AUTHOR:  ROBERT KIRKMAN | ARTIST: CHARLIE ADLARD | PUBLISHER:  IMAGE | FORMAT: SINGLE ISSUE | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Rick Grimes is dead. And so, with issue 193, is The WalkingDead as an ongoing popular comic book series. Huge kudos to creator Robert Kirkman, artist Charlie Adlard and, indeed, Image Comics, for tearing the rug out from under… well, just about everyone… and pulling off the sort of coup which might reasonably be considered nigh impossible in any medium in the noisy, nosey modern social media world. But, as Kirkman reveals in the special text feature at the end of the comic, this has been planned well in advance with false covers mocked-up for the next few issues to fool distributors and fans alike into believing the series is far from undead and that it might indeed reach issue 300 as Kirkman had long planned.

You’ll find out why The Walking Dead had to end in Kirkman’s pages; but is the comic itself any good? Does it present a satisfying finale for an underdog comic which spawned a monster TV franchise which itself, perhaps perversely, shows no sign of gasping its last breath? Strictly speaking, the final issue really only needs to satisfy Kirkman’s own creative imperative – whether the readers are satisfied is almost a side-issue. The comic’s readers may still be stunned by the suddenness of the title’s ending but, when the dust has settled and the shock has worn off, it’s hard to imagine TheWalking Dead, in its comic book incarnation, ending any other way.

So Rick Grimes is dead, killed by his son Carl in issue 192 following the resolution of the previous issue’s is-he/isn’t-he cliffhanger. Turns out he was, and Carl put a bullet in his undead Dad’s head to put him out of his unliving misery. Issue 193 takes us forward several years, and we find Carl and Sophia now living a life of domestic farmhouse bliss raising their daughter Andrea. The threat of the ‘walkers’ has long since been contained (at least in areas where civilisation is slowly being restored), and there’s a very Wild West vibe to the recovery of the human spirit with a railroad network being forged across the country to reunite isolated communities. Carl is not best pleased, however, when a random walker stumbles onto his land; he slices its head off with a familiar machete. The walker has escaped from a travelling freak show run by Herschel (the son of Maggie and Glenn in the comic series) who’s furious at the wanton destruction of his ‘property’. Carl is taken to court, but he argues his case well, and his only punishment is to replace Herschel’s lost walker. Carl decides he’s going to do quite the opposite and he ends up in a higher court of law and facing a very familiar judge.

It’s a quiet, low-key end to an often frenetic and ferociously-downbeat series and yet it’s hard to fault the quiet sense of optimism for humanity which suffuses the entire comic. Everywhere we see signs of Mankind clambering back to its feet and reclaiming is territories, and Carl’s actions – he’s in every sense his father’s son – embody the spirit of survival which has dominated the series since its very first frame. Even the hardest hearts will melt in the final scenes which see Carl at peace with his family facing a future full of hope where more often in the past there had been none.

Robert Kirkman has told his story his way, and he’s ended it his way. That’s all we could really hope for. Fans may rage at the dying of The Walking Dead’s light, but it’s hard to think of a better conclusion for this ground-breaking series. Now, if someone could just have a word with AMC about the TV show…