Summary
- Robert Kirkman integrated religion into
The Walking Dead
This is because the series is set largely in the southeastern United States, where religion is a deeply relevant factor in people’s lives. - It was necessary for history to engage with faith in order to
The Walking Dead
to realistically depict how people would react to a crisis that would mean the end of civilization. - The zombie outbreak was the ultimate test for
The Walking Dead
The characters’ faith – be it in God or in humanity – is addressed as the author attempts to challenge their beliefs in a world where all institutions have collapsed.
Walking dead Creator Robert Kirkman once explained the simple reason why the zombie horror comic couldn’t help but incorporate religion into its story: geography. Since the series is set primarily in the southeastern United States, Kirkman admitted that it “just felt weird“To completely ignore religion and spirituality, as they played a major role in the lives of most of his characters, whether religious or not.
The Walking Dead Deluxe #94 – a full-color reprint of the original 2012 issue, written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Charlie Adlard – includes the comic’s original letters page, which contained the author’s response to a fan’s comments about religion in the book.
Perhaps surprisingly, the fan expressed concern that Kirkman was pandering to a specifically religious audience, which the author firmly – albeit politely – dismissed, noting: The setting of the series made it necessary for the story to deal with the religious beliefs of the characters.
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Robert Kirkman: The setting of “Walking Dead” influenced the portrayal of religion
The Walking Dead Deluxe #94 – Written by Robert Kirkman; Art by Charlie Adlard; Color by Dave McCaig; Lettering by Rus Wooten
(
The Walking Dead
) The characters had to reflect real-world values and belief systems so that (Robert) Kirkman could test how those things would hold up in the event of an unexpected catastrophe that would bring about the end of civilization.
There are several reasons why it was not only reasonable but downright necessary for Robert Kirkman to deal with religion and religious belief in The Walking Deadalthough the simplest reason is the one readers should consider first. The Walking Dead In the letters to the editor section of issue 94, Kirkman explained how the show’s setting in the South accelerated the inclusion of religion in the series and how it was portrayed in the story. He wrote:
Religion isn’t going to be a central theme of the show forever. It just felt weird to ignore it, since the story is set in a specific region. We’ve touched on it a little bit in the comic from time to time.
In other words, for his characters, Religion had already had a major influence in one way or another before the outbreak, and this was to be reckoned with in the aftermath.
Aside from the zombie outbreak premise, The Walking Dead functioned largely as a work of realistic fiction; to ignore a fundamental truth about the setting would have broken the pact Robert Kirkman made with his readers early on. This meant that the show’s characters had to reflect real-world values and belief systems so that Kirkman could test how those things would hold up in response to an unexpected, civilization-destroying catastrophe. To exclude religious belief from this overall project would have destroyed the realism for which the series is regularly praised.
The zombie outbreak was the ultimate test of the faith of the characters from The Walking Dead
Whatever they believed in
The Walking Dead
was about humanity in a world where every institution has collapsed, including organized religion. If anything, the series could have focused more on religion and religiosity.
At its core The Walking Dead was a story about humanity facing an existential threat on a global scale. That meant that everything the characters previously believed – about God, about the afterlife, about the tenuous bonds that hold civilization together – had to be reexamined as part of the story. Robert Kirkman used characters like Father Gabriel to embody the question of how religious belief would be challenged by a zombie outbreak, a philosophical question that had been embedded in the zombie genre since its inception.
Further, The Walking Dead was about humanity in a world where every institution has collapsed, including organized religion. If anything, the series could have dealt more with religion and religiosity – although as Robert Kirkman assured a concerned fan in the letters to the editor, The Walking Dead #94, this was not his central thesis or his dominant themebut a random element of a larger picture. As always, the Deluxe Reprint of The Walking Dead offers the perfect opportunity to re-read Kirkman’s commentary on the ongoing series and offers unique insights into the creation of the story.
The Walking Dead Deluxe
#94
is now available from Image Comics.
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The Walking Dead
4.0
Based on one of the most successful and popular comics of all time, AMC’s The Walking Dead captures the ongoing human drama in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. Developed for television by Frank Darabont, the series follows a group of survivors led by police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) as they journey in search of a safe home. But it is the survivors, not the zombies, who become the real “Walking Dead.” The Walking Dead ran for eleven seasons and spawned several spinoff series, including Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
