Summary
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In the letters page to The Walking Dead #95 – Reprinted as part of the Deluxe Series Releases – Robert Kirkman explains why some bodies don’t necessarily reanimate as zombies.
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Many fans tend to focus on things like zombie physiology The Walking DeadBut creator Robert Kirkman has consistently emphasized that the extreme human experience of the story was the important part.
- The Walking Dead’s Zombies were a way to put human characters in the middle of a catastrophe they were completely unprepared for, and in that way, the series was always consistent with its depiction of the undead.
Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Deadonce explained why some dead bodies in the comic book series seemingly did not reanimate – noting that, in line with traditional zombie lore, A death that involved traumatic damage to the brain would not result in that individual returning as one of the hordes of undead.
The Walking Dead Deluxe #95 – written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Charlie Adlard – is a reprint of the original issue, including the original characters page. Published as the early seasons of Walking Dead’s TV adaptations were arranged, the comic at the time was witnessing an influx of new readers, many of them asking the same old questions.
Most notably, there’s always been an enduring fan interest in zombie physiology—and while Kirkman is often quick to note that it’s not the priority of the story, he’s set the record straight for fans whenever he can.
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Robert Kirkman: Traumatic brain damage at the time of death prevents resuscitation
The Walking Dead Deluxe #95 – Written by Robert Kirkman; Art by Charlie Adlard; Color by Dave McCaig; Lettering by Rus Wooten
Robert Kirkman’s answer to the question of how and why zombies reanimate reiterates that the zombie science of The Walking Dead was essentially to the book’s focus on human experience pushed to an unheralded extreme.
walking dead Readers and TV viewers quickly became familiar with the idea that the way to definitively kill the undead a second time was to destroy the brain. According to Robert Kirkman, The appearance of non-zombified corpses in the comic – especially early on – was simply an extension of this premise.. In the letters page to walking dead #95, Kirkman wrote:
Every non-zombie corpse you saw on the highway either suffered severe brain trauma in a car crash that resulted in that pileup, or had another brain-damaging event that killed them.
For fans who may have suspected an inconsistency, this is a reassurance that The Walking Dead’s Zombies followed a consistent logic—even if Robert Kirkman wasn’t always willing to explain it to readers in-depth.
Kirkman also went a step further, showing that there was always more going on in the world of The Walking Dead As the readers were familiar with. Regarding the seemingly unnecessary corpses Rick encountered in early issues of the comic, Kirkman said:
They might even have been zombies in that car for a while – until someone came along and killed them.
In any case, Robert Kirkman’s answer to the question of how and why zombies reanimate reiterates that the zombie science of The Walking Dead was essentially to the book’s focus on human experience pushed to an unheralded extreme.
The Walking Dead was a zombie comic where the zombies weren’t the priority
A human rights drama at its heart For Kirkman, zombies were a mechanism by which to explore the extent of humanity’s ability to respond to a civilization-ending catastrophe.
The Walking Dead Deluxe has offered an opportunity for fans of the franchise to re-live the comic’s odyssey of survival, as well as the opportunity to reflect on what made the series so popular that it transformed from a cult-favorite comic book to a worldwide phenomenon. While the “rules,” or the logic behind Walking Dead’s Zombies are important, they can often distract fans from the core story of human survival that Robert Kirkman crafted over the course of nearly two hundred issues.
In a way, this is perhaps an issue of the zombie genre at large, and it is One that Robert Kirkman routinely downplayed the importance of. For Kirkman, zombies were a mechanism by which to explore the extent of humanity’s ability to respond to a civilization-ending catastrophe. What this means is that, as long as the nature of The Walking Dead’s Zombies maintained an internal consistency, readers could have faith in whatever the author ultimately chose to do with them in the story.
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The Walking Dead Deluxe #95 (2024) |
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