Just wanted to clarify for some non-comic readers, Sophia does not go missing like she does in the show. Carol dies early on in the prison arc, leaving Sophia to be adopted by Maggie and Glenn.
@dirtyscoundrel2013 it wasnt to save himself. He just made a dumb decision bc he didnt know how to deal with the walkers yet. Also sophias actress wanted to quit so they had to write her off.
"I didn't have enough story worked out to get there." I love this line. A conscious decision to end the comic over 100 issues sooner than originally planned, rather than drag it out. I wish more people in the entertainment industry thought like this.
It reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbs comics. Its author chose to end it because he knew dragging it out would eventually result in lower comic quality and chose to go out on his terms.
The fact that Carl lives in the end already makes the books better than the show. But imagine being Carl though in the span of roughly a month he lost his step mom and his dad
In the span of a few years Carl was made to see and do horrible things. He killed a kid in the comics, he almost got r4ped and watched as his dad brutally eviscerate that man. As he watched he said he felt good about watching it, to a point that's understandable but wanting to watch someone die shouldn't ever be a part of your brain chemistry.
@@Brusome1also he got shot in the eye, and had temporary memory loss, lost his virginity to a SA survivor who forced herself onto him, and killed his zombified father without flinching
@@haustyl12 Carl himself said that he wanted to be with that girl cuz she made him feel human so idk where ur getting the SA part from. Her taking the lead was just because she herself has been thru that act and now she's able to do it willingly instead of unwillingly. Also Carl was not unfazed by having to do that to his Father. He literally broke down as soon as he noticed what he just did. He shot him on instinct because he has been thru so much it's second nature to kill zombies, but him instantly pulling that trigger on his father made him break down and spiral. He even says this a page after he killed Rick zombie
@@Brusome1 I said he killed without flinching, not he felt nothing after killing his father. I also said Lydia is a SA survivor because she was repeatedly gang raped by the whisperers, ordered by her own mother. And if you re-read, Lydia got Carl on the ground and licked his empty eye socket and asked Carl if he wanted to do it. Carl was 13-14 when that happened, he never had intentions with having sex with Lydia, let alone the concept of liking any girl, as he never accepted Sophia’s advances for a relationship. Please read fully before blindly responding
I’m not gonna lie the ending of the comic was just unbelievably beautiful. I almost shed a tear. Everything that Rick went through, all the pain, loss casualties, even his own death was all for something it paid off in the end. Rick’s ideology that no one and nothing was beyond saving, and that humanity could change for the better will forever stick with me. This is why the comics have the edge over the TV show in every aspect. The TV series fumbled the absolute bag in this message and made a mockery of the comics for the sake of continuing the story for money.
Welp, I shed a lot of tears during the page where Carl looked back at his father’s statue and smiled, and also when he read the story of Rick to his daughter… I don’t think I’ll ever read a series better than the walking dead
I own all the comics I bought the four big compendiums. I haven’t started them yet cause I know there will only be one first time and I’ve heard they are very good
Back in 2007 my grandma had a heart attack and had to be flown to Albuquerque for emergency surgery. I went to go see her a few days later and spent a few days sitting in the hospital waiting for her to wake up from a medically induced coma. I decided to walk down the block and go into a comic book store, I had recently caught up on the walking dead and decided to get the next volume that had just been released. It was just opening so nobody was in the store but me and the owner. I walked and found the trade, vol 9 or something, and was flipping through it when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around not really paying attention and he said “hey I wrote that”. It was Robert Kirkman. He was very nice and signed a bunch of copies I bought. I don’t even remember what we talked about. I guess he knew the owner or something. I’ll never sell those trade paperbacks he signed. My grandma made a full recovery and died a few years back. He had a real impact on a 16 year old kid going through a stressful time.
The Walking Dead comics LOVED to break our expectations and shock us whenever it could. And the greatest shock of ALL of its run. It had a *HAPPY ENDING.* (At least as happy as you can get)
@@enenra6417no the original ending was super depressing. After the horde from Alexandria broke in and hella people died it was supposed to be Rick and the gang coming out on top, only to immediately cut to a rock statue in alexandria that has decayed and makes it look like the zombies won in the end.
so much better than the show, they won't let it end. Rick and michone come back as unkillable demigods who singlehandedly take out the crm, Daryl's in France, and there's more spinoffs on the way. Carl living on to carry ricks legacy is probably the best way they could've ended the series.
I don't know if it's true or not but I heard the rumor the reason why Carl's character got killed off is because the actor that plays him wanted to be killed off to go to college
@@bryce1029 But then there's the version where he bought a house to live closer to the studio and go to college at the same time but they refused to give him a pay rise once he legally became an adult so he wanted out.
@@Sirrizzthey actually fired him because they didn't want to pay him. He said in an interview that they told him he was fired and carl was being killed off after he asked them why carl was so shaken after the walker fight with siddiq
@@andrewebb3283It’s okay to be a big fanboy about 28 days later bro. But saying kirkman copied a character cause both women are black is complete delusion.
Dude this ending still pisses me off. I know the whole point is to show that nobody is safe but to kill Rick Motherfucking Grimes like that?? are you fucking kidding? I'm never not going to be livid over that glad to see a panel of sebatian older and STILL in prison fuck that rich prick.
Kirkmann went full fan fiction on the comic book finale but I can understand why. After 193 issues of bleak, ending the series on hope with a nice bow on the major characters is a nice change of pace.
I mean, doing such a time jump it would be stupid and pointless of killing any more characters, it would really be just a f-you to the people who liked those characters, and there's nothing wrong with giving them a happy ending in the story (for most of them, Hershel is an ass and Lydia is clearly not very happy). The one thing that felt really fan-fic is Maggie being president and even then she had 20+ years to get there. Also, the story is over in 192, 193 is the epilogue, it's not the place to put additional dramatic stuff, it's just what happens after the story, cementing the fact that the story has a happy ending and not an open or bad one.
I agree they deserved a happy ending after all the pain and gives hope of the world reforming but the show threw that away to make shit spinoffs world beyond’s ass fear sucked and Daryl Dixon was great same with dead city but the ones who live I feel was rushed and bad
I love how full circle so many story arcs come in the end. Michone for example, tells Rick and I believe Tyrese that she was a lawyer before the apocalypse.
Also one thing I always liked about the comics that I swear you almost never see in zombie media is how the walkers almost always have flies and bugs swarming around them since you know their corpses and flys and bugs love dead meat Guess that kind of effect is just hard to pull off in most zombie media.
I’ve always said that’s what makes the first two seasons of the show so special. You hear the flys, you hear the sun rays, the bugs in the grass, it is so immersive in the sense that everything is dead.
One thing that is never portrayed is how BAD a walking corpse would reaally smell. If I ever made a zombie movie, I would really make an effort to portray this, it would probably make viewers gag for real
So I guess the 193 cover is either showing two things. It's a metaphor showing the future "the farm" and the lone walker in the foreground being the past Or it's more literal showing the farm Carol now lives in and the lone walker walking up to his home showing both the life Carol now lives and showing how walkers are nothing but a rare pest now.
Rick becoming TWD's Gol D. Roger is beautifully poetic, in my opinion. Rick wasn't meant to live happily ever after, but rather be the start and end of the decline for the post-apocalyptic world. In Rick's life, and death, he inspired people to fight for a dream worth accomplishing, to not let ideals of freedom and joy to be beaten out by an oppressive force like evil organizations or walkers.
It’s a good ending. If Robert Kirkman thought the best WD stories were behind him then it was right time to stop. I also enjoyed the sort grand mythology of the final story. A new country being founded. It’s very American and very Western.
Something I don’t think people really talk about with the last issue is that Carl is essentially Hershel’s brother in law since Sophia was adopted by Glenn and Maggie, also making him Maggie’s son in law. I mean it’s adopted but still. Not sure that changes anything, but it’s funny to think of the last issue as the walking dead version of judge Judy resolving domestic disputes 😂
I think those are the nice touches that were lost in the TV show with the huge attrition rate of characters. My interest really started to peter out when Carl died. I felt that the show lost its core.
