Summary
Robert Kirkman, creator ofThe Walking Dead, acknowledged that negative takes on the series stuck with him more than positive reactions, ashe admitted that, as an author, “the detractors are the voices you hear when you’re lying awake at night.“Kirkman cited this in response to one particular criticism of his characters – one that he personally didn’t agree with, but couldn’t help fixate on.
The Walking Dead Deluxe#93 – written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Charlie Adlard – includesannotations on the issue from Kirkman, as he reflects on the behind-the-scenes process of writingthe long-running zombie comic. In his comments on the issue, he raised the fact that some readers were critical of the trajectory of the series, and the actions of its characters.
While Kirkman disagreed with this negative assessment of his main group of survivors, he was frank about the fact that it was the kind of critique that kept him up at night.
“It’s a Well I Dipped into Too Often”: Walking Dead Creator Admits the Franchise Overuses 1 Cliche
According to creator Robert Kirkman, he might have employed 1 narrative technique too many times during the run of “The Walking Dead” comic series.
InThe Walking Dead Deluxe#93, Robert Kirkman formulated the harshest possible assessment of his main characters…Kirkman noted that some form of his criticism nagged at him – and evidently, still does.
Over the course ofThe Walking Dead, the story of humanity’s response to a civilization-ending catastrophe grew in complexity. Author Robert Kirkman began by charting the forging of a community out of a group of individual survivors. With the introduction of the Governor, and his people, the series shifted its focus, becominga tale of conflict between communities, as different isolated pockets of humanity began to reformulate society in their own competing images of it. This theme would develop, and escalate, up through the end of the series' run – of whichThe Walking Dead#93 represents nearly the half-way point.
As much asRick Grimes is ostensibly the hero ofThe Walking Dead, one of the comic’s chief moral complexities arises from his unyielding quest to protect not just humanity in general, but his particular version of it, and his core group of survivors. InThe Walking Dead Deluxe#93 Robert Kirkman formulated the harshest possible assessment of his main characters, stating:
Detractors would say that this was just a story of the characters moving from community to community, leaving destruction in their wake…and trust me, the detractors are the voices you hear when you’re lying awake at night.
While certainly an oversimplification, Kirkman noted that some form of his criticism nagged at him – and evidently, still does.
A Delicate Moral Landscape
The Walking Deadheld to a fairly firm standard of realism. The moral failings, or at least, moral inconsistencies, of the characters were an essential part of that.
One virtue of post-apocalyptic fiction is that it canallow creators to skew traditional moral frameworks, in favor of exploring how radically altered life-or-death circumstances can reorient peoples' understanding of right-and-wrong. Robert Kirkman did this incredibly effectivelythroughoutThe Walking Dead. As often as Rick Grimes and the series' protagonists faced unequivocally villainous counterparts like the Governor, they were forced into ethically uncertain situations, such as their takeover of the Alexandria settlement from its existing leadership.The main characters ofThe Walking Deadwere far from immune to factionalism, and that was important to the overall project of the series.
Aside from its zombie premise – andthe occasional “versimilitude short-cut,“of the kind taken by all works of fiction –The Walking Deadheld to a fairly firm standard of realism. The moral failings, or at least, moral inconsistencies, of the characters were an essential part of that. Rick Grimes and his group of survivors weren’t perfect, but they did more than just “leave destruction in their wake.” As Robert Kirkman acknowledged inThe Walking Dead Deluxe#93, they acted and reacted in response to the conditions of their environment, in a way that the most organically-written fictional characters do.
The Walking Dead
Cast
The Walking Dead is a television series that premiered on August 13, 2025. It follows Sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a coma to find a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. He embarks on a journey to locate his family, encountering various survivors amidst the chaos.
