The Walking Dead Creator Reveals Real Reason For Ending Comic Series

Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead, has revealed the real reason for ending the series abruptly with issue #193 just over one month ago. As it turns out, he ran out of space on his shelf for the book!

Kirkman had a little fun on social media, joking about ending the series because the Volume 16 hardcover for The Walking Dead was the last book to fit on his personal shelf for the series. “Now that I have the Volume 16 hardcover, I can reveal the real reason The Walking Dead ended,” he said in a tweet.

Check out the tweet and image of Kirkman’s shelf below.

More seriously, Kirkman ended the book because he wanted to go oout on his own terms, shocking fans by dropping the final issue in July without any prior announcement. “It breaks my heart that I had to end it, and we have to move on… but I just love this world too much to stretch things out until it doesn’t live up to what I want it to be,” Kirkman wrote in a goodbye letter ending the long-running comic book’s final issue. “I got to tell my story exactly how I wanted to, for 193 issues, and end it on my terms, with no interference at all along the way… at any point. That’s such a rare thing, and it doesn’t exist without the unyielding support this series got from readers like you.”

During his In Conversation panel at San Diego Comic-Con later that same month, Kirkman addressed criticisms the book was “repetitious,” telling the crowd, “I feel like the story wasn’t repetitious. I felt like it escalated. But I was acutely aware of how it could become repetitious and I really wanted to avoid that.” To achieve “narrative flow,” Kirkman said, “I knew I would have to wrap it up.”

Ahead of the final issue, Kirkman fulfilled his promise of offing Rick Grimes. In the aftermath of his death the remaining characters found a way to survive together, including his son Carl who grew old with Sophia and had a kid of his own.

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