The Walking Dead Comic Has Officially Ended.
The final issue(193) will be 70+ pages according to Robert Kirkman. He stated that he is ending it on his own terms and ensures everyone that the final issue will be thoroughly conclusive.
Post your thoughts before and after reading issue #193 but avoid spoiling until it's release.
Not matter how you feel about issue #192 or the ending of #193 - just remember:
We Are Not The Walking Dead
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
Wow, it still shows that he plans to release another issue next month on Comixology. Is he just going to crunch everything he's written so far into this last issue? I won't be expecting him to make it in the regular comic structure with pictures and such.
Kirkland said issue #193 was going to be 70+ pages
The Walking Dead shall walk no longer.
Like I said, Edition Not Definitive
Lol, meet Sheriff Kapoor and Meet the Swordsman
I have had a lot to say, but I can't be asked. Yesterday was quite a day for me in terms of Walking Dead.
Guess Kirkman is treating the comics like DB Weiss and David Benioff treated Season 8 of Game of Thrones...rushing everything just to fucking end it. I mean, why not, it's how he treated Rick in the last issue, might as well do it for the entire comics and punch every single fan right in the dick. Piss off Kirkman.
Wasnt there comic covers for issues past 193? Im confused about whats going on, I guess they just gave up huh.
Like its not secret Walking Dead is dying quickly but youd think theyd go to 200 and end it there with a bit more time to end it with grace.
I think that something has made him end it. Doesn't make sense... were the covers and release dates for next issues fake or just bait? Nah, no way. He has obviously decided to end it quicker at some point.
Rick's death was just a joke... without a punchline.
They made fake covers to hide the comics ending.
Maybe he laid off his workers and cancelled the later issues.
He said he planned to end it like this for a while. Besides - issue #193 is gonna be over 70 pages long.
Kirkman said he planned the ending for a while. And issue #193 will be over 70 pages long. Kirkman loves Walking Dead more than anybody - he wouldn't hard-ass the ending(I hope)
Just heard from my brother yesterday. Damn.
(Sigh) Guess it was just a matter of time I suppose.
Oh, no! Where will the fans get their misery porn fix now?!
(All snark aside, I've never liked the comics or the television show. Clementine was the one who reeled me into the Walking Dead universe.)
How far into the show did you get?
Man,just fuck this entire franchise lol even Kirkman ran out of ideas what a massive disappointment and a huge waste of time.
You know how they say it's been a pleasure ? It hasn't.
Welp, The Walking Dead franchise as a whole has been cursed for the past 5 years.
Telltale hasn't done any justice after their first WD game, thus resulting the studio shutting down and there is no way they are going to continue making new Walking Dead stories that are just as good as Clementine's story. The Walking Dead A New Frontier is easily the worst WD and worst Telltale game ever made.
The TV show is divisive but Season 7 was pretty much the point where the show started running out of ideas and lost a lot of viewers. I heard Season 9 was good but it's still not the same and who knows what they are going to do with Rick in his movie trilogy.
Now Kirkman is the final enemy to put his fan-favorite franchise to the ground once and for all, despite saying that Issue #300 was going to mark the end? Did no one learn from how Game of Thrones Season 8 was treated?
Welp, it was nice knowing you, Walking Dead. You can just fuck off right now because there is no future for you anymore. It's still sad though because The Walking Dead changed my life forever in gaming.
lol what an insane way to view a piece of entertainment.
He's definitely a Z Nation fan ?
I really respect Kirkman for pulling this off. You can be angry because of it, but the way the comics developed over the past years, I think it was the better choice compared to keeping on with less and less motivation.
He hasn't been on top of his game for a long time now and I think he just kept on going until he found the moment to jump to the end. He could've easily kept on going with worse and worse results so he can keep making money, but he didn't. He knew when he needed to end it and he just did. Did the story needed to end? No, it could've kept going on for years, but it didn't need to.
