Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead, Invincible for Image Comics, as well as Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt. He is one of the five partners of Image Comics, and the only one of the five who was not one of the original co-founders of that publisher.
Robert Kirkman's first comic books were self-published under his own Funk-o-Tron label. Along with childhood friend Tony Moore, Kirkman created Battle Pope which was published in late 2001. Battle Pope ran for over 2 years along with other Funk-o-Tron published books such as InkPunks and Double Take.
In July of 2002, Robert's first work for another company began, with a 4-part SuperPatriot series for Image, along with Battle Pope backup story artist Cory Walker. Robert's creator-owned projects followed shortly thereafter, including Tech Jacket, Invincible and Walking Dead.
Rick Grimes is a strong-willed deputy who missed the end of the world because he was in a coma for a month after getting shot in the line of duty. Shaken, starving and confused, Rick escapes the horror of the abandoned hospital only to be met with something far more terrible. Not only has the world ended, but the dead have learned to walk and to kill without mercy. After learning that his wife and son have fled to Atlanta from a single survivor and his son, Rick goes on a journey to reunite with his family and search for more survivors.
Rick quickly has to come to terms with the fact that the world has ended and only a select few survived. The dead have risen from their graves and they prey on the living. In a world where every minute feels like hours, where there's no such thing as law and order, where finding a small meal is a tremendous task, the walking dead are quite possibly the least threatening thing for the survivors to have on their breaking minds. Humanity is pushed to the brink of destruction, forcing them to embrace their cruel and primal nature in order to survive. Sometimes you have to be more concerned about who you let into your community so they don't kill you in your sleep and steal everything you once cared about. Rick has no choice but to abandon the ways of law and order that he's upheld as an officer for so long in order to protect the few loved ones he has left. He has to become a monster to protect his crew or risk being devoured by those who became more monstrous than him and even the walking dead.
Despite zombies running the world and having the series named after them, what really sets this series apart from the average zombie apocalypse tale is the focus on realism and the daily struggles, flaws and depth of the characters. There's plenty of badass zombie killing action, but the action often takes a back seat to give the characters plenty of times to share their extremely tragic yet endearing stories, grow through mutual suffering and learn to adapt to a world that has left them to die. Even after the world has ended, many people still can't see eye to eye. They turn on each other and kill each other when they should come together. Others form alliances in spite of their differences and try to rebuild over the corpse of everything that was lost. The daily human drama and conflict is more intense than any monster apocalypse could hope to be.
We watch Rick struggle to balance his old moral code with the many necessary evils he has to commit in order to survive and make the world a better place for the ones he holds close. We watch people like Glen, Dale and Maggie attempt to find love in spite of having every reason to be filled with fear, hate and self-loathing. Characters like Michonne have to learn how to forgive themselves and convince themselves they deserve to be loved despite all the blood on their hands. We watch the weak like Carl and Andrea become strong and sometimes the strong become evil like The Governor. Even monsters like the wicked yet oddly lovable Negan are given the chance to find new ways of redeeming themselves by struggling alongside the other survivors that have all been changed by the horrors of the fallen world.
The pacing is extremely slow and I can understand why that may be a turnoff for a lot of people, but I eventually learned to enjoy watching the characters grow, overcome their trauma, find meaning in life and learn to love again. The characters are forced to do many terrible things to survive and it haunts them every waking moment. The ways they overcome these regrets is very realistic, human and hopeful. The slow pacing really gives the feeling that we're living beside these people. The way every tiny detail of their lives and who they are is explored makes them feel very real and believable.
When I first started reading the series, I wasn't expecting it to have such an uplifting ending. It seemed so bleak and nihilistic for a long time and things would go horribly wrong even when they seemed to be going so well, but the finale channels all the pain, suffering and betrayal of the previous volumes and tops it off with a very touching and inspiring finish. This was never a story about hopelessness. It's about learning to appreciate the little things, learning to forgive yourself and learning to move on even when it's hard. When everything seems lost there's always more to be found, even when we believe otherwise because we convince ourselves that we don't deserve to be happy ever again. Instead of dwelling on what was lost, strive to try and make things better than they were before.
I've never been a huge fan of zombie apocalypse stories, but The Walking Dead had enough heart and strong social commentary to make me stick by the characters until the end and I enjoyed every moment of their long trial.
I found some of the dialogue to be a little corny at one point and it had every right to be; it made sense in the current situation of the Whisperer War ending and everyone celebrating the "win".