@hastekulvaati9681 weirdly enough, the show only got better after Rick left imo. Not because he left, mind you. In fact, they had to shoehorn Henry into the spotlight in order for the pseudo Romeo and Juliet story with Lydia to happen. It felt really awkward if you know how it was supposed to be, but it was done so well that I didn't mind. Various characters should have never had to leave, but they did a pretty good job with it in execution in a manner that worked for the story. They made the post-Rick show feel like the final issues, with the communities trying to honor his legacy as they moved forward. My only complaint about the rest of the show was that they dragged out the final season for too long, but it was still pretty good.
@@Tyler_W we're so different because i hated the show after rick died. When they killed Carl as a reason to keep Negan alive, the show quickly went downhill because they strayed too far from the storyline. And watching "prince" henry trying to be a hero with Lydia made me mad & annoyed. the communities allowing a child to make decisions for them (about lydia) got majority of them killed, which also made me mad & annoyed.
As a comic retailer the sudden "surprise" ending was a Huge slap in the face. You have to order comics 3 months in advance. The "fake" issues messed with our budget. Sure we didn't have to pay for them, but the money could have been allotted do books that actually WERE going to ship. Also, if we'd known, we could have ordered more copies. As it was, we sold out before we opened doors on Wed. It would have been nice to have copies for people who wanted one.
@@Pandor18 Ending the book like every other book has and letting comic shops manage their inventory based on sales trends. There was literally NO reason it needed to be a "surprise".
I remember getting Compendium 4 for Christmas and not knowing it was the end. I was gutted by Rick's death, and shocked by the bonus issue in the back and hiw it was all over. I was very happy with it!
@@hugo8500 aliens never invaded lol. There is a special named TWD: The Alien and it's about Rick's brother Jeff in France during the outbreak. When Kirkman gave the idea of the comics to publishers, who thought another zombie series wasn't needed, so Kirkman said the cause of the zombies was aliens but it was a lie lol. But they still liked the series and published it
Tbh I think this was the perfect ending for the comics. They pull one final, big character death when it was least expected. No cure, but civilization rebuilds and walkers start to go extinct. Rick leaves behind a legacy and becomes the voice of the rebuilding of humanity. And lastly the rest of the group move on with their lives and grow old. Compared to the show, this is the perfect ending for such a story. Such a shame we didn’t get this ending for the show.
Is it? Having walkers be near extinct seems like a bs cop out just for the sake of it having a happy ending. There's like billions of people on earth. A huge stretch that the walkers would be even close to extinction. Awful and forced ending if you asked me.
having only read the first volume of the comics... knowing it ends on an actual postive note and doesn't decend into the depressing horse shit so much media ESPECIALLY post-apoc media, does this day.... you've convinced me to get back into it. thank you.
Kirkman really chose to end the comic at the perfect time and gave us an ending that was worthy of everything that had built up to it. This comic book is so special to me. From its art, characters, and story. It makes it all the more frustrating how the tv show(s) really fumbled the bag and messed up so many great moments and stories.
Tbh he'd said on numerous occasions a few years earlier they were going to about 300 issues and they like halfway done at the Whisperer War. This was really an abrupt stop that couldn't have been planned and seemed infuenced by the struggles of the TV show. The ending wasn't awful but I hated Ricks death.
I loved the sudden end. Just like in real life, the end comes suddenly with no warning. And the ending was hopeful too. The walking dead is all about the resilience of humanity in the face of horror, and I think that was displayed through the ending
Part of me wanted Rick to live. It really did. It's a story about hope for the future and not losing humanity in the face of adversity but Rick's death really paved they way for a brighter future (no matter how sudden it was). Seeing Carl's future where the Walkers are basically a non threat and the world is recovering and America is rebuilding itself is beautiful, and it's nice that Carl is still smart enough to realize what a stupid thing to do it is just take these things that perpetuated a plague, which are still very much danger, and bring them into a highly populated area and be negligible enough to leave them unattended and let one get free and roam SO FAR. It's so nice to see an apocalypse series end where the people actually learned and DONT do stupid stuff anymore
I thought the ending to the comics was good. When they made the horrible decision to fire Chandler and kill Carl off, I was hoping that the story would follow thru using Judith. But... nope... instead, we got a Gimple. CRM to take the walking dead universe forward. They "could" have killed Rick off, had Michonne step up and have her and Judith move society forward using Rick's vision... but nope. I am glad that the show changed up some things too. Carol survived, and was a complete 180 of her comic character, Michonne and Rick instead of Andrea. Plus a bunch of others, but the show got it wrong with some things too. Killing off Andrea, Negan's atonement, etc. To me, the comics ended on a high note, before it got stale. I wish the series did too.
I agree about the TV series . I personally didn't follow the other TWD TV off shoots. I tried but just didn't have same feeling for me. Also I'm not a comic book (graphic novel ) reader.
@@oreotaku4017 Not true at all, He recently bought a house near the set and was planning on doing his studies around filming for the tv show. They fired him out of the blue most likely because the budget was tight and they didn't want to pay him an adult wage because he was about to turn 18. The showrunners for twd are garbage people who butchered the already terrific & laid out content from the comics.
@@GojiraBiscuits. Ok then. I just remember that was what everyone was saying when he did leave the show. That’s rather unfortunate considering the circumstance. I don’t get how some of you people will at one point praise the show for making changes or mixing up things up then complain it doesn’t follow the comics to the letter though.
Rick's end was both triumphant wnd appropriately bleak. He wemt out in an incredibly cheap and undignified manner that was only really possible because of how much Rick had accomplished. Very bitter-sweet, a fitting end.
Not every. Alexandria wasn't like that, the Vatos from the show wasn't like that, and I'm sure there's more. It's an apocalypse, bud. Most people stopped gaf like the Saviors, others went insane like the Wolves and Whisperers, others only had bad leaders like The Hilltop, Commonwealth, and Governor's town. It's way more complex than you're trying to spitefully make it out to be.
Considering there were 50k people back then, probably more by the end they had to have more than 1 judge. Having Michonne as judge would be a clear conflict if they are really trying to rebuild the law. But I know why they did it to show where the character ended up.
Well also she was the “highest” judge, not the only one. Basically the president went and said “fuck this local shit we are going to the Supreme Court”
I mean it make sense having michonne as the supreme judge considering her past as lawyer, not many of those people will left after total societal donwfall.
@sunshineskystar while true, this is 20-25 years after the death of Rick. Society has rebuilt to such a point that the US is having order be reestablished. I'd hope more Lawyers would be trained by then.
I started the tv show first but when I started to read the comics, I immediately fell in love with it! Rick had amazing speeches but my top 3 favorite are, We ARE the walking dead, Rick’s speech at all war with Negan and finally the We ARE NOT the walking dead. I read the comics at least 5 times so I was happy to see you explain the ending of the comics! In my opinion, the comics ended off on a good note showing how much Rick inspired the future generations with not only his brute force but his powerful words too
Hershel does have a point. He tells Carl that if he continue to treat the walkers like something you should be talking about, future generations will forget about the struggles people had to go through, and when Carl walk out of the court alongside Sophia, some teenagers make fun of Carl's eyepatch, even after being told of by one of their friends they don't really seem to care that they insulted Carl Grimes and run away, somewhat proving Hershel right.
“Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now, it's complete because it's ended here.' - from "Collected Sayings of Maud'Dib'' by the Princess Irulan”
They were so fucking smart. They had put out fake preview covers for like the next 3 issues. I worked at a comic store and did the ordering and even I was thrown off by the sudden end.
I’ll never forget when I got the notification that the comic would end. I had planned to start buying them at my comic shop at the time as an excuse to get out of the house. I remember just sitting there in the middle of the night.