I expected this issue to be bad...bad doesn't really begin to describe this ending. Game of Thrones looks like Breaking Bad with this level of incompetency and rushed execution. Pathetic Kirkman, just pathetic. At this point, maybe the TV show is better than the comics, which even at the show's height I could never say.
Literally the only positive thing I took from this was that Carl and Sophia finally did end up together. Makes me confused as to why Kirkman had him be with Lydia for like 60 something issues or however long it was, and just jump forward to Carl already being married and having a kid with her (named Andrea), but yeah, they're finally together. Finally doing what fans have pretty much asked or speculated about for years, and you put it in the final issue with no buildup, no explanation as to how or why Lydia and Carl broke up, how he and Sophia got together, etc. See, even when I compliment the issue, it feels backhanded, that's how bad it was. Ugh, another positive thing, ummm...you didn't stick to that original ending you said you were going to do in your "Thank you" letter. Ending it at Issue 72 with Rick's speech, fading out to seeing a statue of Rick falling apart and walkers taking over Alexandria and the dead winning, yeah even the one you gave us was better than that.
Everything else, it's pasted together "Look where everyone is now after a 20-30 year time jump" and "How great Rick Grimes was, he's so awesome." You know, the last issue ended with Carl breaking down and crying over the loss of his dad, contemplating if he could continue on after what happened...fuck that shit I guess, because he's an adult with a family. Let's not even bother dealing with the loss and grief he must be going through, we need to hastily butcher Maggie's character and make her and Glenn's son a spoiled brat who keeps walkers like animals in a circus and uses them to entertain people. Let's just show off this whole new world of how much things have changed and how things are starting to get back to normal, instead of seeing how this stuff actually played out, which very well could have been interesting to see. Some of these characters had still unresolved arcs that needed to finish, fuck all that, let's hastily give them a disappointing resolution that solves absolutely nothing. Hey, remember that character they introduced and seemed like they would be important, well screw that, Kirkman had to keep the illusion that he was continuing the series, so who cares about them. If anything, this ending feels eerily reminiscent of How I Met Your Mother's ending, in that it's just showing off tiny bits of where people are now, instead of showing how they got there, and ending on a piss poor note because we got to end this thing.
So this is how The Walking Dead comics ends, huh? With a measly whimper just so Kirkman can say "Surprise, it's over, peace out." Because nothing was more important than to keep the illusion alive. Again, I repeat myself, piss off Kirkman.
You also take the time to thank all the different people who worked on the show, including Frank Darabont, but never mentioned the video game once in your entire "Thank you" letter. In spite of ANF and Telltale closing, many still consider THAT to be the best medium of TWD. Characters like Lee, Kenny, Clementine (especially her), and others are beloved by die hard fans of the series, and many people were brought into the series because of Season 1. Plus, the game is actually set IN the comics universe, unlike the show. Your own damn company came in to finish off the game, and you can't even bother to say anything about it.
I agree with this so much. Pretty much everything I have said and thought. Let's be honest, there was another reason for the comics ending so abruptly, it seems so rushed. But let's also be honest, the comics have sucked for a while now, haven't they? Lackluster plot, messy arcs and character, strange pacing, general dissapointment of somewhat interesting plot points, messy execution overall. It seems like he did indeed want to carry it over to issue 300, but then for some strange reason he had to end it, and he'd been planning this ending for a while, only this time the ending is a bit too early, so he decides to write Rick's death and the ending (what he'd been planning for a while) and it's very rushed, doesn't make too much sense and overall doesn't feel very good. Honestly, I'd much rather have him continue writing mediocre stories than have the series just go poof on a bad note, but oh well. Goodbye The Walking Dead.
