According to series creator Robert Kirkman, readers might have come to The Walking Dead for the zombies, but they ultimately stayed for the carefully crafted character development, as the author charted largely realistic portrayal of what might happen in a civilization-ending crisis. While the flesh-eating undead get most of the attention, fans of the franchise have long recognized it as a startling portrait of human behavior.

The Walking Dead Deluxe #93 – written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Charlie Adlard – contains annotations from the author, as part of Kirkman’s ongoing retrospective analysis of his series.

The most notable takeaway from Robert Kirkman’s comments in this installment of the Deluxe reprint was his succinct description of what he identified as “the main draw” of The Walking Dead. At least, that is, aside from the appeal of the zombie genre, which Kirkman’s comic helped launch a 21st-century renaissance for.

Walking Dead Creator Calls Character Progression The “Main Draw” Of The Zombie Comic

The Walking Dead Deluxe #93 – Written By Robert Kirkman; Art By Charlie Adlard; Color By Dave McCaig; Lettering By Rus Wooten

Robert Kirkman was always emphatic about the idea that The Walking Dead was a comic about humanity’s response to an existential, civilization-ending threat; zombies became the mechanism for society’s collapse because of the author’s love of the horror genre. In other words, though zombies and gore were everpresent in the series, these things were never the focus of the story. Instead, Kirkman described character evolution as the key virtue of The Walking Dead, writing:

That was the main draw of this series (well, aside from the zombies), characters changing over time.

While acknowledging that zombies brought many people to his work, Kirkman affirmed his belief that the human drama of the series was what made it successful.

Of course, the violent nature of The Walking Dead – as much embodied in the unrelenting, ferocious hunger of the undead for living flesh as in the actions of the survivors themselves –often interrupted characters’ development in mid-arc, as they were shockingly killed off. Yet those characters who did persist through the chaos and the horror they faced on an issue-by-issue basis, who made it through the series’ war of attrition long enough to grow and change, those characters have remarkable character trajectories, which make up the true heart of Robert Kirkman’s opus.

Robert Kirkman Acknowledges That He’s Proud Of The Way His Character’s Evolved

The Walking Dead Was Always A Human Drama

Rather than just a horror-action series, Robert Kirkman delivered a savage epic of human survival – not just for the individual characters in the series, but for the species as a whole, as articulated best by the final issue of The Walking Dead. Part of that was achieved through testing his characters time and again, throwing them into unheralded and unpredictable circumstances, and allowing them to fail as often as they succeeded, adapting in response either way. As Kirkman put it:

I do believe this was more a story of characters learning and changing over time, and I’m really proud of that.

According to the author, this remains an achievement that he can look back on with satisfaction.

The Walking Dead Deluxe has consistently given readers insight into more than just the creative process that shaped the series, but also Robert Kirkman’s opinions on the zombie series as a more mature artist. He has not held back from being critical of himself and his work, making it all the more noteworthy when he signals something out for praise. To Kirkman, character evolution is the essential success of The Walking Dead, making it something that readers should pay extra attention to as they revisit the series for themselves.

The Walking Dead Deluxe #93 (2024)
	Writer: Robert Kirkman Artist: Charlie Adlard Colorist: Dave McCaig Letterer: Rus Wooten Cover Artist: David Finch; Dave McCaig (color)