As part of the full-color release of the originalWalking Deadcomic series, series author Robert Kirkman has been taking a retrospective look back at the process of writing the series – and he has just admitted that one surprising scene pushed him to the limit as a creator unlike any other. Specifically,one scene featuring the survivor Eugenemade Kirkman flex his research muscles to the limit.
The Walking Dead Deluxe#107 –written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Charlie Adlard – features a scene in which Eugene excitedly explores an abandoned workshop, which “has absolutely everything [he] need[s]” to make ammunition for the survivors.
Despite the brevity of the scene, and its seemingly utilitarian nature from a creative perspective,Kirkman explained that getting the dialogue to sound and feel real was trickier than one might expect.“I’m sure I still got a bunch of things wrong,” he wrote, though he also acknowledged that he achieved what he was going for to a certain degree.
Robert Kirkman Says That Researching Eugene’s Monologue Tested His Abilities Like Few Other Scenes
As Robert Kirkman wrote in theDeluxeedition ofThe Walking Dead#107:
I swear I did more research for this scene than I probably did for anything else in this series. It’s fun re-reading this issue now, because I’m mentioning so many things where I have no clue whatsoever what they are. But I wanted Eugene to seem knowledgeable and I really wanted this scenes to feel accurate. I’m sure I still got a bunch of things wrong, but for most people, I think there’s a hint of authenticity in what Eugene says.
The scene in question features Eugene using technical jargon about ammunition production; for the majority of theWalking Deadreaders, this moment in the issue isn’t likely to stand out as especially memorable, but as it turns out, it is a testament to the author’s desire to get every scene and every page of the series “right.“It displays the patience and care that went into every script Kirkman wrote forThe Walking Dead, something that wasn’treserved for just its most “epic” moments.
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That is to say, it is worth noting that, by design, Robert Kirkman didn’t want this scene to stick out, or seem exceptional – he wanted it to feel, in his words, “authentic,” and not betray a lack of verisimilitude when it came to the characters’ understandings of their weapons. It is a small,yet important character moment for Eugene, one that Kirkman put a great deal of effort into in order to achieve the kind of fidelity to the details that he wanted from his series.
A Creative Tightrope Act
This moment is also worth focusing on because it is another example of thefine lineThe Walking Deadwalkedbetween its zombie-horror elements and Robert Kirkman’s tendency toward literary realism. Much has been made of the fact that the comic’s zombies distract from an otherwise deeply grounded portrayal of societal collapse, and individuals' reaction to that collapse. Yet a small moment likeEugene’s tour of the abandoned workshop inWalking Dead Deluxe#107 reminds readers that there are necessary limits to the book’s realism.
Even in its seemingly least dramatic moments,The Walking Dead– as a work of fiction – was always trying to make readers feel something.
In truth, only a small subset of readers with highly technical ammunition knowledge would recognize the flaws in Eugene’s monologue, and as Kirkman rightly points out, his goal was to make “this scene feel accurate.” Even in its seemingly least dramatic moments,The Walking Dead– as a work of fiction – was always trying to make readers feel something, and if most readers were convinced that Eugene knew what he was talking about here, Kirkman can be said to have qualitatively succeeded.
