In The Walking Dead’s comic universe, characters are introduced and then killed off quicker than a shambling zombie can rip flesh from bone, with Rick Grimes and his band of survivors gaining and losing members at a consistent clip throughout the series’ almost 200-issue-long story. With dozens of deaths to his credit spread between main and supporting characters alike, The Walking Dead’s creator, Robert Kirkman, has revealed whose death was his favorite, with the answer being a surprising one.
Murdering, maiming, and straight-up zombifying characters who fans love and hate in equal measure, Robert Kirkman is known for always putting his characters first no matter the situation, leading to several gut-wrenching deaths and unforeseen twists that affected the larger Walking Dead narrative in highly consequential ways.
In the supplemental “Cutting Room” floor content seen at the back of The Walking Dead Deluxe #98, Kirkman explains that his favorite death came about when Abraham was offed by an arrow shot through the back of his head, a comic-exclusive event that's been reprinted in this very issue.
Robert Kirkman’s Favorite Walking Dead Death Was Abraham’s Comic Kill
The Walking Dead Deluxe #98 - 2024 (Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Dave McCaig)
Giving fans a peek into his creative process in this bonus column, Kirkman flat-out says, “Abraham's death might be my favorite death of the series,” while also recognizing that “…it’s pretty odd to have a ‘favorite death’ for characters you love as much as I do.” An on-brand admittance for this prolific creator, Kirkman is known for having a hard time killing his heroes, with another example being the death of Andrea — a demise that saw Kirkman write a page-long eulogy for the character as he tried to work through his feelings about taking her fictional life.
Knowing that in order to tell a gripping story full of characters readers care about, Kirkman had to “Kill your darlings and all that,” Abraham’s death was a necessary one to punch up this issue, with the way he met his unexpected and grisly fate midway through sharing his lingering feelings about Rosita likely adding to Kirkman’s love for it. Admitting he had “ZERO plans to kill Abraham prior to writing this issue,” Kirkman favoring Abraham’s death in the comic makes even more sense when knowing that in AMC’s The Walking Dead, Abraham was brained by Negan alongside Glenn instead.
Abraham’s Television Death Was Not the Same as in The Walking Dead Comics
Interestingly enough, the idea of dying via arrow to the eye did happen on The Walking Dead’s television series, with the show swapping Abraham out for the character of Denise Cloyd during a sixth season episode titled "Twice as Far,” technically giving fans a live-action version of Kirkman’s favorite kill that ended up being just as unforeseen and gruesome as the original. Abraham’s death by arrow is a comic-exclusive event, so if fans want to see how this moment was always intended to play out, they’ll need to grab this latest fully-colored deluxe issue of The Walking Dead!
The Walking Dead Deluxe #98 is available from Image Comics.
The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead is a massive multimedia franchise that began with a comic book series created by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The franchise gained widespread popularity with the launch of the television series The Walking Dead in 2010 on AMC, which chronicles the lives of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, referred to as "walkers." The success of the original show has led to numerous spin-offs, web series, video games, novels, and other media. The franchise explores themes of survival, human nature, and the breakdown of society in the face of an existential threat, making it one of the most successful and influential horror series of the 21st century.
