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#Post#: 39--------------------------------------------------
An interview with Kirkman to put 150 into perspective
By: Ickray_Imesgray Date: January 17, 2016, 10:31 pm
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-ive. I see a lot of frustration with issue 150, hopefully this
will help the open minded cope. I agree with Kirkman here.
IGN: I'm sure you never pictured this series reaching 150 issues
when you were first starting out. Is it surreal now to think
you've been writing The Walking Dead for that long?
Kirkman: Yeah, there's a weird duality to it. On one hand, I'm
like "Oh my god, I can't believe we made it to #150!" That's so
many issues! I can't believe we've been at this for over a
decade!" And on the other hand, it really does still feel like
we're just getting started. Which is almost scary at this point,
but I've got a lot more stories to tell. It's interesting. At
the same time I'm feeling like "Oh my god! I've been doing this
forever!" and "Oh my god! I have more stories!"
IGN: There's always this assumption that milestone issues like
this are going to have something big going on inside, whether
it's a major death or a status quo change or whatever. But I
feel like with this issue you guys weren't specifically setting
out to do something shocking. You were treating it more like
another chapter of your ongoing story. Was that kind of the
philosophy you went into it with?
Kirkman: It's one of those things where I don't want everybody
to always be expecting a big thing to happen. We had a
monumental thing happen in issue #144, and shoehorning a big
event into the series just because this is issue #150 seemed
like a mistake to me. That said, there is a titanic, monumental
shift in Rick Grimes at this point. We see Rick using this
horrible thing that happened to him - this attack - to basically
manipulate the people that are under him. The shift in his
thinking and the way he's going to be leading these people
moving forward has serious repercussions. I think people will
look back on #150 as a huge turning point in the series that
changed the book quite a bit, even if it doesn't necessarily
seem like it right now.
IGN: Rick's speech was great about laying out what I think is
the main conflict of the book now, talking about him trying to
lead his people forward rather than sliding back into the chaos
they dealt with for years.
Kirkman: Yeah, there's definitely an honesty to that speech.
Those are definitely things that he believes. But doing it in
that moment, making sure he was still covered in blood, using
that attack to solidify his power and make everyone rally behind
him. These are all things that he's, to a certain extent,
picking up from Negan. He's picking it up from seeing how that
guy manipulated others. This is definitely a big change.
IGN: With that last page there's definitely an unsettling
quality to what's happening, and the reader has to wonder if
Negan is becoming a bad influence on Rick and might cause him to
eventually go down that same path.
Kirkman: Definitely not a great thing to be getting Negan's
approval.
IGN: I want to talk about Alpha and the Whisperers for a minute.
Alpha seems like a very different villain from someone like
Negan because she's conflicted and seems to have some regrets
about the things she's done. Did you feel like the book needed a
change of pace after so many years focused on Negan?
Kirkman: Yeah, and I also want to make sure that all of our big
villains are as different from each other as possible. I would
argue that Alpha - she's definitely evil. She's definitely done
a lot of bad things. But I would say she's more conflicted than
any other villain we've encountered. Negan 100% prepared to do
all the things he was doing. There was no conflict within him.
He's very confident and sure of himself. Alpha, not so much.
She's assembled this group and things have gotten away from her
and she's made a lot of compromises to hold her group together.
There's a tremendous amount of regret she feels over all the
things she's had to do to keep her group operating. That's
something we're going to be exploring a lot moving forward.
We're going to see a lot more of the Whisperers after #150 and
beyond.
IGN: I know the series isn't really big on flashbacks or
anything like that, but are we eventually going to learn more
about her past and her relationship with her daughter and things
like that?
Kirkman: Yeah, there's a lot to be revealed there. We're not
against flashbacks, and we have done them from time to time.
It's not something that happens very frequently, but I wouldn't
completely rule it out in her case. Regardless of whether it's a
flashback or not, we will be finding out more about what it is
that makes her tick and that unique relationship she has with
her daughter and how she came to be who she is.
IGN: Alpha might be the main villain of the series right now,
but you have kept Negan around, and he's started to play a more
prominent role in the book again. Did you feel like he was too
fun and unpredictable a character to not keep around?
Kirkman: I guess I'm having a lot of fun writing Negan, but I'm
always very careful not to grow too attached to these
characters. Just because I don't want to artificially keep them
around just so I can keep writing them when, by all other
indications, their story has already been told. I strongly feel
that Negan's story hasn't completely been told. There's a lot
more to be done with him. Most recent issues were sowing the
seeds of other storylines. Without revealing too much, there's a
whole lot more of Negan ahead of us.
IGN: This issue culminated with Rick's speech and the official
formation of their military. Going forward, is that what the
major focus is? Does the book become sort of a boot camp story?
Kirkman: That's one aspect of the story, but there's going to be
a lot more going on than that. We're gearing up for another big
conflict. We've had big conflicts in the past in this series.
There was the attack on the prison or the big "All Out War"
storyline. Now that we're ramping up for another big
confrontation between two big groups, we're going to see
everything in a much different light. The formation of the
military and Rick's new plan to combat the Whisperers and put
that situation to rest is all part of a larger story of them
continuing to figure out how to live long-term.
The Whisperers have proven to Rick that the infrastructure of
the military and a peacekeeping force that has an offensive side
to it and can keep them safe on a larger scale - this is
something that's necessary to their continued survival. While
that military is being developed to handle this very present
threat that's there right now, I think Rick is always thinking
long-term and seeing that this is a piece of civilization and
infrastructure that needs to be brought back from the dark ages,
so to speak. It's all part of that larger story.
IGN: I think my favorite element of the book right now is Carl's
character arc and this idea that he's growing up and growing
apart from his dad. Will that also be a big focus as you move
forward?
Kirkman: Carl has now hit that age where he wants to be his own
man and he wants to live on his own. And while he is still very
young - he's not an adult by a long shot - this is a different
time. In much less civilized times, people did grow up faster
because they, frankly, didn't live very long. I think the world
of The Walking Dead does mirror that in a lot of interesting
ways. Carl has always had a level of maturity that's not present
in everyday kids, based on the situation that he's living in.
This is a further continuation of that. That will be a big part
of the story moving forward. A lot of people talk about him,
"Oh, he's replacing Rick as the main character of the book!" I
don't know if we're necessarily there yet, but I would say that
he's possibly a much more central character to the story than he
ever has been in the past.
IGN: I do sometimes wonder if we'll look back on the series 10
or 20 years from now and realize it was more about the story of
Carl than it was of Rick.
Kirkman: That's entirely possible. [laughs]
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