The Walking Dead series premiered on AMC in 2010 and aired for eleven seasons, inspiring the creation of several spinoffs. The series is based on The Walking Dead comic, which was first published in 2003 and consists of 193 issues.
The comic was written and created by Robert Kirkman, who executive produced and wrote for the series. Tony Moore served as the artist for the first six issues and cover artist for the first 24; after that, Charlie Adlard provided the art for the remainder of the issues.
Published by Image Comics, The Walking Dead comic follows Rick Grimes, a Kentucky deputy shot in the line of duty who awakens from a coma to an undead apocalypse. He then takes leadership of a group of survivors and they story follows their struggles to survive.
The Walking Dead comic was awarded the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series at San Diego Comic-Con in 2007 and 2010.
As a fan of movies like Living Dead and Zombi 2, Kirkman came up with an idea to form a comic as a follow up to o George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. He would be encouraged to come up with an original idea by Image Comics co-founder Jim Valentino, to ensure they would own the rights.
Many of the issues featured a segment Kirkman called "Letter Hacks" where he discussed the issue, answered questions sent in by readers and more. In "Letter Hacks" of Issue 193, Kirkman, without any advanced notice, announced that this episode concluded the story. Fans were shocked!
The Walking Dead series
The Walking Dead series used the comics as source material, often taking liberties to expand the show. Numerous characters were added over the years who never appeared in the comics, like Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker), and more. And several comic charcters featured in the series saw their stories vary, some of them drastically. Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) died early in the comics but continues to thrive in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.
The main series ended in 2022 and spearheaded the creation of six spinoffs: Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Tales of the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Dead City, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
Fear the Walking Dead was the first spinoff that aired on AMC for eight seasons, concluding in 2023. The Ones Who Live and World Beyond were created as limited series with one and two seasons, respectively. Tales of the Walking Dead is an anthology series with six standalone stories.
Next came the three direct spinoffs which serve as sequels to the main series. Dead City features Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Daryl Dixon features the title character and his best friend Carol. The Ones Who Live continued the epic love story of Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira). Dead City will premiere its second season on May 4, 2025 and Daryl Dixon will premiere its third season before the end of 2025.
Kirkman has to be proud as he looks back at everything created from his comic story. Fans are certainly glad he came up with the idea of Rick Grimes and his story.
Check out these stories and more on Undead Walking:
Follow Undead Walking on Twitter (X) and Facebook and sign up for the once-daily Undead Walking newsletter to avoid missing out on everything in The Walking Dead universe.