Damnnnnn I don’t know it ended like that. What a change of events from the show, still an amazing series and idea regardless of how the story turns out. Thanks for the video Ty !!!
this reminds me of that time someone said that from issue 200 onwards the walkers would no longer appear, only the non infected it would have been interesting to see what could happen
I wish it ended til at least 200. There was only 9 issues left and you can put a lot in those 9. Ricks funeral carl breaking up with Lydia. michonne becoming a judge, negan becoming a hermit.
I agree - the final arc definitely needed at least a few more chapters to properly set up the stakes. And after Rick's death the comic could've also used a couple of chapters which could've shown various characters moving on, closure of some secondary plotlines and the gradual setup of this epilogue. So yeah, the story really only needed to be just 7-9 chapters longer.
I think the time jump was a good call because when we see what the rest of the group did with their lives and where they ended up it sort of doesn’t surprise you in a good way.
You just made the case stronger that Kirkman should've ended it at 200. Every 50th issue was a landmark comic. But 7 more issues means 7 more months. Guess he didn't wanna wait that long 😭
On God Comic Neagan was one of my favourite characters, hate his guts for killing Glenn but jeez, he becomes so likeable later in the book and a very small redemption arc
It's a rare thing for a writer (whether comic book or traditional) to admit when their creative well has run dry, bringing an end to their work on their own terms. I'm glad Rob sensed he'd reached his limit with The Walking Dead storyline and chose to conclude the run rather than drag it out further. Same thing happened with the creator/writer of Calvin and Hobbes. He too felt there was nothing left to say with the characters and finished accordingly.
I remember when i got news that the comics ended, i just finished reading the comics up till the Commonwealth arc as i didn't get into the comics till that point, i was a show only and i was reading the comics volumes as they dropped after that, it was a morning when i was in a bus going to school, and i started to see videos pop up on my feed about the ''shoking ending of the comics'', honestly i loved it and it fit Comic Rick a lot, maybe the show can go in a similar situation with Beale's son.
As someone who was reading them as they came out, the biggest thing that made me mad was the cool ass new sheriff/cowboy character we never got to meet
Seems like a proper way to end it. I never liked post-apocalyptic stories in the long term, because humanity would rebuild after a few years. a generation or two. Not like in Fallout for example, where everything is still fucked up 200 years later. I can see how some people would get upset that they skipped forward so much after Ricks death, but hey, stories otta let people imagine and speculate what happened inbetween. not everything needs to be written out or shown.
I went to BCT when 192 was released. I remember being excited to have a few issues to read when I got out just to see that it ended. Absolutely devastating.
If he was to continue working on it the quality of the comics would dip and maybe Kirkman would end up genuinely hating it so would the fans. Sometimes you gotta learn when to wrap up a project and the guy chose correctly to wrap it up when he had the chance.
I remember going on wiki and seeing the covers of the next issue just waiting, even seeing covers of issues in advance. Then all of sudden after Rick’s death, I was like “Yo what’s next?” Saw a bunch of now fake cover issues from Kirkman, and suddenly the ending. Man..what a ride.
Reason the walking dead comics ended abruptly was due to Kirkman and AMC being in a legal battle over 200 million dollars. Kirkman realize AMC was just stealing material from his comics from S09 going forward, and decided to stop AMC from indirectly leeching off him by ending the comics. If Kirkman had continued making more walking dead story arcs, you can best believe that TWD would have had a S12.
I bet there's a little truth of what you said but overall your wrong, an author wouldn't end their story because of AMC, to end something you been working on for 15 years won't be as little as the frustrations of another group he ended the story bc he felt he had to and that's the best reason for a story writer
@@Kieyss No but on previous occasions he did say the comic was nowhere close to done and around the time of the Whisperer arc suggested they were around the halfway point. So something clearly made him axe 100 issues of story he implied was planned.
I need to start collecting these comics ive always loved TWD ever since I was a kid its funny I had just gotten my girlfriend into TWD and shes on S4 in literally a weeks time never seen her binge something like this series and it reminds me of how we all use to be with this series and the love we all shared with this culturally changing series def need to start getting these comics especially just where the series is now and her getting into it
I’ve always been interested in TWD but only ever liked the first 4 seasons, your content has gotten me so interested and invested in this universe. Keep up the good work dude.
I don't know if this is true but instead of doing The Walking Dead: Dead City they were going to do 4 more seasons of the main show so it would end with season 15. Maggie and Negan would have been the leaders of The Survivors.
Yeah for me personally the comics really failed to stick the landing at the end. It wasn’t bad on paper, Rick dying because he finally felt like he could let his guard down, his legacy inspiring humanity to come back together, Carl growing old and starting a family, it’s not bad, it was just paced horribly. There was so much build up to the commonwealth and then Rick gets killed by this kid we seen maybe two or three times in the arc, they should’ve really had more interactions with the commonwealth people to build the tension and whatnot. I also think they could’ve done more too post-Rick, like kirkman had originally planned. It would’ve been really cool also if we had more of a 6 part epilogue following the old man Carl storyline and maybe even had he done more for Negan, just in general there’s a lot of characters that were left kinda open, I would’ve liked to see more of Michonne and her daughter, there’s just a lot they skipped over
Very much enjoying your channel and the content my dude! I’ve only read the comments to the Saviour War as I wanted to watch it first, but this is the kick up the jacksy I needed to pick them up again. Plus it wasn’t a spoiler as I knew about this aaaages ago 😅
I remember I bought the newest volume. It was high school, I was at my moms. Sitting on my bed I was super excited to read, i noticed, sliding my fingers across the side of the book that it was thicker than usual. When it flashed ‘THE END.’ And Kirkman’s final message. I started crying. I started reading TWD comics when I was in middle school. Used them as the books to read during those times when the teachers would make us read. I always had a book on me during school. And when they ended it was like a whole era ended for me. Best graphic novel series for me ever.
As someone who was a casual reader of the comics, just checked for a new part every once in awhile, the ending felt crazy to me. I had no idea it would be the end, I had no idea about the covers or anything in advance. And the shock of “Ricks dead” to this is the end of the story, just felt fitting to me. This was ricks story. Yes we focused on other people, yes it was also the story of many others but when everything is boiled down, Rick was the cause of everything. Most of what happened wouldn’t have happened without him. So it just felt right that the series ended with him. I can definitely see from this video how shitty / weird this would’ve felt for people actively keeping up with it at the time, and that’s kind of why I dislike keeping up with outside material like that, it gives you this false perception and causes this guessing game of what could happen. To me, I will never forgive the TV Show for not following many of the best moments in the comics, including this. Because this felt perfect, the wrap up. Ricks dead, his story was over, it’s time for the world to heal and move on.
Kirkman did the exact same thing with the Invincible comics, just rushed the ending with a nonsensical plot to get it over with as fast as possible. Just ridiculous
i didnt think the ending was so bad until the show came out and changed stuff, then i was like oh he's not tired of working on the series he just didnt have a plan, just like with the blue alien thing that stole 5 years of his life that was never explained
Imagine deciding that you wanna be quirky so you kill off two of the most popular, and surviving characters from the comics. But you also want to be “consistent to the comics” so you kill off one of the other most popular characters in the comics in the same way they did in the comics after raking everyone out
I had a subscription for the comic through Image and I remember getting an email telling me that my subscription had been canceled and the rest of what I'd paid for the year was refunded to me. A few days later they announced the comic was ending and it suddenly made sense.
Guys fun fact TWD Comics Rick wasn’t supposed to lose his hand because Robert Kirkman said “I cut off Rick hand by accident” I think Rick death was perfect because Rick got to comfortable and thought he was safe but we all know there always danger. I kinda of Rick died in the show if they did a season 12 and if he stayed in the show. I’m going to be honest it was cool how Rick died on a bed and he woke up in a bed at the start. Plus Robert Kirkman could have done a spin off about any other characters like Dwight or how the prison fall. One last thing TWDG is in the same universe not the show. Plus Negan and Clemtime were supposed to meet in season 3 I believe.
