The Walking Dead: Issue #48

A Continuing Story of Survival Horror..

Here for viewing is my collection of published pages from issue #48 of The Walking Dead: the 8th Volume of the series and the climax of the Made To Suffer arc.

The series began in 2003 with Rick Grimes getting shot and waking up in a hospital bed to a new world overtaken by the dead. A story was told for several dozen issues, developing characters we knew and liked, or hated! Then in 2008, before there was the show, Kirkman and Adlard decided to burn everything down in a complete shit-show of a battle between issues 44 - 48. And they did this expecting readers to stay interested in the few remaining survivors and continue buying the comic! The series went on for almost 150 more issues before ending but the first 48 are regarded as the premium story. Issue 48 in particular is lauded as a landmark issue because it turned the good guys always win trope upside down. While Rick, Carl and Michonne survived- every single other main character who stayed at the prison met a grisly fate.

There were originally 22 pages in the published comic, broken up into 21 individual pieces (1 DPS, 2 splashes and 18 interior pages). In this gallery are 12 of those 21 pieces. Also included is 1 of 2 additional interior pages (pg 16a & 17a) that were incorporated into the reprinted editions because Kirkman wanted the Governor's death on a page turn. Included are 5 of the 7 deaths in order of appearance - Patricia, Billy, Lori, Judith & the Governor.

Excerpt from Issue 48 Cutting Room Floor with Robert Kirkman: The idea was the most readers would think, "Okay, Tyreese is the big death this arc. That's enough." Then Axel dies in the following issue and it's like, "Okay... wow, that's more than usual but okay, we got Jim and Amy back-to-back... still nothing special." Then, in the following issue, Hershel, Billy, Patricia, Alice, the Governor, and the one-two punch of Lori and Judith all die?! Holy crap! I figured it would jolt readers into seeing this book in a different light, and really, looking back, it worked. It was around this arc that sales really jumped (after climbing consistently since issue 2 to then) and it really cemented this book as something special.