodic The Walking Dead in 2012. Kirkman said the game focused more on characterization and emotion than action. Players made choices through conversation trees and quick time events, and those choices carried into later episodes.

  The game followed Lee Everett, a former teacher convicted of murder, and Clementine, a young girl left alone at the outbreak's start. Glenn Rhee and Hershel Greene appeared briefly, before their first comic appearances. Critics praised the characterization of Lee and Clementine, and the game is credited with reviving a waning adventure game market.

  In 2018, while Telltale was releasing its final season, the studio went bankrupt and cancelled its projects, including the last two episodes. Kirkman had already founded Skybound Entertainment and was eyeing a gaming division. He took the rights, temporarily rehired most of the staff so that Clementine's story could be finished, and published remastered versions of all four seasons.

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• 8. Collected Editions

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  The first trade paperback, Days Gone Bye, reached shelves on the 12th of May 2004 and collected issues #1-6. By Volume 32, Rest in Peace, the series had filled 32 volumes with three-word titles. The zombies on each cover form part of a larger image when the books are placed end to end. The last zombie on Volume 32 connects to the first on Volume 1, and the image loops.

  Hardcovers carry the original covers and sometimes bonus material, with two story arcs in each. Their cover subjects range from Rick and Michonne to Negan, Ezekiel and Alpha. Signed versions of those books were limited to 310 pieces. Omnibus editions collect about 24 issues in a slipcase. The first omnibus was autographed by Kirkman and Adlard, with 300 copies printed. Later volumes ran to 3000 each, plus deluxe signed editions of 300. Compendiums gather about 48 issues.

  The publisher also treated the series as an event. When the television series premiered in October 2010, Image announced The Walking Dead Weekly. From the 5th of January 2011, the first 52 issues were reprinted at one per week for a year.

  On the 13th of October 2018, comic shops marked The Walking Dead Day with a 15th anniversary variant of issue #1. Adlard drew the cover, and some participating shops became part of the comic's story, with their own logos worked into the art.

  Color came last. Dave McCaig's colorized reprints began on the 7th of October 2020, with new releases twice a month from November 2020. There were no plans to collect them in trade paperbacks.

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