As much as I loved the comics they had actually gotten fairly stale because every arc was essentially a rehash of the same scenario. The details and the amount of issues it took for any given arc to complete would change but every arc was essentially the same. Step 1, the arc begins by Rick and crew out looking for a new home because their old one is gone. Step 2, they find a new place that is safe enough to settle down and call it home. Step 3, things are good. This time it's going to last. Step 4, oh no, things are going wrong but they're going to try to keep it together. Step 5, ah it's all collapsed and they're back on the move again. Repeat from step 1.
This is a bit lazy and cliched. It’s a good summation of the tv show and maybe even the first 2/3 of the comics but the last 1/3 was not this at all. I did find it a bit stale myself for other reasons, mainly I lost interest in the characters, but they were clearly trying new stuff with whispers, the settlements and the all out war stuff. And tbh waking dead was never really about the plot arcs, just like it wasn’t really about the zombies. It’s was about the characters and their arcs
This was how I felt watching the show. It was great, but only a few seasons in and I already noticed a pattern. One of these days I should really finish the show and the comics though.
I used to love twd series but for this exact reason is why it grew stale. The comics, the shows, the games, they all follow this path. A quote that stood out to me from twd game years ago was a character saying "whats the point? Were all just gonna march off to some new place and then someone else will die, its never gonna stop. Then eventually, itll be our turn." It perfectly encapsulates what makes twd intriguing, while ALSO being the reason it gets stale. Granted, thats kind of what makes this series, and its really hard to change that up because thats the core of what this series is about, really the only way to change up that formula is by ending it.
The Walking Dead comic understood something the show did not. I also think the abrupt ending works really well to highlight the role death plays in the story.
I gave up on the Walking Dead (comic) when Andrea died. The story had got so repetitive by that point. Every story arc was basically the same: Fight some zombies. Meet some new people. New people are usually worse than the zombies. Someone does something stupid and dies as a result. RInse and repeat.
I’d been reading from the start of the prison arc of the comic. When Rick went, I wasn’t sure what would happen. For the next issue to be the sudden ending was a major shock. Yet I loved most of the series for so many years. All good things must come to an end.
I thought the comics had a great ending and a happy one at that. I enjoyed seeing Carl as an adult married to Sophia with their child Andrea. Yeah, it would've been nice to see the end at 200 issues but Kirkman told his story in 193 issues and it's still a great read today.
As someone who kept up with the comic since issue 51, I think it was rushed. I would read the letter hacks each issue, and so many times, Kirkman lied in them. Around Glenn's death, people were understandably mad about it, and said that all Kirkman has left of the story is to make Governor 2.0, 3.0, Alexandria 2.0, 3.0 etc. Kirkman denied these claims, but this worry was absolutely correct. Even going back to Alexandria, Negan, and Spencer Monroe, the same exact thing plays out, and no doubt, the original plan was to have Spencer kill rick. I feel like he could have put more effort into the ending is all. Fleshing out the character a bit more. But I think the point he wanted to make was that it was a nobody that killed him, even to the reader. Ultimately I love the series very much, but the Kirkman we had at the start of the comic was not the same guy towards the end.
Best ending ever. Not even for the story but for the publication. A book that was all about shock value the final shock was a meta one when the book was ended without notice. It was brilliant!
I downloaded this comic because at the time i was in the hospital and was used to going to the comic book shop every month. Then BAM it ended! I was shocked!
I started reading TWD after the first video game. I was all caught up so I would wait roughly six months between sessions before buying all of the issues I had missed and reading them all back to back. Plus I had skipped from physical comics to digital. I will never forget how shocked and sad I was that day when I went to buy my digital comics only to see n zombie Rick on the first pag of the preview. I robbed myself of the experience! Along with Invincible and Kick-Ass, TWD was one of the best comic book experiences I've ever had. Time for another reread!
I couldn’t read past issue 115… never so much as glanced towards the comics again since .. this video was great I got to skip 80 issues and see how it ended. The ending seems good to me. Thanks for the video
Just wanted to clarify for some non-comic readers,
Sophia does not go missing like she does in the show.
Carol dies early on in the prison arc, leaving Sophia to be adopted by Maggie and Glenn.
Can you breakdown what happened at the Shirewilt estates in TWD. I think that would be a great video
What a garbage-series. +
Rick left Sophia to die so he could save his own ass.that when I first started disliking him.
@dirtyscoundrel2013 it wasnt to save himself. He just made a dumb decision bc he didnt know how to deal with the walkers yet. Also sophias actress wanted to quit so they had to write her off.
@@onojioboardwalk9748 you watch s-CRY-ed ofc you know about garbage
"I didn't have enough story worked out to get there." I love this line. A conscious decision to end the comic over 100 issues sooner than originally planned, rather than drag it out. I wish more people in the entertainment industry thought like this.
I wish that too but sadly some people don't follow that
@@curiouscarlo7276Its still a job, not many people will consciously stop one if they don’t have anything else planned.
It reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbs comics. Its author chose to end it because he knew dragging it out would eventually result in lower comic quality and chose to go out on his terms.
@@ryanelliott71698
Same reason Beavis and Butthead originally stopped, then has only really come back when Mike Judge has ideas for the show.
yeah SAO author did that for the first arc and then made the worst arc in the series
The fact that Carl lives in the end already makes the books better than the show. But imagine being Carl though in the span of roughly a month he lost his step mom and his dad
Shows ass and books
In the span of a few years Carl was made to see and do horrible things. He killed a kid in the comics, he almost got r4ped and watched as his dad brutally eviscerate that man. As he watched he said he felt good about watching it, to a point that's understandable but wanting to watch someone die shouldn't ever be a part of your brain chemistry.
@@Brusome1also he got shot in the eye, and had temporary memory loss, lost his virginity to a SA survivor who forced herself onto him, and killed his zombified father without flinching
@@haustyl12 Carl himself said that he wanted to be with that girl cuz she made him feel human so idk where ur getting the SA part from. Her taking the lead was just because she herself has been thru that act and now she's able to do it willingly instead of unwillingly. Also Carl was not unfazed by having to do that to his Father. He literally broke down as soon as he noticed what he just did. He shot him on instinct because he has been thru so much it's second nature to kill zombies, but him instantly pulling that trigger on his father made him break down and spiral. He even says this a page after he killed Rick zombie
@@Brusome1 I said he killed without flinching, not he felt nothing after killing his father. I also said Lydia is a SA survivor because she was repeatedly gang raped by the whisperers, ordered by her own mother. And if you re-read, Lydia got Carl on the ground and licked his empty eye socket and asked Carl if he wanted to do it. Carl was 13-14 when that happened, he never had intentions with having sex with Lydia, let alone the concept of liking any girl, as he never accepted Sophia’s advances for a relationship. Please read fully before blindly responding
“We are not the walking dead” he said it he said the line
"He didn't say the line 😢"
And I love the part when Pamela said to him "its you, you are the walking dead!"
Some kinda ... Hottub time machine
@@chrishopkins5651you farted in it
An then he walked all over tbe place dead
I’m not gonna lie the ending of the comic was just unbelievably beautiful. I almost shed a tear. Everything that Rick went through, all the pain, loss casualties, even his own death was all for something it paid off in the end. Rick’s ideology that no one and nothing was beyond saving, and that humanity could change for the better will forever stick with me. This is why the comics have the edge over the TV show in every aspect. The TV series fumbled the absolute bag in this message and made a mockery of the comics for the sake of continuing the story for money.
Welp, I shed a lot of tears during the page where Carl looked back at his father’s statue and smiled, and also when he read the story of Rick to his daughter… I don’t think I’ll ever read a series better than the walking dead
This is what I like about the comics. They gave off a true sense of pride in the characters
The TV show fumbled the ball by thinking it could continue without Rick and Carl. They were the heart and soul of the series.
