Pop culture fandom loves a good rivalry: King Kong vs. Godzilla, Star Trek vs. Star Wars, Batman V Superman. Recently it looked like a new rivalry was in the works for fans of TV horror/fantasy shows: Robert Kirkman vs. George R.R. Martin.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Kirkman had what seemed to be pretty harsh words for Martin over the Game of Thrones writer telling the TV show's producers how his books were going to end. Kirkman said that while he knew how his Walking Dead comics were going to end, he did not take the same approach as Martin. Commenting on how Martin handled the matter, Kirkman said, "He should have just been like, f*** you. You make it up now, I’ll get to mine when I’m ready." Now, however, Kirkman is saying his comments were misunderstood.

In a series of tweets following up on his Rolling Stone statements, Kirkman said that he had been "just joking" in his criticism of Martin and is in fact a fan both of the author and Game of Thrones. The tweets started off with an animated GIF of a scene from Mad Men, another show Kirkman is no doubt fond of since it helped make The Walking Dead network AMC a major player in the drama game:

Kirkman then followed up with a more detailed retraction and declared Martin to be the superior writer between the two of them:

"'Disappointed' is probably the wrong word. I was just joking about how I would have handled that situation. Love GOT, love GRRM. George RR Martin is a far better writer than I'll ever be. And I'm loving the new season of Game Of Thrones. It's my favorite show on TV!"

So with Martin not responding to Kirkman's comments and Kirkman walking those comments back faster than Rick Grimes can back away from the undead, it seems that any feud between the two writers is probably over before it even began. That is, of course, unless Martin takes to his LiveJournal to strike back with some barbs of his own. It seems unlikely at this point, but not any more unlikely than Martin ever finishing the next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Next: Game of Thrones Director Hints at Shorter Season 7

Game of Thrones continues next Sunday with ‘The Broken Man’ @9pm on HBO. Fear the Walking Dead season 2 will resume with eight new episodes in August 2016 on AMC. Season 7 of The Walking Dead is expected to premiere October 9th, 2016.

Source: Robert Kirkman (via ComicBook.com)