The Walking Dead Explores New Apocalyptic City

In The Walking Dead‘s most recent issue, the series ventured into exciting uncharted territories.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead #170 follow!

As Michonne lead a small group of Alexandrian survivors north to Ohio, they made a pit stop in a major city. For the first time, the apocalyptic setting of Pittsburgh was revealed. The team, which also included Eugene, Siddiq, Magna, and Yumiko, trotted into the city on horseback across the Roberto Clemente Bridge. The full page spread, captured in the images below, sees the abandoned skyline as it appeared in issue #170 of Robert Kirkman’s comic, drawn by Charlie Adlard.

While in town, the group elected to explored the streets, discovering they were completely empty. In the early days of the zombie apocalypse, cities were highly populated with undead as the dense location would churn out walking corpses at high speeds. Since the time where the world fell, however, sounds and other things have lured the dead out of the cities in various directions.

The city was so empty, Michonne ruled that camping out on a rooftop in Pittsburgh would be the safest stop on the journey to Ohio – until a feud broke out between Siddiq and Eugene to end the issue.

Applied To TV

The Walking Dead comics are far ahead of the AMC TV series. Averaging less than 20 issues adapted per season, the live action adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comics would arrive in Pittsburgh (assuming it continues to follow the source material) around Season 11.

Though The Walking Dead is currently set in Alexandria, Virginia, the series films in Senoia, Georgia. The set is south of Atlanta, Georgia, and is walking distance from many other locations, including the Woodbury set which was set in Georgia in terms of the story. It is unlikely the production would ship their cast and crew up to Pennsylvania to create the sequence.

In Season Seven, The Walking Dead managed to introduce a Richmond, Virginia skyline in several scenes without leaving Georgia. Of course, exploring a city and crossing an iconic bridge are much more detailed requirements, but this is the series which managed to adapt a tiger from the comics into live action. Portraying Pittsburgh might be a breeze.

Other Cities

As Ohio potentially becomes a factor in the comics, the locations being introduced in the current run are among several cities to be explored in The Walking Dead. 

While the TV series has only ventured through Atlanta, teased a distant Richmond, and introduced small communities such as Woodbury, Terminus, and various neighborhoods, the comic book has not shied away from major locations.

Just like Pittsburgh, the comic thoroughly explored Washington D.C., though much earlier. The TV series elected not to journey into the Washington D.C. storyline, only showing the skyline from a distance on the journey to Alexandria. However, like the TV series, the comics have stay rooted in Alexandria, Virginia since the Safe-Zone was introduced.