I own all the comics I bought the four big compendiums. I haven’t started them yet cause I know there will only be one first time and I’ve heard they are very good
Back in 2007 my grandma had a heart attack and had to be flown to Albuquerque for emergency surgery. I went to go see her a few days later and spent a few days sitting in the hospital waiting for her to wake up from a medically induced coma. I decided to walk down the block and go into a comic book store, I had recently caught up on the walking dead and decided to get the next volume that had just been released. It was just opening so nobody was in the store but me and the owner. I walked and found the trade, vol 9 or something, and was flipping through it when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around not really paying attention and he said “hey I wrote that”. It was Robert Kirkman. He was very nice and signed a bunch of copies I bought. I don’t even remember what we talked about. I guess he knew the owner or something. I’ll never sell those trade paperbacks he signed. My grandma made a full recovery and died a few years back. He had a real impact on a 16 year old kid going through a stressful time.
I’m really sorry to hear about your loss. That’s an amazing story though. I’ve always heard he was a really nice guy, I’d love to meet him one day.
May your Grandmother rest in peace. Thank you for sharing this incredible story and giving so many people inspiration.
Astro Zombies?
@@Toboar ya that’s it!
The Walking Dead comics LOVED to break our expectations and shock us whenever it could.
And the greatest shock of ALL of its run. It had a *HAPPY ENDING.*
(At least as happy as you can get)
Apparently the original ending was supposed to be happy
@@enenra6417no the original ending was super depressing. After the horde from Alexandria broke in and hella people died it was supposed to be Rick and the gang coming out on top, only to immediately cut to a rock statue in alexandria that has decayed and makes it look like the zombies won in the end.
@@rapgodmaster6592Reminds me of the original ending for season 2 of TWD game.
so much better than the show, they won't let it end. Rick and michone come back as unkillable demigods who singlehandedly take out the crm, Daryl's in France, and there's more spinoffs on the way. Carl living on to carry ricks legacy is probably the best way they could've ended the series.
Im all fine with rednecks in paris full of zombie the idea balls so hard
I don't know if it's true or not but I heard the rumor the reason why Carl's character got killed off is because the actor that plays him wanted to be killed off to go to college
@@bryce1029 But then there's the version where he bought a house to live closer to the studio and go to college at the same time but they refused to give him a pay rise once he legally became an adult so he wanted out.
@@Sirrizzbasically this but not fully
@@Sirrizzthey actually fired him because they didn't want to pay him. He said in an interview that they told him he was fired and carl was being killed off after he asked them why carl was so shaken after the walker fight with siddiq
The thing i appreciate about kirkman is he has the balls to end his stories even if theyre huge multi media franchises
He stole his whole comic from 28 days later. Even Michone is copy of the Black woman from that movie
@@andrewebb3283there are no original ideas
you gonna tell me that all the archs are copied?cmoooon
@@chrisspeed270 yes there are original ideas, that's what thieves say to justify stealing
The walking dead is nothing like 28 days later tho
@@andrewebb3283It’s okay to be a big fanboy about 28 days later bro. But saying kirkman copied a character cause both women are black is complete delusion.
*Rick gets shot* Me: Uh, maybe he'll pull through? *Rick gets shot repeatedly* Me: Alrighty, Kirkman really did it, didn't he?
Dude this ending still pisses me off. I know the whole point is to show that nobody is safe but to kill Rick Motherfucking Grimes like that?? are you fucking kidding? I'm never not going to be livid over that glad to see a panel of sebatian older and STILL in prison fuck that rich prick.
Unironically me. I was like "Okay, he can tank one gunshot........ okay, he can tank four gunshots........ okay, he can't un-reanimate himself."
Kirkmann went full fan fiction on the comic book finale but I can understand why. After 193 issues of bleak, ending the series on hope with a nice bow on the major characters is a nice change of pace.
I mean, doing such a time jump it would be stupid and pointless of killing any more characters, it would really be just a f-you to the people who liked those characters, and there's nothing wrong with giving them a happy ending in the story (for most of them, Hershel is an ass and Lydia is clearly not very happy). The one thing that felt really fan-fic is Maggie being president and even then she had 20+ years to get there. Also, the story is over in 192, 193 is the epilogue, it's not the place to put additional dramatic stuff, it's just what happens after the story, cementing the fact that the story has a happy ending and not an open or bad one.
@@dearcastiel4667 Well said 👍
Hmmmm
I agree they deserved a happy ending after all the pain and gives hope of the world reforming but the show threw that away to make shit spinoffs world beyond’s ass fear sucked and Daryl Dixon was great same with dead city but the ones who live I feel was rushed and bad
He did the same thing with Invincible finale. A time skip, a few plot-hooks, and overall a happy ending.
I love how full circle so many story arcs come in the end. Michone for example, tells Rick and I believe Tyrese that she was a lawyer before the apocalypse.
She never opened up to Tyreese but she did tell Rick
Also one thing I always liked about the comics that I swear you almost never see in zombie media is how the walkers almost always have flies and bugs swarming around them since you know their corpses and flys and bugs love dead meat
Guess that kind of effect is just hard to pull off in most zombie media.
I’ve always said that’s what makes the first two seasons of the show so special. You hear the flys, you hear the sun rays, the bugs in the grass, it is so immersive in the sense that everything is dead.
It's mostly a matter of cost rather than capability.
@@Swell-FilmsHear sun rays...?
@@user-gj7lp5iz6k it’s kinda hard to explain, but they use a faint buzz sound to convey heat from the sun in the early seasons
One thing that is never portrayed is how BAD a walking corpse would reaally smell. If I ever made a zombie movie, I would really make an effort to portray this, it would probably make viewers gag for real
So I guess the 193 cover is either showing two things.
It's a metaphor showing the future "the farm" and the lone walker in the foreground being the past
Or it's more literal showing the farm Carol now lives in and the lone walker walking up to his home showing both the life Carol now lives and showing how walkers are nothing but a rare pest now.
That or it was made to trick the audience. After all they made cover art for 2-3 issues that don’t exist to keep the finale a secret
They will be just a rare pest until society recovers and they are seen as nothing much…and then it all happens again.
Didn't Carol die in one of the earlier issues?
Carl, not Carol.
It's also the left hand of a zombie. The hand Rick don't got no more.
Rick becoming TWD's Gol D. Roger is beautifully poetic, in my opinion. Rick wasn't meant to live happily ever after, but rather be the start and end of the decline for the post-apocalyptic world. In Rick's life, and death, he inspired people to fight for a dream worth accomplishing, to not let ideals of freedom and joy to be beaten out by an oppressive force like evil organizations or walkers.
It’s a good ending.
If Robert Kirkman thought the best WD stories were behind him then it was right time to stop.
I also enjoyed the sort grand mythology of the final story. A new country being founded. It’s very American and very Western.
Umm, the thing with a new country being “founded” is that almost every time there are already people there. Very American/Western indeed.
@@TerranPersoid725dude shut up
@@TerranPersoid725Youre describing every civilization in human history.
@@TerranPersoid725 Not sure what your point is.
Something I don’t think people really talk about with the last issue is that Carl is essentially Hershel’s brother in law since Sophia was adopted by Glenn and Maggie, also making him Maggie’s son in law. I mean it’s adopted but still. Not sure that changes anything, but it’s funny to think of the last issue as the walking dead version of judge Judy resolving domestic disputes 😂
I think those are the nice touches that were lost in the TV show with the huge attrition rate of characters. My interest really started to peter out when Carl died. I felt that the show lost its core.
@@hastekulvaati9681 fully agree
@hastekulvaati9681 weirdly enough, the show only got better after Rick left imo. Not because he left, mind you. In fact, they had to shoehorn Henry into the spotlight in order for the pseudo Romeo and Juliet story with Lydia to happen. It felt really awkward if you know how it was supposed to be, but it was done so well that I didn't mind. Various characters should have never had to leave, but they did a pretty good job with it in execution in a manner that worked for the story. They made the post-Rick show feel like the final issues, with the communities trying to honor his legacy as they moved forward. My only complaint about the rest of the show was that they dragged out the final season for too long, but it was still pretty good.
And Carl’s adoptive mom (in a different timeline) is Judge Judy!!