And then the true ending was anything BUT corny! That beautifully horrific two page spread and the upcoming cover of #163 has me extremely worried for the fate of Alexandria.
Whoa!! What an interesting end to a very entertaining story arc. That swarm at the end is probably the biggest swarm I've seen in the comics. It's going to be EPIC!!
Okay so I have been waiting to see than giant herd again! If you haven't read the Negan stand alone book Here's Negan! You need to. He has a hard sad back story and I am so glad I read it.
Negan is fucking crazy. I mean, I get that he named the bat after his dead wife, but that in itself is really damn creepy. I mean, he named a bat that he used to kill people with, after his wife. Damn psycho.
Aww, Dwight. I wish you were a man of your word and you'd have left that asshole behind. He deserves to be left tied to a tree and left there as a snack for passing zombies, just saying. Still bitter that he killed Glenn.
As for William, I still can't remember which community he runs. I want to say that he runs the Kingdom, but I just don't remember. As for him and that other guy getting to Hilltop, you're too late. It's completely fried.
I liked the conversation between Maggie and William. I'm hoping that they'll become friends and she'll help him to be less of an asshole. Glad that she's planning on taking the Hilltop residents to Alexandria, and then planning to start over and rebuild.
The conversation between Carl and Lydia actually didn't make me want to puke, so, thumbs up for that. And I like what Carl said to her, how, yes, they had to do bad things to get to where they now are. But they don't forget the bad things they did, but they also don't let it turn them into bad people.
Ugh, Beta. Can't somebody please kill this guy already? He's such an asshole. Not that I'd trust any of the Whisperers, but he's like.. just really damn psychotic, almost as bad as Alpha was, and that's definitely saying something.
I like Andrea's teasing of Rick. We need more lighthearted scenes like that in the comic. I'm glad that they were talking about signals and what each one means. So that when and if there's some kind of problem, Rick and the others will know what Andrea's trying to tell them.
Eugene had me worried there for a moment. Glad that he's going to be okay, and was just tired. Also, I'm glad that he made it to Alexandria without passing out or getting attacked by Whisperers or walkers.
Well, I'm glad that Dwight and the others are back, but I don't really think that they got all of the Whisperers. I think there's still a shit ton more of them waiting, and once Beta is better, they're going to attack and cause a lot of chaos.
And.. I was right. I just got to the end of the book and Beta pretty much said that they had steered a herd at Rick and the others and now all they have to do is wait and let the walkers take them out. That's not good.
Opens with a real powerful moment Negan burying Lucille.The eulogy he gives lets us know that the real Lucille meant the world to him.The complexity of Negans character continues to grow and the more we learn the more we want to know.Eugene shows his worth in this one by traveling all night non stop to get ammo to Rick and company.Dwight reports back to Rick that they have won The Whisperer War but according to Ricks calculations there are thousands of walkers still at The Whisperers disposal.Comic ends with Beta unleashing hell.
This was dubbed 'The end of the whisperer war' story arc, however it didn't really feel like an ending. The writing wasn't bad but the plot was lacking, it felt like the characters were just commenting on the events of the last comic for most of this one and then the end of this was just the set up for the next arc. This wasn't bad, just a bit unsatisfying considering how good the previous parts of this arc have been, although #163 looks like it will be awesome!
I'm finally getting back into this series. With the hindsight of Here's Negan, I find that Negan's words about Lucille make perfect sense. And though the war looks to be over, there is actually much more to face.
Hmm the arc may have finished but the war is far from over just the freaking three whisperers left and they unleashed the sea of walkers on Alexandria. It's no wonder The Walking Dead is a legendary series, it truly deserves all the praise it can get. I love The Walking Dead and it's style. It's wonderful and I love the journey taken with Rick and the group as they roam the wasteland in search of life and stability.
I have always loved comics, and I hope that I will always love them. Even though I grew up reading local Indian comics like Raj Comics or Diamond Comics or even Manoj Comics, now's the time to catch up on the international and classic comics and Graphic novels. I am on my quest to read as many comics as I can. I Love comics to bit, may comics never leave my side. I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and then just Keep on Reading.
I was a little surprised because usually these kinds of arcs end in some (or several) horrible deaths, but it looks like the next couple issues are going to be the ones where they cull the herd, so to speak. I still read it as soon as I get in the car after getting my weekly comics! And it's the only series I read right away!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.