In the zombie-ravaged comic book world of The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes and his band of survivors mainly moved between a select few locations, with most of their stories taking place in temporary homes that lasted up until the undead hordes arrived to tear it all down. Finding shelter in multiple cities and towns across various states, Rick’s creator, Robert Kirkman, once explained why his characters never went beyond America, with his reasoning revealing exactly what his priorities were while writing his zombie epic.
Starting The Walking Dead in Rick’s hometown of Cynthiana, Kentucky, Kirkman then brought him on a harrowing journey across post-apocalyptic America, dragging him into the abandoned city of Atlanta, through Washington D.C., onto the grounds of Alexandria, and even over to Ohio where the Commonwealth resided.
Responding to a fan question in the “Letter Hacks” section of The Walking Dead Deluxe #98, who asks, “…are you going to show how different parts of the world are doing?” Kirkman responds by saying, “locations don’t interest me as much as characters,” a concise explanation for barring international travel for his cast.
The Walking Dead Comic Has Limited Locations Because Kirkman Focused on Characters First
The Walking Dead Deluxe #98 – 2024 (Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Dave McCaig)
Following up this initial question with a more pointed one asking if the whole comic was “going to stay here in the United States??” Kirkman elaborates on why he wouldn’t introduce new locations — in the USA or otherwise — simply for the sake of doing so. Saying, “I’d never randomly cut away to different characters in a different region for no reason,” this logic, coupled with a “characters first” mentality, makes sense for Kirkman’s writing style as at the core of The Walking Dead’s story, location doesn’t mean a thing if there aren’t compelling characters interacting within them.
While the prison and Hershel’s farm are iconic comic locations, their popularity stems from the people they met there and the intense events that occurred on their grounds — the Governor and the Greenes being of particular note. Yet despite all of Kirkman’s talk about locations not being a major priority while writing, it’s worth noting that in 2016’s The Walking Dead: The Alien one-shot — the only issue Kirkman didn’t author himself — writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Marcos Martín took the zombie action overseas to Barcelona, Spain, giving fans the sole comic location not set in America.
The Walking Dead‘s Comic Characters Didn’t Travel Far Unlike How the TV Show’s Survivors Did
Meanwhile, on AMC’s The Walking Dead television show, fans have experienced more locations than what the comic offered, with Daryl Dixon’s recent spinoff series seeing this original made-for-TV character travel abroad to Paris and continue his fight against the undead, giving the franchise a completely new playground to explore while bringing some much-needed change of scenery to the proceedings. Though The Walking Dead comic never needed to be a global-hopping narrative, it’s interesting to learn of Robert Kirkman’s aversion to writing a story like that, making this series one that rightly puts characters over locations before anything else.
The Walking Dead Deluxe #98 is available from Image Comics.