@@Tyler_W we're so different because i hated the show after rick died. When they killed Carl as a reason to keep Negan alive, the show quickly went downhill because they strayed too far from the storyline. And watching "prince" henry trying to be a hero with Lydia made me mad & annoyed. the communities allowing a child to make decisions for them (about lydia) got majority of them killed, which also made me mad & annoyed.
As a comic retailer the sudden "surprise" ending was a Huge slap in the face.
You have to order comics 3 months in advance. The "fake" issues messed with our budget. Sure we didn't have to pay for them, but the money could have been allotted do books that actually WERE going to ship.
Also, if we'd known, we could have ordered more copies. As it was, we sold out before we opened doors on Wed. It would have been nice to have copies for people who wanted one.
damn, that's sound very hard on your end, never thought of that.
I too ran a store in a similar vein... Its time to let these places go. The industry became toxic and self sabotaging
WHATEVER, NERD!
What would be an alternative ? I mean, it's impossible to think that every shop would not leak that it is the end
@@Pandor18 Ending the book like every other book has and letting comic shops manage their inventory based on sales trends. There was literally NO reason it needed to be a "surprise".
I remember getting Compendium 4 for Christmas and not knowing it was the end.
I was gutted by Rick's death, and shocked by the bonus issue in the back and hiw it was all over.
I was very happy with it!
Aw man that’s one hell of a way to experience the end lol
Is that the weird ass issue where it turns out aliens invaded?
@@hugo8500 aliens never invaded lol. There is a special named TWD: The Alien and it's about Rick's brother Jeff in France during the outbreak. When Kirkman gave the idea of the comics to publishers, who thought another zombie series wasn't needed, so Kirkman said the cause of the zombies was aliens but it was a lie lol. But they still liked the series and published it
@@thcdelirious1235 yee I know, that’s what I was referring to
@@thcdelirious1235not France, Spain.
Tbh I think this was the perfect ending for the comics. They pull one final, big character death when it was least expected. No cure, but civilization rebuilds and walkers start to go extinct. Rick leaves behind a legacy and becomes the voice of the rebuilding of humanity. And lastly the rest of the group move on with their lives and grow old. Compared to the show, this is the perfect ending for such a story. Such a shame we didn’t get this ending for the show.
Is it? Having walkers be near extinct seems like a bs cop out just for the sake of it having a happy ending.
There's like billions of people on earth. A huge stretch that the walkers would be even close to extinction.
Awful and forced ending if you asked me.
having only read the first volume of the comics... knowing it ends on an actual postive note and doesn't decend into the depressing horse shit so much media ESPECIALLY post-apoc media, does this day.... you've convinced me to get back into it. thank you.
Kirkman really chose to end the comic at the perfect time and gave us an ending that was worthy of everything that had built up to it. This comic book is so special to me. From its art, characters, and story. It makes it all the more frustrating how the tv show(s) really fumbled the bag and messed up so many great moments and stories.
Tbh he'd said on numerous occasions a few years earlier they were going to about 300 issues and they like halfway done at the Whisperer War. This was really an abrupt stop that couldn't have been planned and seemed infuenced by the struggles of the TV show. The ending wasn't awful but I hated Ricks death.
I loved the sudden end. Just like in real life, the end comes suddenly with no warning. And the ending was hopeful too. The walking dead is all about the resilience of humanity in the face of horror, and I think that was displayed through the ending
Part of me wanted Rick to live. It really did. It's a story about hope for the future and not losing humanity in the face of adversity but Rick's death really paved they way for a brighter future (no matter how sudden it was). Seeing Carl's future where the Walkers are basically a non threat and the world is recovering and America is rebuilding itself is beautiful, and it's nice that Carl is still smart enough to realize what a stupid thing to do it is just take these things that perpetuated a plague, which are still very much danger, and bring them into a highly populated area and be negligible enough to leave them unattended and let one get free and roam SO FAR. It's so nice to see an apocalypse series end where the people actually learned and DONT do stupid stuff anymore
I thought the ending to the comics was good. When they made the horrible decision to fire Chandler and kill Carl off, I was hoping that the story would follow thru using Judith. But... nope... instead, we got a Gimple. CRM to take the walking dead universe forward. They "could" have killed Rick off, had Michonne step up and have her and Judith move society forward using Rick's vision... but nope. I am glad that the show changed up some things too. Carol survived, and was a complete 180 of her comic character, Michonne and Rick instead of Andrea. Plus a bunch of others, but the show got it wrong with some things too. Killing off Andrea, Negan's atonement, etc. To me, the comics ended on a high note, before it got stale. I wish the series did too.
They didn't have a Daryl in the comics . And a lot of people love Daryl on TV.
I agree about the TV series . I personally didn't follow the other TWD TV off shoots. I tried but just didn't have same feeling for me. Also I'm not a comic book (graphic novel ) reader.
They didn’t fire Chandler he wanted to leave the show so he could focus on college.
@@oreotaku4017 Not true at all,
He recently bought a house near the set and was planning on doing his studies around filming for the tv show.
They fired him out of the blue most likely because the budget was tight and they didn't want to pay him an adult wage because he was about to turn 18.
The showrunners for twd are garbage people who butchered the already terrific & laid out content from the comics.
@@GojiraBiscuits. Ok then. I just remember that was what everyone was saying when he did leave the show. That’s rather unfortunate considering the circumstance.
I don’t get how some of you people will at one point praise the show for making changes or mixing up things up then complain it doesn’t follow the comics to the letter though.
Rick's end was both triumphant wnd appropriately bleak. He wemt out in an incredibly cheap and undignified manner that was only really possible because of how much Rick had accomplished. Very bitter-sweet, a fitting end.
The most frustrating part of The walking Dead both the show and the comics is that every form of power structure was just over the top evil.
Not every. Alexandria wasn't like that, the Vatos from the show wasn't like that, and I'm sure there's more. It's an apocalypse, bud. Most people stopped gaf like the Saviors, others went insane like the Wolves and Whisperers, others only had bad leaders like The Hilltop, Commonwealth, and Governor's town. It's way more complex than you're trying to spitefully make it out to be.
10:00 hearing this explanation i can actually respect the sudden stop. Very meta
Take a shot every time a character says “where do you get off?” in the comics.
I really love how despite having everything to be a story of terror and sadness, this comic chose to be a story of hope
Considering there were 50k people back then, probably more by the end they had to have more than 1 judge. Having Michonne as judge would be a clear conflict if they are really trying to rebuild the law. But I know why they did it to show where the character ended up.
Well also she was the “highest” judge, not the only one. Basically the president went and said “fuck this local shit we are going to the Supreme Court”
lol turns out the new society is going the way of the NCR in Fallout, towards inside corruption and wealthy cow/resource barons
@@hugo8500where’s the Walking Dead’s equivalent of Mr. House when you need them 😂😂
I mean it make sense having michonne as the supreme judge considering her past as lawyer, not many of those people will left after total societal donwfall.
@sunshineskystar while true, this is 20-25 years after the death of Rick. Society has rebuilt to such a point that the US is having order be reestablished. I'd hope more Lawyers would be trained by then.
I started the tv show first but when I started to read the comics, I immediately fell in love with it! Rick had amazing speeches but my top 3 favorite are, We ARE the walking dead, Rick’s speech at all war with Negan and finally the We ARE NOT the walking dead. I read the comics at least 5 times so I was happy to see you explain the ending of the comics! In my opinion, the comics ended off on a good note showing how much Rick inspired the future generations with not only his brute force but his powerful words too
Hershel does have a point.
He tells Carl that if he continue to treat the walkers like something you should be talking about, future generations will forget about the struggles people had to go through, and when Carl walk out of the court alongside Sophia, some teenagers make fun of Carl's eyepatch, even after being told of by one of their friends they don't really seem to care that they insulted Carl Grimes and run away, somewhat proving Hershel right.
“Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now, it's complete because it's ended here.'
- from "Collected Sayings of Maud'Dib'' by the Princess Irulan”
They were so fucking smart. They had put out fake preview covers for like the next 3 issues. I worked at a comic store and did the ordering and even I was thrown off by the sudden end.
