Warning: this piece contains spoilers for The Walking Dead TV and comic book series
In 2002, an obscure 24 year-old comic book writer walked into the Portland, Oregon headquarters of Image Comics and pitched an alien invasion tale with a difference. The story would involve zombies unleashed upon Earth as the first wave of an extra-terrestrial takeover, Robert Kirkman told Image co-founder Jim Valentino. Initially readers might believe they were diving into a run-of-the mill zombie saga. Then the camera would pull back, revealing a bigger, intergalactic tapestry.
Valentino had already expressed misgivings to Kirkman about the viability of a comic book series about zombies (and had rejected the initial pitch for a spin-off from George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead). This was 2002. The walking undead were old news. But alien zombies. That was an idea with potential. With his blessing Kirkman returned home to Lexington, Kentucky and knuckled down to what would become his life’s work.
The very lucrative joke was ultimately on Valentino. Kirkman had concocted the alien backdrop as a wheeze in order to receive the green light from Image. What he’d planned all along was a traditional zombie yarn, about a group of survivors, led by a flinty sheriff named Rick Grimes, making their way through the undead apocalypse.
It’s a journey that now jolts to an abrupt stop with the surprise news that, after 16 years, nearly 200 issues and a cast of thousands, The Walking Dead is coming to an end. The very final entry, number 193, is published this week and already collectors are clamouring to lay their hands on the farewell edition (anticipating the stampede, Image has instituted a two-purchase per fan limit).
The 193rd – and final – issue of The Walking Dead Credit: Image
The Walking Dead is today far better known as one of the world’s favourite TV shows. It briefly threatened to unseat Game of Thrones as the most watched series on the planet, before a tumble in quality had viewers fleeing for the hills. However, it remains tremendously popular – testament, many fans will argue, to the strength of Kirkman’s original vision.
The journey has not been smooth. Kirkman’s first success in the industry was with Battle Pope, a parody about a super-powered Pontiff. The Walking Dead, by contrast, was a hit almost from the beginning. Its 100th issue set a record as best-selling comic book of the 21st century, who more than 330,000 copies shifted.
And it has made Kirkman wealthy, with his net worth estimated at north of $6 million. Even early on, though, critics charged that Kirkman was essentially recycling the same Max Max-with-zombies arc over and over. This drew a sharp response.
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead
“The conflict with The Governor and Woodbury is completely different than the conflict with Negan and the Saviours… in almost every single way,” he wrote. “If you think those two huge storylines are the same, this book just isn’t for you. And that’s fine.”
Kirkman has a reputation for not suffering fools and for taking himself rather seriously. On the convention circuit, he would huff and roll his eyes when someone inevitably asked how long he would last in a real life zombie apocalypse (his rote answer was that he’d probably shoot himself at first opportunity). In 2008 he became a bit of a laughing stock within the industry when he issued a po-faced “manifesto” (essentially he wanted writers and artists to work for themselves rather than for big publishers such as DC and Marvel).
Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman Credit: AMC
Kirkman has inevitably been drawn into the controversies that have swirled around the AMC show too. In 2017, in his capacity as Walking Dead executive producer, he sued AMC claiming he wasn’t receiving a fair share of The Walking Dead’s profits (producers Glen Mazzara, David Alpert and Gale Anne Hurd are also parties to the suit).
He’s also been caught up in the inevitable flack over TWD’s perceived decline in quality since the controversial departure of original show runner Frank Darabont after its initial 2010 season. Darabont left amid tensions with AMC over its insistence on a 25 per cent budget cut – with an inevitable decline in quality – despite the success of its inaugural series. AMC later stated it had parted ways because of the aggressive fashion in which Darabont had communicated his frustrations (his emails to producers were indeed expletive-laden).
Darabont’s departure opened the door to new show-runner Scott Gimple, who immediately clashed with Kirkman over how closely he should follow the comic books. The twist is that, according to Gimple, it was Kirkman who pushed for the drama to take greater dramatic license.
A series of panels from the Walking Dead comics Credit: image
“Back when we started, Robert and I argued a lot because I wanted to do the book just as the book and he actually wanted to do changes because he had already done it,” said Gimple, who in 2018 took over the wider Walking Dead franchise (including spin-off Fear the Walking Dead) and handed day to day show-runner duties to Angela Kang . “And, yeah, I wanted to see those moments that I saw in the book.”
The liberties increased as the series went on and found its own voice. Nonetheless, Gimple often deferred to Kirkman and sought his advice. He, for instance, went to the writer when toying with killing off Carl Grimes – son of Rick and still very much alive in the comics.
This was perceived as self-destructive and heartless. Carl was one of the characters audiences had identified with from the very beginning. And actor Chandler Riggs, believing his future on the show secure, had recently purchased a house in Georgia, where the Walking Dead is filmed.
“I think [show-runner Scott Gimple] first brought it up to me as a possibility probably about a year ago at this point,” said Kirkman. “At first, I was kind of like, ‘Well, that’s a big one, you know?’
“I might have had a little bit of trepidation. But once he laid out to me exactly what his long-term plans were and the things that come out of it and the things that it leads to, it was something I got on board with.
Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes Credit: amc
“I know that some fans online have been very upset, but that’s by design. We’re not supposed to be happy when these characters die. We are supposed to be worried about what comes next and anticipating what comes next and stressing about what comes next. That just shows that you’re engaged and you’re interested.”
Kirkman has had some surprises of his own as The Walking Dead staggered to the end. In June the comic strip went where the show has not dared and killed off Rick Grimes (portrayed by Andrew Lincoln on screen and recently packed off to star in future stand alone TWD movies).
With Rick rubbed out, Walking Dead was always on borrowed time. Still there were no indication that the saga was set to conclude. Indeed, Kirkman and Image had storyboarded future covers in order to deflect suspicion that he was about to pull the plug.
Original Walking Dead showrunner Frank Darabont on set Credit: AMC
“The Walking Dead has always been built on surprise,” he said in a statement. “Not knowing what’s going to happen when you turn the page, who’s going to die, how they’re going to die… it’s been essential to the success of this series. It’s been the lifeblood that’s been keeping it going all these years, keeping people engaged. It just felt wrong and against the very nature of this series not to make the actual end as surprising as all the big deaths.”
His pronouncements may have chimed a bell with long-running fans of The Walking Dead. In the very first issue, he set out his vision for what the series would and would not be. Even then, as an unheard of young writer, the scale of his ambition was clear.
“With the Walking Dead I want to explore how people deal with extreme situations and how these events change them,” he wrote. “I’m in this for the long haul. You guys are going to get to see Rick change and mature to the point that when you look back on this book you won’t even recognise him… This book is more about watching Rick survive than it is about watching zombies pop around the corner and scare you. I hope that’s what you guys are into.”
A decade and a half and a tens of millions of sales later, Kirkman might conclude that this was exactly what his audience was into. He ended the series on a largely happy note, with order restored to the world and humans learning to co-exist with the walkers. The final page shows Carl Grimes reading a story to his daughter as she sits on his lap.
The Walking Dead is over. But as the most popular comic book series of the 21st century this shaggy zombie tale has already shambled its way into immortality, not waving but groaning.
