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The Walking Dead

Interview with Robert Kirkman

Interview by: Bill Jones

Robert Kirkman may be one of the greatest ambassadors to the comics medium alive. As a writer, he has created the best ongoing zombie series comics have seen in The Walking Dead, carved his own space in the realm of superheroes with the popular Invincible, and has tackled the horror-meets-superhero genre with The Astounding Wolf-Man. All of this while keeping control of his properties through the creator-owned publishing model of Image Comics. That is all, of course, in addition to his work at Marvel, where he became known for his run on Ultimate X-Men and launched the Marvel Zombies series. He also earns cred for starting his career with a concept as awesome as Battle Pope.

In addition to juggling a number of comics franchises, Robert Kirkman has been hard at work in the position of executive producer of AMC’s television series adaptation of The Walking Dead, set to debut this October, directed by Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile). Kirkman took some time earlier this month to answer some questions about his long-running zombie series and delve into the gory details of the upcoming show. Kirkman talks about seeing his comic come to life as a show, his philosophy on adaptations of his work, AMC, working with Frank Darabont, how fatherhood influences his work and what fans can expect from both the show and comic. (more…)

From Comic-Con Part 4 – Robert Kirkman Panel

By Bill Jones

Robert Kirkman, the creator and writer of Image Comics series The Walking Dead, Invincible and The Astounding Wolf-Man, held an (almost) solo creator panel Friday afternoon at Comic-Con International 2009.

Kirkman wasted no time, with a jokingly nonchalant “whatever” attitude about talking to fans about his upcoming plans, in showing pages from issue #66 of Invincible, which Kirkman said will return to its “probably the best superhero comic in the world” slogan, only without the “probably.” Kirkman said he is planning for an oversized issue and a return to the red and yellow color scheme.

Following an Invincible run-through, Kirkman announced that issue #25 of The Astounding Wolf-Man will be the last. Everything is building to a point that cannot be topped in the current storyline, and with plans to continue Invincible and The Walking Dead for a long time, and an interest in exploring new projects, it is time to end the series, Kirkman said. He noted that is likely Wolf-Man will get a “complete” edition.

“I’m very excited to end the book on my own terms,” he said. (more…)