I’ll never forget when I got the notification that the comic would end. I had planned to start buying them at my comic shop at the time as an excuse to get out of the house. I remember just sitting there in the middle of the night.
Damnnnnn I don’t know it ended like that. What a change of events from the show, still an amazing series and idea regardless of how the story turns out. Thanks for the video Ty !!!
this reminds me of that time someone said that from issue 200 onwards the walkers would no longer appear, only the non infected
it would have been interesting to see what could happen
I wish it ended til at least 200. There was only 9 issues left and you can put a lot in those 9. Ricks funeral carl breaking up with Lydia. michonne becoming a judge, negan becoming a hermit.
200 - 193 isn't 9
I agree - the final arc definitely needed at least a few more chapters to properly set up the stakes.
And after Rick's death the comic could've also used a couple of chapters which could've shown various characters moving on, closure of some secondary plotlines and the gradual setup of this epilogue.
So yeah, the story really only needed to be just 7-9 chapters longer.
I think the time jump was a good call because when we see what the rest of the group did with their lives and where they ended up it sort of doesn’t surprise you in a good way.
You just made the case stronger that Kirkman should've ended it at 200. Every 50th issue was a landmark comic. But 7 more issues means 7 more months. Guess he didn't wanna wait that long 😭
@BeeTheBee 200-191 = 9 if you decided to use common sense then you'd know that, then again you don't look smart
"P.S. Neagan lives....."
Awesome final words to end the entire series..... 👍
On God Comic Neagan was one of my favourite characters, hate his guts for killing Glenn but jeez, he becomes so likeable later in the book and a very small redemption arc
@@freakkyser love him or hate him, he was always insanely fun to read
It's a rare thing for a writer (whether comic book or traditional) to admit when their creative well has run dry, bringing an end to their work on their own terms. I'm glad Rob sensed he'd reached his limit with The Walking Dead storyline and chose to conclude the run rather than drag it out further. Same thing happened with the creator/writer of Calvin and Hobbes. He too felt there was nothing left to say with the characters and finished accordingly.
I like that this isn’t just an epilogue and there’s some real tension. You spend the entire issue worrying about Hershel doing something to Carl.
11:00 the idea that a travelling Walker circus just let lost one walker sounds so unlikely. What a ridiculous plot.
I kind of vibe with it. Real world revolutionaries often are murdered before it really feels like their time.
I remember when i got news that the comics ended, i just finished reading the comics up till the Commonwealth arc as i didn't get into the comics till that point, i was a show only and i was reading the comics volumes as they dropped after that, it was a morning when i was in a bus going to school, and i started to see videos pop up on my feed about the ''shoking ending of the comics'', honestly i loved it and it fit Comic Rick a lot, maybe the show can go in a similar situation with Beale's son.
As someone who was reading them as they came out, the biggest thing that made me mad was the cool ass new sheriff/cowboy character we never got to meet
We did get to meet him in the final issue.
I cried reading the final few pages. It was a wonderful pay off.
In the end of the story we see Carl still needs his dad even when he’s all grown up.
Seems like a proper way to end it. I never liked post-apocalyptic stories in the long term, because humanity would rebuild after a few years. a generation or two. Not like in Fallout for example, where everything is still fucked up 200 years later. I can see how some people would get upset that they skipped forward so much after Ricks death, but hey, stories otta let people imagine and speculate what happened inbetween. not everything needs to be written out or shown.
The post-apocalyptic world won't remain barbarians and warlords forever. A renaissance would be inevitable.
Thats Bethesda Fallout Og Fallout Humanity Rebuilt.
@@FrankHorrigan1998Fallout New Vegas I say some areas with order some with none especially due to the tribals
society rebuilds in fallout (1, 2 nv), in bethesda games they built up again only to fall (3, 4, 76, tv show)
@@KFC_Manager I know it's so stupid
I went to BCT when 192 was released. I remember being excited to have a few issues to read when I got out just to see that it ended. Absolutely devastating.
The comic book ending was so much better than what we got with the show it was not the same without rick like at all
If he was to continue working on it the quality of the comics would dip and maybe Kirkman would end up genuinely hating it so would the fans. Sometimes you gotta learn when to wrap up a project and the guy chose correctly to wrap it up when he had the chance.
I remember going on wiki and seeing the covers of the next issue just waiting, even seeing covers of issues in advance. Then all of sudden after Rick’s death, I was like “Yo what’s next?” Saw a bunch of now fake cover issues from Kirkman, and suddenly the ending. Man..what a ride.
Rick in the comics has some of the greatest and unintentionally funniest quotes. That first 60-70 issues is great truly recommend
Reason the walking dead comics ended abruptly was due to Kirkman and AMC being in a legal battle over 200 million dollars. Kirkman realize AMC was just stealing material from his comics from S09 going forward, and decided to stop AMC from indirectly leeching off him by ending the comics. If Kirkman had continued making more walking dead story arcs, you can best believe that TWD would have had a S12.
Did he say this?
I bet there's a little truth of what you said but overall your wrong, an author wouldn't end their story because of AMC, to end something you been working on for 15 years won't be as little as the frustrations of another group
he ended the story bc he felt he had to and that's the best reason for a story writer
Only ironically for amc to make more spinoffs and went beyond the source material
@@Kieyss No but on previous occasions he did say the comic was nowhere close to done and around the time of the Whisperer arc suggested they were around the halfway point. So something clearly made him axe 100 issues of story he implied was planned.
This is great!!! I have been searching all of TH-cam for more walking dead comic content!!! Thanks!!
Should have gone with space aliens like he told image back in the day.
I need to start collecting these comics ive always loved TWD ever since I was a kid its funny I had just gotten my girlfriend into TWD and shes on S4 in literally a weeks time never seen her binge something like this series and it reminds me of how we all use to be with this series and the love we all shared with this culturally changing series def need to start getting these comics especially just where the series is now and her getting into it
I’ve always been interested in TWD but only ever liked the first 4 seasons, your content has gotten me so interested and invested in this universe. Keep up the good work dude.
Thanks so much :)
I don't know if this is true but instead of doing The Walking Dead: Dead City they were going to do 4 more seasons of the main show so it would end with season 15. Maggie and Negan would have been the leaders of The Survivors.
Yup that is true. I’m glad they went with the spinoff ideas instead of
@@Swell-FilmsI'm also glad they went with the spin offs though I am interested in what they would have done.
Yeah for me personally the comics really failed to stick the landing at the end. It wasn’t bad on paper, Rick dying because he finally felt like he could let his guard down, his legacy inspiring humanity to come back together, Carl growing old and starting a family, it’s not bad, it was just paced horribly. There was so much build up to the commonwealth and then Rick gets killed by this kid we seen maybe two or three times in the arc, they should’ve really had more interactions with the commonwealth people to build the tension and whatnot. I also think they could’ve done more too post-Rick, like kirkman had originally planned. It would’ve been really cool also if we had more of a 6 part epilogue following the old man Carl storyline and maybe even had he done more for Negan, just in general there’s a lot of characters that were left kinda open, I would’ve liked to see more of Michonne and her daughter, there’s just a lot they skipped over
One gigantic missed opportunity was Rick's funeral. Could of done so much with it. Negan could have shown up to show respect etc.
Thank yu for the “hot take” that shouldn’t even be a hot take
The fake covers, what a madlad move, gotta respect it
AMC and Gimple fucked this show up so much man. It genuinely pisses me off more than it should.
Very much enjoying your channel and the content my dude!
I’ve only read the comments to the Saviour War as I wanted to watch it first, but this is the kick up the jacksy I needed to pick them up again. Plus it wasn’t a spoiler as I knew about this aaaages ago 😅
I remember I bought the newest volume. It was high school, I was at my moms. Sitting on my bed I was super excited to read, i noticed, sliding my fingers across the side of the book that it was thicker than usual.