Actually, I quite liked this final issue and I sort of understand Kirkman's point of view after reading the final pages. My only real problem is what I said about how the comics have been for the past few months, and how Rick never actually saved the world. S9 Rick ending was way better at achieving what Kirkman wanted Rick's character and legacy to be. It all just seems like 'Oh wait it worked out in the end? Wait what? Cool, I guess?' The way Rick went out was just so poorly done. Maybe make him stop a civil war or something, anything that shows he mitigated it. I understand that he never paced it properly to 200 and that's why it feels rushed (he wants the last compendium to end with the final issue) but he still could've done a better job with the pacing, considering he knew his plan.
I found it pretty disappointing, felt rushed and just the overall plot seemed weird. It just wants to go over to be like "20 years later the world is a lot closer to what the world was now" which is fine, but its so abrupt.
I feel like its no secret Walking Dead has ,ironically, been dying for a while now. The show has been shit for a while now, Telltale's series fell apart, and comics have been pretty divided and now just randomly ended. Just another case of something that didnt know when to call it quits.
Sure the comic dipped in quality, but the show is on the rise. If they do S10 anything like S9 - the show will officially be back.
I'll just repeat again Kirkman never gave two cents about the video game.
I say this with respect. If you haven't been pleased, why did you stick around? If you ditest the Walking Dead, why put so much of your attention on it? You are free to feel however you wish, but if something displeased you, why not distance yourself from it?
A very nice post. I enjoyed the final issue. Carl got a happy ending - that's all Rick ever wanted. His fight from A New Day was purposeful.
You shouldn't view something with nothing but negativity. Try to find the good in a situation - not just the bad. View the final issue from a different perspective - Rick got what he wanted: for Carl to have a happy ending. Rick's success means his struggles and sacrifices from issues #1 - #192 weren't in vain. The story as a whole wasn't all for nothing. It was about living, becoming human, rebuilding the world. And the final pages show us that everything the characters had gone through had a reward. They finally get to live.
It's his story, it's his rules, but from what I've seen from the final issue, I can say he did the ending of this franchise justice. That statue of Rick killed me.
Hate to say it but no shit sherlock. It's just that there are problems surrounding the execution. Kirkman's intention for what the Walking Dead story is about is great.
I want to know why @MetallicaRules thinks the issue is so bad. His post makes it seem like he found nothing enjoyable whatsoever - I'm curious on what that is. Sometimes people loathe something because they don't understand. I don't want @MetallicaRules to hate the issue if he doesn't understand the bigger meaning behind it.
There seems to be a lot of pessimism surrounding the ending and Kirkman. Like it was a publisher mandate or a move out of desperation. But judging by the letter at the end... I think it's genuine.
I'm pretty sure the series has been successful enough that Skybound and Image comics just gave Kirkman free reign and this is how he wanted to end it, when he wanted to end it. We can argue execution, but I don't think there was any cynicism behind it.
Well that seems pretty condescending, don't you think? That I only hate the issue because I'm too much of a dumbass to not see its hidden brilliance, that's pretty much exactly what you said. I laid everything out in my post, go and read it if you want my reasoning for it. But if my post was too long for you to read, let me make it easier for you to understand:
There, happy. Sorry if my reasoning doesn't live up to your high level of brilliance, I guess my feeble mind just can't process so many thoughts at once. Guess I should stick to something that my brain can handle, like Dora or fucking Blue's Clues.
Why are you getting so worked up over a fucking comic book? ?
No offense - you seen like that kind of person that judges something incredibly harshly based on a few mistakes. The final issue had a lot of good things to offer - but you just want to focus on the bad. Life skill: When you want to judge something - weigh the good and the bad. Don't let your judgment be one sided. Example: When I was in school - all my classes were B's and A's. But one of my classes was at a D. My parents only gave a shit about the D. I never heard anything positive about my good grades. Only anger and frustration on the one bad one.
@MetallicaRules regarding number 4 on your list to be honest I have to scratch my head a bit when people occasionally say that Carl and Lydia were so tight (on a different forum I saw someone say that they had an unbreakable relationship).
