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Why TheWalkingDead creator Robert Kirkman unexpectedly ended his long-running comic book an issue after killing off a major character:
✖ Warning: this story contains spoilers for The Walking Dead issue #192 and #193. The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman explains unexpectedly ending the comic book just one issue after killing Rick Grimes, saying it"seemed like the right time" to finish the story. After an assassin shoots Rick in the final pages of issue #191, the penultimate issue of the long-running series opens with the killer gunning Rick down and leaving his reanimated body to be discovered by Carl Grimes.
"I think it's better to jump off while there's more gas in the tank than to keep going until the engine runs dry and you're stranded where you are," Kirkman added."The funny thing is... there are plenty of fans out there who think I did just that! So y'know... to each their own." In an earlier issue of The Walking Dead DELUXE, an ongoing reprinted run published in color for the first time, Kirkman revealed he once considered killing Rick Grimes as early as issue #6. But Rick lived in the 2004 issue, surviving until issue #192.