When it flashed ‘THE END.’ And Kirkman’s final message. I started crying. I started reading TWD comics when I was in middle school. Used them as the books to read during those times when the teachers would make us read. I always had a book on me during school. And when they ended it was like a whole era ended for me.
Best graphic novel series for me ever.
Really like these lore videos you’ve been making
Thanks mate!
As someone who was a casual reader of the comics, just checked for a new part every once in awhile, the ending felt crazy to me.
I had no idea it would be the end, I had no idea about the covers or anything in advance. And the shock of “Ricks dead” to this is the end of the story, just felt fitting to me.
This was ricks story. Yes we focused on other people, yes it was also the story of many others but when everything is boiled down, Rick was the cause of everything. Most of what happened wouldn’t have happened without him. So it just felt right that the series ended with him.
I can definitely see from this video how shitty / weird this would’ve felt for people actively keeping up with it at the time, and that’s kind of why I dislike keeping up with outside material like that, it gives you this false perception and causes this guessing game of what could happen.
To me, I will never forgive the TV Show for not following many of the best moments in the comics, including this. Because this felt perfect, the wrap up. Ricks dead, his story was over, it’s time for the world to heal and move on.
I never read the comic series just a TV fan this just totally blew me away
The ending of TWD comic is beautiful man, as well with how the arcs ended. If only the show cared the same
Damn, the show really screwed up not having Rick there for the last few seasons. This is such a cooler ending
Kirkman did the exact same thing with the Invincible comics, just rushed the ending with a nonsensical plot to get it over with as fast as possible. Just ridiculous
Exactly.
i didnt think the ending was so bad until the show came out and changed stuff, then i was like oh he's not tired of working on the series he just didnt have a plan, just like with the blue alien thing that stole 5 years of his life that was never explained
I cried when I read this issue. I avoided the letters section and spoilers like the plague and I was gutted bro.
Imagine deciding that you wanna be quirky so you kill off two of the most popular, and surviving characters from the comics.
But you also want to be “consistent to the comics” so you kill off one of the other most popular characters in the comics in the same way they did in the comics after raking everyone out
I don’t get how zombies are that rare if no matter how you die you still turn into a zombie
I had a subscription for the comic through Image and I remember getting an email telling me that my subscription had been canceled and the rest of what I'd paid for the year was refunded to me. A few days later they announced the comic was ending and it suddenly made sense.
Damn wow that’s interesting. Guess you had a bit of a heads up, for me it came out of left field, I just heard the leak as it came out
Guys fun fact TWD Comics Rick wasn’t supposed to lose his hand because Robert Kirkman said “I cut off Rick hand by accident” I think Rick death was perfect because Rick got to comfortable and thought he was safe but we all know there always danger. I kinda of Rick died in the show if they did a season 12 and if he stayed in the show. I’m going to be honest it was cool how Rick died on a bed and he woke up in a bed at the start. Plus Robert Kirkman could have done a spin off about any other characters like Dwight or how the prison fall. One last thing TWDG is in the same universe not the show. Plus Negan and Clemtime were supposed to meet in season 3 I believe.
That is actually a pretty cool story. It is different from the show but it's interesting to see the difference between the two.
As much as I loved the comics they had actually gotten fairly stale because every arc was essentially a rehash of the same scenario. The details and the amount of issues it took for any given arc to complete would change but every arc was essentially the same.
Step 1, the arc begins by Rick and crew out looking for a new home because their old one is gone.
Step 2, they find a new place that is safe enough to settle down and call it home.
Step 3, things are good. This time it's going to last.
Step 4, oh no, things are going wrong but they're going to try to keep it together.
Step 5, ah it's all collapsed and they're back on the move again.
Repeat from step 1.
This is a bit lazy and cliched. It’s a good summation of the tv show and maybe even the first 2/3 of the comics but the last 1/3 was not this at all. I did find it a bit stale myself for other reasons, mainly I lost interest in the characters, but they were clearly trying new stuff with whispers, the settlements and the all out war stuff.
And tbh waking dead was never really about the plot arcs, just like it wasn’t really about the zombies. It’s was about the characters and their arcs
This was how I felt watching the show. It was great, but only a few seasons in and I already noticed a pattern. One of these days I should really finish the show and the comics though.
I used to love twd series but for this exact reason is why it grew stale. The comics, the shows, the games, they all follow this path. A quote that stood out to me from twd game years ago was a character saying "whats the point? Were all just gonna march off to some new place and then someone else will die, its never gonna stop. Then eventually, itll be our turn." It perfectly encapsulates what makes twd intriguing, while ALSO being the reason it gets stale.
Granted, thats kind of what makes this series, and its really hard to change that up because thats the core of what this series is about, really the only way to change up that formula is by ending it.
The Walking Dead comic understood something the show did not.
I also think the abrupt ending works really well to highlight the role death plays in the story.
When Andrea died, we all felt it.
Great pacing and flow to the narrative. Excellent breakdown.
I gave up on the Walking Dead (comic) when Andrea died.
The story had got so repetitive by that point. Every story arc was basically the same:
Fight some zombies.
Meet some new people.
New people are usually worse than the zombies.
Someone does something stupid and dies as a result.
RInse and repeat.
It felt natural by the end and with Carl to guide our hands to the final pages it felt earned.
I’d been reading from the start of the prison arc of the comic. When Rick went, I wasn’t sure what would happen. For the next issue to be the sudden ending was a major shock. Yet I loved most of the series for so many years. All good things must come to an end.
I thought the comics had a great ending and a happy one at that. I enjoyed seeing Carl as an adult married to Sophia with their child Andrea. Yeah, it would've been nice to see the end at 200 issues but Kirkman told his story in 193 issues and it's still a great read today.
That was a crazy couple of days, realizing what was happening. There wasn't more than 48 hours notice, it was insane.
As someone who kept up with the comic since issue 51, I think it was rushed. I would read the letter hacks each issue, and so many times, Kirkman lied in them. Around Glenn's death, people were understandably mad about it, and said that all Kirkman has left of the story is to make Governor 2.0, 3.0, Alexandria 2.0, 3.0 etc. Kirkman denied these claims, but this worry was absolutely correct. Even going back to Alexandria, Negan, and Spencer Monroe, the same exact thing plays out, and no doubt, the original plan was to have Spencer kill rick. I feel like he could have put more effort into the ending is all. Fleshing out the character a bit more. But I think the point he wanted to make was that it was a nobody that killed him, even to the reader. Ultimately I love the series very much, but the Kirkman we had at the start of the comic was not the same guy towards the end.
Best ending ever. Not even for the story but for the publication. A book that was all about shock value the final shock was a meta one when the book was ended without notice. It was brilliant!
I loved the comic for years, but absolutely hated the ending. What a disappointment.
Grew up with this comic. Read them in school and loved them. Really loved the ending of the comic as it was a great send off.
i think its very creatively respectable to end a story where it is supposed to end instead of dragging it out for the sake of sales or fans outcry
I downloaded this comic because at the time i was in the hospital and was used to going to the comic book shop every month.
Then BAM it ended! I was shocked!
This video was so great, love the way you told the story! 👏👏👏
This end is absolute perfect. I really loved it. It was a shock to see Rick dead and a time skip.
I didn't had any spoilers. It felt amazing.
I started reading TWD after the first video game. I was all caught up so I would wait roughly six months between sessions before buying all of the issues I had missed and reading them all back to back. Plus I had skipped from physical comics to digital. I will never forget how shocked and sad I was that day when I went to buy my digital comics only to see n zombie Rick on the first pag of the preview. I robbed myself of the experience!
Along with Invincible and Kick-Ass, TWD was one of the best comic book experiences I've ever had.
Time for another reread!
I couldn’t read past issue 115… never so much as glanced towards the comics again since .. this video was great I got to skip 80 issues and see how it ended.
The ending seems good to me.
Thanks for the video
An additional final compendium could have been filled out with bonus original stories that were separate from the main comic chronology.
I wish it went to 200 just because I like a good strong number like that, but a good ending is a good ending no complaints.