Carl and Lydia were basically just two horny teenagers who liked having sex together. THe series made it pretty clear in my opinion that they were absolutely wrong for each other in terms of having long term potential. They basically were just your traditional highschool bf/gf pairing that likes to have fun together. At that particular moment in their lives they do get along because all they are looking for at that current time is just having fun. But they would often be one of the last people they would think about getting into something long term with.
Carl and Sophia on the other hand grew up together and knew exactly what each one had been through. They could communicate with eachother in a way that Carl and Lydia couldn't. Infact the comic pretty much tells us that when Carl wanted to talk Sophia was the person he went to and not Lydia. Lydia was basically just the crazy hot girlfriend to go to a party with. Also though the Carl and Sophia relationship hadn't started yet as of issue 192 the comic had been giving hints for quite some time that they were starting to develop feelings for one another. Especially on Sophia's side. And it was pretty clear that as soon as Carl got through his wild hot girlfriend phase that he would start looking for someone who could bring a little more stable relationship to the table.
So I think it was absolutely the right move to put Carl and Sophia together as grown adults. In my opinion as well the comic had been giving subtle hints to their future relationship ever since about issue 150 or so.
I'm not disagreeing with the move of putting Carl and Sophia together, I wanted it to happen, and I completely agree with your view of Carl and Lydia's relationship. Your summation is spot on, that, however, does not mean that I can blindly accept Carl and Sophia getting together with absolutely no knowledge as to how it happened. That right there is the overall issue I have with it, the last time we saw both of them, they weren't anywhere near that stage, despite how many years they spent as close friends, due to Carl already being in another relationship. Again, my objection here is not why they got together, but over the lack of how they got together. With the way it's executed, it feels more like fan service, rather than delivering on years of character development and budding romance. And because Kirkman just pairs them up together, it does call into question his decision to really put Carl and Lydia together, and why he didn't show them break up during the series to set the stage for the time jump and having Carl and Sophia together. I just think we should have seen the end of Carl's "wild girlfriend phase" to see him mentally mature and be ready for the serious relationship with Sophia, but that's just me.
@Joe_Momma 100% agree there. When you read his letter you can really see his point of view. While I appreciate how he wrote the final issue to round out the last compendium, I still think he should've just ignored that and wrote it out properly, because let's be honest the Commenwealth Arc was such a let-down.
@MettalicaRules Oh I completely agree with you on that sentiment in that it was disappointing that we didn't officially see Carl and Lydia's relationship end and the Sophia relationship begin.
I think the best way to explain why Kirkman didn't start developing a Carl and Sophia romance sooner was that he wasn't always planning on ending the series at issue 193. I think he indeed had that ending in mind for a long time but he didn't completely know when he was going to officially put it in the comic.
I imagine when he was pretty much solely focusing on Carl and Lydia (say around issues 140-170) he didn't yet have planned that it was going to end before issue 200. I don't think he came to the decision to end it at issue 193 until he got to the Commonwealth arc. I have a feeling those Carl and Sophia interactions in issues 185-187 were put in there specifically to give strong hints that they did have romantic feelings for each other after all. As a way to mildly set up them being married down the line (because by then it definitely was planned for the series to end at issue 193).
In hindsight, yes, but I personally just don't find that suitable enough to justify them being together. I think Kirkman said in the letter he didn't exactly know which issue it was that it would all end, just that he had the ending in mind, but it's also up to him to properly pace everything in the lead up to it, and in this regard, I think he failed to do so.
Maybe. But I think what he did was still better than switching out Sophia for Lydia in that epilogue he developed. Would have been a lot harder to buy Lydia in that role than to simply fill in a few blank spots with your own imagination. Way I see it is that Rick's death caused Carl to grow up a lot quicker than he would have otherwise. In my opinion after Rick's funeral the Carl and Lydia pairing didn't last much longer. Sophia likely would have been more of a support system for him than Lydia would have been.