When it comes to shocking character deaths, The Walking Dead has never shied away from killing its lead cast. But when the comic book’s co-creator Robert Kirkman surprised fans by abruptly ending the series with issue #193 back in July, the comic scribe was terrified. Not of moving on, but of the potential backlash he would receive for flat-lining both the story and its protagonist, Rick Grimes, without any warning.
Just weeks after wrapping the nearly 16 year zombie apocalypse saga, Kirkman attended San Diego Comic Con--the largest pop culture event in the United States. "Does anyone want to do me any physical harm?" Kirkman asked the crowd in response to the shocking end of his book. It was The Walking Dead creator’s first big event since turning off the lights on his comic book series with a lengthy goodbye letter to fans at the end of issue #193. The farewell note somberly opens with “This is the end of THE WALKING DEAD. That’s it... it’s over... we’re done.”
At his Thursday “In Conversation” panel at SDCC, Kirkman defended his decision to kill off his longtime project in the same manner he killed so many of his beloved characters--completely out of left field. Longtime The Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard recently opened up about Kirkman’s fears of fan backlash on Skybound’s Talk Dead to Me podcast.
The interview with Adlard (via ComicBook) reveals that fans were surprisingly supportive of the creative duo’s decision to end the book on their own terms, rather than drag the story out further. “I reckon we’ll get fifty percent people saying well done, and fifty percent expel wanting to kill us,” Adlard said in response to Kirkman’s fears about his Comic Con panel. “And he said the majority of people were all thumbs up.”
At the panel, Kirkman addressed online criticisms that The Walking Dead had grown “repetitive,” which was one of the reasons why he and Adlard felt it was time to close the final chapter of their epic zombie saga. While the book’s creator disagreed that his comic (which spawned a multi-billion dollar franchise) was repetitious in its storytelling, he understood the inevitability of that happening if they didn’t wrap the series up with a solid finale. Apparently, his fans agree with that sentiment.
Kirkman had previously pitched the idea of the final issue to his artist back in 2013. He envisioned it taking place years in the future, with an older Carl Grimes (Carl died in season 8 of the AMC show) married to fellow zombie apocalypse survivor, Sophia (who died in season 2 of the show). With the nightmarish events of the series now in the rear view mirror of society, known historically as “The Trials,” the book would end with Carl regaling his young daughter Andrea with stories of her grandfather Rick Grimes, a now legendary figure in the post-Walker world.
Reviews for the giant-sized finale issue of The Walking Dead have praised it not only for the impressiveness of its stealth, but for being able to deliver a satisfying capstone to a very long running horror series. Having gut-punched readers in the previous issue with Rick’s sudden and heartbreaking death, the book’s swan song manages to end on a surprisingly high note while also giving readers a strong sense of closure. Though many fans are sad to see the book come to such an abrupt end, few can fault The Walking Dead for dying the way it lived--with glorious unpredictability.
Source: ComicBook